At first sight, it seems simply absurd that EU top bosses discuss a strictly national matter. But by the end of the meeting,
Sad but true, the EU’s reaction follows point by point the social justice warrior’s manual:
- Emotions prevail over reason, feelings over knowledge, expedite judgment over debate: the file was wrapped before it was even open. Hungary’s laws is a blunt discrimination, end of the story. No one listened to Orban, I doubt some even read the law, no bilateral exchanges among administrations took place. Hungary’s arguments were not even considered. There are a few, though:
- What about parent’s right to educate according to their beliefs? Dismissed!
- Don’t you see the difference between tolerance and promotion? You don’t become gay watching a movie (dixit Bettel, Luxemburg’s Premier)!
- Teaching in schools that men and women are mere cultural constructions and that girls can have a penis and boys a vagina is scientifically wrong, it is like telling kids the earth is flat, isn’t it? It can be harmful to children’s development. Drop it, you must be free to be who you want and love who you want, period! Maybe, but women want to be women and not “persons who menstruate”, they are literally harassed my trans activists every time they remind it, aren’t they? Don’t stop the course of history!
- Forget about the law, it is a social, mediatic and moral trial: a couple of hours after the controversy prompted, the games were done: the Hungarian bill “clearly discriminates” and “goes against all (yes, all!) the fundamental values of the European Union”. Nothing less. It normally takes months, if not years, to the Commission to launch an infringement procedure. This time, it took hours. But wait a minute, isn’t education a national competence, is it actually a matter for the European Council? It does not matter, it’s not about the law, stupid, it is a matter of common values, it is a moral issue! Yes, but Article 5 of the Treaty clearly states that “the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States”, important, isn’t it? The parent’s right to education is also enshrined in the EU Charter, right. Are we sure it is for Brussels to decide the way Hungarian kids are taught about sex in schools? EU values are universal, unbeliever, and who I am to contradict the media anyway? Good point indeed, the social networks and the medias were the first to speak their biased and irreversible truth.
- The ultimate aim: humiliation, repentance and…cancellation: Premier Rutte played the soloist in the last phase of the ritual. “My aim is to bring Hungary on its knees”, “I am ashamed to sit next to this guy” he declared on a diplomatic tone while the 16 other members of the choir played the Hungxit score. Hungary questioned a dogma and did not instantly repent from its sin. For that, it has not been judged, it has been cancelled by Heads of State and Government.
It is bitterly ironic, those preaching diversity expect an absolute, quasi-religious allegiance to a specific way of thinking that is nothing but their own. Political diversity does no longer mean anything for Western European’s elites.
It neither complained about euthanasia of new borns in the Netherlands (the so-called the called Groningen Protocol). Some see those practices as plain murder and therefore as a blunt infringement of European values. Yet, conservative governments stick to the rules of the game and keep home what belongs home and bring to the EU what belongs to the EU. Tolerance means primarily to accept things one dislikes as long as it is reciprocal. Diversity is not only sexual or ethnical: it is first and foremost the right to disagree, to think differently. Blunt double standards, dogmatic views and aversion for discrepancy (again, the pillars of cancel culture) frontally contradict this value and pushes the EU into a slippery slope. It is Orwellian to invoke diversity to muzzle a country. It just happened.
Finally, this controversy confirms the EU became a liberal club where only progressist ideas are legit. For some, it does not come as a surprise, others are now disheartened as it is now obvious that the EU made its official liberal “coming out” in the European Council. As from now, there is only one tone of voice when interpreting the values enshrined in Article 2, the liberal/progressist one and beware of placing yourself beyond the circle of righteousness. It does not matter if this provision is deliberately vague to avoid to embrace Europe’s political and cultural diversity. Who cares if this political hold-up can only be explained by moral supremacism. It just happened, and you’d better swallow it. United in diversity, or submitted in uniformity? It is no longer a question.
Ez az írás magyarul is elérhető.
