Since then, betting markets show Orbán's stock has fallen marginally, though there is no suggestion that his declining fortunes have been caused by Vance's intervention.

So betting markets not polls, which would be pricing in the diminishing uncertainty as the day draws near, and it wasn't like a sudden drop either.

There might not be a story here. Orban was losing, and he's still losing.

*based on odds on fucking polymarket. This is not news

I do rather hate that so many news orgs seem to be using polymarket et al as a drop-in replacement for actual polling, because polymarket is loosely affiliated, if at all, with reality. It’s a fucking betting platform. There’s nothing scientific or statistical about it that aligns with demographic realities.

Lol

Did you say thank you?

After killing the Pope, and destroying Orban's political career, Vance is the Political Grim Reaper.

Since then, betting markets show Orbán's stock has fallen marginally, though there is no suggestion that his declining fortunes have been caused by Vance's intervention.

Betting markets. Grain of salt taken.

If an STD were human. It would be J.D. Vance.

Well, that'd be one fo the first times Vance has done something that's worth a shit, even if it were inadvertent.

the Trump bump killed Pierre Poilievre's 30% lead in Canada, and even after the loss, his MPs are all looking to defect to the Liberals.

These guys are clueless, this is not what Canada wants to see in political leadership...

One can only hope.

JD baby face screaming about how EU tries to affect the voting, proceeds to manipulate the public with his speech. Ooookeydokay

JD Vance is the human equivalent of a sad trombone

I know he kills Orban's chances just like he killed the pope.

Hmmm, couch fucker should do a world tour. Damage them all.

Okay now THAT'S fuckin funny.

The walking ballot-poison.

Chef's kiss!

I'd personally be happier if the EU had some kind of election inspectors on the ground for somewhat sketchy times like this.

Trouble is we're in a system where the likes of Orban can and do veto these kind of things, the entire process is flawed.

Alternative theory: Western news's emphasis on this made more people (on Polymarket, the poll in question) aware that Orbán was actually being challenged. I'm not sure if that holds true for voting Hungarians.

I was really wondering about that. At the time, I was saying to myself, "This is not the endorsement you think it is, Orban.", lol.

Europe needs to elect socialist leaders to respond to this moment, or fall into the grips of fascism.

::: spoiler How does capitalism inevitably lead to fascism?

Basically, the issue with capitalism is that the more wealth you have, the easier it is for you to make more money. And since money can be used to buy goods, services and influence, there is always a way to use money to gain more political and social power. With that political and social power, you can push society and the legal system in the direction you want to go. So you can use your wealth to gain power, and then you can use your power to change laws and society so that you can make even more wealth and power. It’s a positive feedback loop.

Obviously, though, if the billionaires and ruling class are accumulating more and more of our society’s wealth, that inevitably means that there’s less for everyone else to go around - therefore, working class people feel poorer and poorer. Meanwhile, the economy is going absolutely great for rich people, so inflation continues to go up - everything gets more expensive, but wages don’t increase. The wealthy just keep more and more of the wealth for themselves. To accumulate more and more wealth, they change the laws so that they can avoid paying taxes, so public services collapse. Politicians are lobbied to ensure that public funds are diverted away from where it is most needed - housing, healthcare, transportation, infrastructure - and instead into industries where their class interests most benefit from it, such as weapons manufacturing and extractive industries such as fossil fuels and mining.

The working class are bound to notice that their lives are getting shittier and shittier, and if that situation is left unchecked, the working class would realize that the ruling class are fucking them over, rise up, and overthrow their rulers. Obviously, the ruling class need to do something about this, but there’s no solution that the ruling class can offer. They’re causing all of the problems, to fix them they’d have to give up some of their wealth and power - and that’s not something they’re going to do. So they need to find someone else to blame the problems we have in society on. Unfortunately, though, no matter who they blame the problems on, and no matter what they do to “fix” it, the issue will continue to persist, because the material conditions underlying the issues are, very intentionally, never addressed.

So, the conundrum returns: The ruling class said that minority A caused all of the problems, minority A is persecuted and oppressed, but society doesn’t actually get any better. Either the problem wasn’t minority A, or minority A just hasn’t been oppressed enough yet. So the ruling class can either escalate the oppression, or they can shift the focus to another minority group. The division continues to escalate in terms of how vitriolic and extreme it is, and it also continues to divide the working class into smaller and smaller groups.

To get the working class to buy into this hateful message, they need to take advantage of our worst instincts, and one of those instincts is the in-group bias. The majority are manipulated into being suspicious, then intolerant, then hateful, then violent, then genocidal, towards whatever the targeted minority of the day is. Anything that can be used to divide the working class - sexuality, nationality, immigration status, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender identity, age, all of these will be used as wedges to keep the working class split apart and not working together, because they know that if the working class actually unite against them, they are completely and truly fucked.

That’s exactly how fascism manifests. It’s because it’s possible for people to accumulate power through wealth. This is why capitalism must be abolished. If we do not abolish capitalism, fascism will always return. It’s just a matter of time.

:::

::: spoiler But can't capitalism can be reformed?

Capitalism cannot be reformed, any attempts to reform, democratize or socialize capitalism may yield short term improvements to quality of life of the working class, but if capitalism is not abolished, it will always reassert itself, and capitalism inevitably leads towards fascism. The New Deal prevented the US from sliding into fascism in the 20th century, so that’s ultimately a good thing, but it did not go far enough, and that’s why we have the resurgence of fascism in the 21st century America. :::

The fact that the Russian asset still has changes is concerning

Why are we taking g the opinions of degenerate addicts and pretending it is relevant or scientific in any way?

smug lol

If it wasn't clear that Orban is just a puppet before, then you must have noticed after this.

:sicko-yes:

This is the guy in position to take over MAGA if a major cardiovascular event were to happen in the near future. This gives me hope.

Keep feeding these idiots egos that they’re liked and are helpful so they continue sabotaging their elections.

I did think he would bad luck for their campaign - I just assumed he was just really popular in Hungary or something. Guess my instinct was right.

ETTD has spread to his VP. You love to see it.

A strong man standing next to a fat faced pussy bitch makes him seem…less strong.