Astral Codex Ten

Hungarians

3 min read

Hungarians

Article

Hungarians is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 09, 2021 and November 11, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as “some weird Hungarians remind you”; “The Hungarians are descended from steppe nomads”. It most often appears alongside Google, 2014 Hungarian parliamentary election, @slatestarcodex.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: September 09, 2021
  • Last seen: November 11, 2021

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

The Unbearable Semiheaviness Of Being
September 09, 2021 · Original source
This probably doesn't have enough medical benefits to have been worth my time to research or yours to read. I still find it fascinating. I keep being amazed at how many dimensions things can vary along. You think you know what kind of things medicine has to investigate - how different chemicals interact, the effects of food and smoking and sleep and so on - and unless some weird Hungarians remind you, you would never in a million years remember that there are multiple different isotopes of water and this seems to have some effect on living cells. You would never think to check whether attempts to mine the Martian icecaps for drinkable water will result in dangerous water that could sicken the unfortunate astronauts who drink it (answer: it might! Martian water has five times more deuterium than Earthly water and seems to kill shrimp). You would never think that you could buy something called "deuterium depleted water" on Amazon, or that it would be completely safe to drink. But here we are!
Inline links: and seems to kill shrimp
Highlights From The Comments On Orban
November 11, 2021 · Original source
Moreover, I agree with @slatestarcodex that if public opinion turned in Hungary, Orban would probably turn on a dime too. The dude loves power. But that should inform our read of what's going on in Hungary. *Hungarians wanted* a right-nationalist authoritarian leader, *and so they voted for one*, and the electorate has *wanted* recurrent intensifications of that regime. So is it a dictatorship? Or is it a democracy?
Inline links: @slatestarcodex
So why might Hungarians admire a dissident-cum-parliamentarian who competed for their votes and when defeated responded democratically by adapting to try to win the next election? Because.... duh?
This is extremely important. A part of Orban's appeal is that, whether by coincidence or art, he has managed to preside over periods where Hungary's economic performance was better than a lot of its neighbors, and often fairly obviously so. That is, supporting irredentist nationalism in the form of Orban hasn't imposed costs on Hungarians: they aren't like facing sanctions or something or enduring deep economic hardship to stand by their dictator. He's delivered (comparatively) good times!