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David Baer

@davidbaer.bsky.social
483 followers 141 following 138 posts

Prof of ethics, Texas Lutheran University; founder, Christians Associated for Democracy; expertise on Hungary

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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Alex is always good in explaining what’s going on with Hungary’s churches and politics.
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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 29/05/2026
The thin-skinned jackasses in the White House, lacking any understanding of the First Amendment, have gone after my Bulwark colleague @timmiller.bsky.social. "Frankly," Tim replies, "the only surprise is that this hasn't happened earlier": www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bai_...
Screenshot of The Bulwark's Tim Miller, a white guy with wavy hair in mid-sentence, alongside a screenshot of a tweet from the Trump administration accusing him of being "an agent of a foreign country."
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Irony Is Dead (on Xitter anyway) @ironyisdead.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
What an INCREDIBLY ILLUMINATING article. I knew about Orban's political playbook, but @davidbaer.bsky.social explains how narratives of Hungarian identity were key to his power and how reclaiming and reimagining them for voters was essential for Magyar's stunning success. Lessons for all of us.
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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
A good day to read @davidbaer.bsky.social on Magyar’s achievement. “By reviving the rhetoric and poetry of 1848, Magyar made democracy attractive to Hungarians again. He reclaimed Hungary’s national symbols… to present voters… a new kind of national liberalism.” www.thebulwark.com/p/how-peter-...
thebulwark.com
How Péter Magyar Toppled Viktor Orbán’s Illiberal Regime
. . . by reviving Hungary’s liberal traditions.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
"The fortress Orbán built had seemed indestructible. That it came tumbling down depended on good luck, an exceptional politician, and the birth of a social movement that changed Hungarian society by embracing its forgotten liberal traditions." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
open.substack.com
How Péter Magyar Toppled Viktor Orbán’s Illiberal Regime
. . . by reviving Hungary’s liberal traditions.
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Martyn Wendell Jones @martynwendell.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
@davidbaer.bsky.social has regularly done excellent, illuminating, and richly historically textured writing for @thebulwark.com on Hungarian politics over the past several years. His latest on that beat might be his best so far: www.thebulwark.com/p/how-peter-...
thebulwark.com
How Péter Magyar Toppled Viktor Orbán’s Illiberal Regime
. . . by reviving Hungary’s liberal traditions.
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Alan Frady @alanfrady.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Excellent, must-read guest post by @davidbaer.bsky.social in today's Morning Shots re elections in Hungary and the fall of Orban this past weekend. "A true patriot has a capacity to feel both pride and shame in his country." www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-inter...
thebulwark.com
MAGA International Goes Down in Flames
And so do the U.S.–Iran peace talks.
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 01/04/2026
A big if. But a possibility that seemed extremely slim until recently.
lnk.thebulwark.com
Orbán Will Lose Hungary’s Election in Two Weeks—If It’s Clean
Péter Magyar is a seemingly unstoppable force—but don’t expect the embattled Orbán to give up without a fight.
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 01/04/2026
"If animals can sense an impending storm through a drop in barometric pressure and other changes to the air, perhaps in politics people can feel a tidal wave when it is approaching."
lnk.thebulwark.com
Orbán Will Lose Hungary’s Election in Two Weeks—If It’s Clean
Péter Magyar is a seemingly unstoppable force—but don’t expect the embattled Orbán to give up without a fight.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Orban’s initial plan was likely to keep the election close and then refuse to accept the result. But if he loses in a landslide that becomes impossible. So he’s entertaining more drastic options.
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 02/03/2026
Hungary is at the "Ukraine is covertly interfering in our domestic politics to hurt Orbán" level of authoritarian paranoia and/or cynicism. lnk.thebulwark.com/4b40oHq
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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 03/09/2025
Mood in Hungary "is palpably different" than a year ago, with people "more comfortable criticizing Orbán in public.…Public figures speak about the 'Orbán regime' instead of the 'Orbán government.'… "In response, the rhetoric from the regime…has become more threatening, violent, and openly fascist."
thebulwark.com
Hungary Could Free Itself from Orbánism Next Spring
An upstart opposition leader, Péter Magyar, is shrewdly capitalizing on the prime minister’s blunders.
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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 03/09/2025
The author of this article, @davidbaer.bsky.social, is as keen-eyed an observer of Hungary as you will find among Americans—and a helluva writer. (I like the line about how Tucker Carlson and JD Vance types treat Hungary as a "Christian conservative Disneyland.")
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Is Orbánism heading to regime collapse? I share a few of my thoughts here. www.thebulwark.com/p/hungary-co...
thebulwark.com
Hungary Could Free Itself from Orbánism Next Spring
An upstart opposition leader, Péter Magyar, is shrewdly capitalizing on the prime minister’s blunders.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
The four greatest country music artists
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Zsuzsanna Vegh @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
PM Orbán is tightening control ahead of the 2026 election: intimidating critics, banning Pride, allowing the use of facial recognition. These moves aren't unique. We've seen them in Russia, Turkey, Serbia - now they enter the EU. My piece for @gmfus.bsky.social ⤵️ www.gmfus.org/news/authori...
gmfus.org
Authoritarian Innovation Inside the EU
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Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The Secretary of the Navy doesn’t know when Pearl Harbor happened
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Szabolcs Panyi @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
ICYMI: According to a newly released court document, NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used in a 2019 hacking campaign to target a total of 1,223 WhatsApp users across 51 countries, including in multiple EU countries. 🕵️🤳 @investigacecz.bsky.social @vsquare.bsky.social vsquare.org/pegasus-...
vsquare.org
Pegasus Spyware Targeted Over 1,200 WhatsApp Users, Court Documents Show - VSquare.org
According to a newly released court document, NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used in a 2019 hacking campaign to target a total of 1,223 WhatsApp users.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
“For freedom is always on the defensive, and therefore in danger. Where the populace no longer feels freedom to be in peril, freedom is already lost.”
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
“A faith which, as such, allows itself to be caught up in the pragmatics of power, is already lost as faith. It grows as truth only within the area of liberty without force.” Karl Jaspers.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
“The rule of law produces a climate of fearlessness, unconstraint, liberty and peace of mind. Where force rules there is fear, silence and concealment, coercion and unrest. In the constitutional State trust prevails, in the State based on force there is universal mistrust.” -Karl Jaspers
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Trump telling people on social media to “Be Strong, Courageous and GREATNESS will be the result” is like the comic strip version of Nietzsche’s Übermensch
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 06/04/2025
TAPPER: You're imposing a 10% on the Heard and MccDonald islands. They have zero human inhabitants. Why are you putting tariffs on islands entirely populated by penguins? ROLLINS: Whatever. Listen, the people leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest I've ever worked with.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Important to remember what Trump is doing in foreign policy to our alliances is as stupid and self destructive as what he’s doing with tariffs. Massive American self harm in every direction.
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Szabolcs Panyi @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
‼️🇺🇸 Trump allies Ric Grenell and Matt Mowers join the advisory board of Viktor Orbán’s pet company 4iG—a Hungarian IT/telecom/defense giant with major state support and a history of corruption claims. They're expanding fast in the Balkans. 👇Read our earlier @direkt36.bsky.social investigation.👇
direkt36.hu
The secret history of Viktor Orbán’s favorite company - Direkt36
A Direkt36 investigation has revealed that the Hungarian Prime Minister personally got involved in an acquisition of 4iG, a Hungarian telecommunications company that is officially owned by private ind...
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Szabolcs Panyi @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
💥🇭🇺 Police have given up guarding Budapest’s Liberty Bridge as anti-government protesters shut down traffic on four major bridges, rallying against Viktor Orbán’s new law curbing freedom of assembly and banning the Pride march. They vow to escalate with a 24-hour shutdown next week.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
In 1939 the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer left the United States, where he was studying, to return to Germany. He explained his decision in a letter to Reinhold Niebuhr, "I must live through this difficult period of our national history with the Christian people of Germany.... 1/2
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 29/03/2025
This, from Timothy Snyder, is definitive, on Greenland open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...
open.substack.com
The Imperialism Has no Clothes
JD Vance in Greenland
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I suppose if Walz had been running around on stage with a chainsaw that would have been justified joy.
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Peter Karlsson @pksthlm.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin arrested on arrival in Istanbul. His whereabouts are unknown.
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Will Sommer @willsommer.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Right-wing YouTuber Tim Pool has made it to the White House pool — someone from his “Timcast” channel will be part of today’s pool duty covering the president. Last year, DOJ revealed Pool was receiving millions of dollars from the Russian gov. Pool says he didn’t know where it was coming from.
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Peter Karlsson @pksthlm.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin arrested on arrival in Istanbul. His whereabouts are unknown.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Now he wants price controls?! www.wsj.com/business/aut...
wsj.com
Trump Warned U.S. Automakers Not to Raise Prices in Response to Tariffs
The threat came in a call earlier this month, leaving CEOs worried they would face punishment if prices go up.
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Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
America is now a place that sends masked secret police to abduct people off the street and uses prisoners to create government propaganda. And this all happened in 8 weeks. www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-th...
thebulwark.com
This Is the Land of Wolves Now
Masked agents snatching people off the street. Government officials using caged prisoners for propaganda videos. We are the villains.
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Will Sommer @willsommer.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
"The point is to create a climate in which agents of the state routinely wear masks to conceal their identities and street abductions are not out of the ordinary." // great read from @jvl.bsky.social www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-th...
thebulwark.com
This Is the Land of Wolves Now
Masked agents snatching people off the street. Government officials using caged prisoners for propaganda videos. We are the villains.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
This is insane
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Hungarian Helsinki Committee @hungarianhelsinki.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Suspending Hungarian citizenship for dual nationals, violations of freedom of assembly and the attempt to ban Pride🏳️‍🌈 -- the Orbán government is escalating its efforts to stifle dissent and weaken human rights protections in Hungary🇭🇺. Our 2 new briefs explain the plans ➡️ helsinki.hu/en/legislati...
tinyurl.com
Legislating fear - excluding and threatening dissenters on a constitutional level - Hungarian Helsinki Committee
Recent legislative proposals threaten with the "suspension" of Hungarian citizenship, violate freedom of assembly, and effectively ban Pride. These changes represent a significant escalation in the Go...
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Szabolcs Panyi @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
💥Hungary sliding further into authoritarianism: Viktor Orbán’s close ally, Speaker of the House László Kövér, banned the entire liberal Momentum party faction from parliament and fined them €175,000 for protesting Orbán's Pride crackdown—setting a precedent to ban other elected opposition MPs too.
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Serdült Viktória @viktoriaserdult.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
‼️JUST IN: #Hungary's Parliament (with the 2/3 majority of ruling party Fidesz-KDNP) voted yes to ban the Pride march and impose fines on organisers and people attending the event. Opposition party Momentum burnt smoke candles in protest.
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Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Budapest today. People are demanding that PM Orban resign.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Another March 15 holiday in Hungary. It’s clear at this point that Orban can’t mobilize crowds like Magyar can. Meanwhile Orban’s rhetoric is becoming increasingly authoritarian, almost Stalinist.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Both Söder and Merz have said more than once that the new defense package sends a clear signal to Germany’s “friends and enemies.” This new German willingness to talk about the country’s “enemies” is striking.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Germany’ Linke party surged before national elections because their leader, Heidi Reichinnek, criticized CDU for submitting legislation also supported by AfD. Now Linke is challenging a bill, alongside AfD, at the constitutional court proposed by CDU & SPD. Go figure.
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Lili Rutai @lilirutai.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
#Hungarian govt plans to amend constitution to allow the expulsion of dual nationals if they "endanger sovereignty, (...) or security." Fidesz's Kocsis says this targets NGOs, politicians and "self-proclaimed independent media" - a worrying attack on #pressfreedom
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
If we do have a recession, it will be a big beautiful recession! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Trump declines to rule out recession amid tariffs’ effects on markets
Trump’s acknowledgment of economic turbulence was a reversal from previous cheering of his policies, and it contrasted with reassurances from his own advisers Sunday.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
I found this article quite informative. There will be significant nuclear expansion in Europe, but Europeans may be smart enough to do it in a way that doesn’t lead to uncontrolled proliferation. www.faz.net/aktuell/poli...
faz.net
Russlands Drohungen: Der Weg zu einer europäischen Atombombe
Auf Donald Trump ist bei der nuklearen Abschreckung kein Verlass mehr. Können britische und französische Atomwaffen ganz Europa schützen? Wir haben mit Fachleuten gesprochen.
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David Baer @davidbaer.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Stunning poll from Germany. 76% of total population support increasing military spending, including 50% of AfD voters. youtube.com/watch?v=UzM_...
youtube.com
heute journal vom 07.03.2025 Ukraine, Sondierungen, Täter von Mannheim
YouTube video by ZDFheute Nachrichten
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Thinking of the many people who have lectured me over the years about the inherently democratic nature of the U.S. institutions and people. This "American exceptionalism" is implicit in so much of the debate about U.S. politics, including within academia, and is still taught uncritically today!
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