Miklós Haraszti is a writer, journalist, human rights advocate, scholar, and erstwhile politician who was born in Jerusalem, and grew up Hungary. He became an opposition activist in the 1960s. He continued to organize politically, and write and publish critical works for the next two decades. His books include A Worker in a Worker's State (1978) and The Velvet Prison (1988).

He participated in the negotiations on the transition to free elections in Hungary in 1989, and was a member of the Hungarian Parliament from 1990 to 1994, after which he spent most of his time as a scholar and university professor, including at Columbia University in New York. He has also served as a UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus as the Representative on Freedom of the Media for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

In this interview we discuss the American parallels with the rise of Viktor Orbán, who was elected prime minister of Hungary in 2010. Since then, Orbán has overseen a transition to an “illiberal, falsified democracy.” There are many lessons for Musk and Trump’s America.

Thanks to Jeff Wasserstrom for introducing me to Miklós.

The Rhyming Chaos podcast is produced by Jeremy Goldkorn and edited by Cadre Scripts. The theme music is Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, arranged and performed by Wu Fei. Our cover art is by Li Yunfei.

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