Every once in a while, the universe throws you a little reminder that the descent into global suckitude is not inevitable, and we can still choose a different path.
This weekend, we got a two-fer.
On Friday, night the Artemis 2 mission safely returned to earth. I have to admit: what started out as “just dropping in to see what was happening” turned into my whole Friday night. Yes… even the part where it was just grainy footage of boats circling the capsule, waiting for it to cool down. I don’t exactly know why… we’ve been sending people back and forth to the International Space Station for decades, and I didn’t watch ANY of those landings. But something about this one drew me in.
I suppose some of the appeal is that the moon captures the imagination in a way bumming around in orbit doesn’t. I was born in 1970, so I missed Apollo 11 entirely, and was way too young to take in the other moon landings, so this felt like the next closest thing to being there at the time. At a broader level, I appreciated the reminder that science can still accomplish amazing things, even under an administration that seems openly hostile toward science. (Speaking of which: the interview with the Trump toadie running NASA briefly derailed the good vibes, but things bounced back quickly.) Certainly the crew and their collective story was appealing. But the underrated star of the show was the little chat scroll on the side of the screen — thousands of people from all over the world, watching together, with almost NO negativity or shit-talking. As much as we’re doing to burn up our goodwill around the world, people who are probably Sick Of America’s Shit(tm) at the moment still wanted our astronauts to get home safe. As cheesy as it sounds, something about that felt comforting.
(Well… comforting aside from the momentary heart attack — I didn’t realize they had to cut the drogue parachutes loose to deploy the mains, so there was a short moment where the drogues broke free and the capsule fell out of frame, and I thought we were about to witness an unfolding catastrophe. COULDA USED A HEADS-UP, OTHERWISE-REASSURING NASA DUDE.)
And then, on Sunday, the universe gave us a second positive sign, from Hungary.
For those of you who don’t know, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban has been looming as a Ghost Of Christmas Future for Trump’s plans for America. Orban has been in power for 16 years, and has basically been implementing a lot of the same Project 2025 shit Trump is trying to pull here. Courts just as packed with partisan judges, media just as captured by regime-friendly oligarchs, just as hostile toward LGBTQ people, just as cozy with Putin. You can argue Orban’s vision for Hungary is the blueprint Trump has been trying to emulate. (And OK… elephant in the room… they’re BOTH copying off Putin’s paper as well.)
Which makes it all the more gratifying that Orban’s Fidesz party got absolutely dog-walked in the Hungarian elections. The opposition party, Tizsa, took 138 out of 199 seats in Hungary’s legislature — good enough for a 2/3 supermajority that should give them the power to undo a lot of Orban’s rat-fuckery. The win was so decisive that there wasn’t even much of a point of trying to contest it in court: since Orban had stacked the courts with partisan judges, there was concern Tizsa would win, but the margin would be narrow enough that Fidesz would try to throw it to the courts and hope to be declared the winners that way. (Sound familiar?)
Nope. It was a thorough ass-kicking. So much so that Orban’s already conceded defeat.
Now, to pump the brakes a LITTLE, Tisza is considered a center-right party, so the American analogue would be Trump/MAGA Republicans losing, but NeverTrump Republicans being placed back in charge. So some aspects of the victory will be more muted than others. But there’s already been positive signs that they’re going to distance from Putin and re-build their ties with the EU, including unblocking Hungarian support for Ukraine.
And again, pulling out to the 10,000 foot level… it’s an aspirational sign for what we can do here in America in 2026 and 2028 if we stay motivated, find the right candidates to get behind, and do the work. Hungary’s system has been just as thoroughly gamed as the one Trump is trying to create here, and it still CRUMBLED in the face of enough people coming together and saying “this needs to fucking stop“. There’s no denying we’re going through some frustrating times, hope’s not a substitute for doing the work, but Hungary reminded us that “too far gone” doesn’t have to be the state of affairs.
Mental Zoomies 