Some more explanation as to why my eye starts twitching when someone argues that all career politicians are equally evil and corrupt, and our only hope is in outsiders (Hungarian edition.)
One of the means and one of the costs of TISZA beating Orbán was completely dissociating themselves from all other opposition parties. They weren't just different from other opposition parties because they were right of the left-wing ones and left of the far-right ones, they were different because all previous attempts at opposition were Bad whereas they were Good. TISZA talked shit about their potential allies, often unfairly, and it made them popular, and it helped them win the election, but it's still bullshit, and it makes me think:
Some people hated the left-wing opposition for valid reasons: some parties and individuals were indeed stupid, ineffectual, cowardly, or downright corrupt.
Some people hated the left-wing opposition because despite hating the conservative ruling party, they swallowed 98% of its propaganda. People parroted conservative fake news talking points verbatim, while insisting that they were being progressive and intelligent.
Some people hated the left-wing opposition because they couldn't distinguish the party that hurt them from the party that was powerless to protect them. Just being present in the parliament while the bad things happened made them tainted and complicit, even if they fought tooth and nail against the whichever bad thing. It doesn't matter that the ruling party has a supermajority, the failure to stop them makes the opposition worthless. They only deserve our vote in the future if they can magically transcend the problem of not having our vote now. Their weakness is disgusting, contemptible, incomprehensible, why didn't they win, they must be losing on purpose because they're evil. They're just as bad, or worse, than the party doing 100% of the actual harm. (And more elaborate and legitimate-sounding political arguments that boil down to this.)
It does not escape my notice that this is uncomfortably applicable to the shit people say about the Democrats. When I see criticism of democrats on my dash, it's an even mix of genuine concerns, obvious Republican propaganda wearing a leftist hat, and a compulsion to blame Democrats for things that were literally, factually, legally, entirely done by Republicans. Including fucking Dobbs. Anyway.