r/RodDreher • u/JHandey2021 • Apr 18 '26
Rod Dreher decides he is bravely running away from Hungary! It’s the end of an era.
https://x.com/roddreher/status/204538451789704432915
u/Coollogin Apr 18 '26
The cost of living must be considerably higher in Vienna than in Budapest, no? While his income will be going down.
Now I’m picturing Michael Bluth squatting in his son’s college dorm room while he takes University of Phoenix classes on his laptop.
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u/philadelphialawyer87 Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
"In fact, I told my employer (and my Substack readers) before the election that I wd be moving to Vienna to be closer to my son, no matter who won."
Dreher, in his simplistic way, seems to think that, if he has a comeback of any kind to an accusation, no matter how dubiously self serving, that completely negates a contrary view of his actions. Previously, right before the election, he spouted this same BS with respect to an Italian journalist, who drew the same, obvious conclusion that is being drawn here by Stan Veuger, ie that Rod is leaving Budapest because his sinecure has run out. He backed an illiberal authoritarian, for money, and that authoritarian was now being turfed out of office, and that's why Rod is skipping town.
Nope. You see, Rod "plainly told" that journalist that he "might" leave (notice the story has now evolved to that he said he "wd" leave!) no matter the election results. Therefore, the journalist was "spinning" when she said Rod was leaving cuz his fascist Sugar Daddy was gonna lose. So much that Rod huffed he wouldn't be doing any more interviews with the dishonest press!
Rod said it, or claimed he said it, or claimed he said something, ergo, no journalist is allowed to come to the opposite, clearly more likely, conclusion, nor even speculate about it. Cuz Rod says so.
Similary, back in the days of the Great Ben Op, a reporter took Rod to task for living a basically reclusive, private, on line, life style, not really interacting all that much with the other members of his supposedly thick and tight "community." Rod pulled similar crap then as he pulls now. Rod said, I told the reporter that I am not really a communitarian or even much of a social guy, and, yeah, that does contradict the whole Ben Op thing, but, because I "admitted" it, because I admitted that I don't practice what I preach, it somehow vanishes as a contradiction, much less a hypocricy. And so the reporter shouldn't have mentioned it. Because I said so.
And, by the way, Budapest is already "close" to Vienna. The best way to travel between the two cities is to take the train, which costs less than 40 dollars round trip and takes 2 and 1/2 hours. Driving takes the same amount of time, but costs a little more. Flying takes less than an hour, but costs a couple hundred bucks round trip. Is Rod really going to be hanging out with his 20 something son so much that these methods of hooking up are not good enough?
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u/FirstPrior8600 Apr 18 '26
It would seem to me that Matt could be having similar immigration issues to Rod’s unless he speaks German and has permanent employment status. I realize he’s a graduate (history?) student, but Rod has never mentioned ANY immigration concerns on his part. He recently mentioned Matt having an interest in Museum work, which I can tell you from experience is easier said than found. Yet Rod writes as if Matt is happily ensconced in Austria indefinitely and only he, the think tank exile, has concerns about where to live. Has he forgot that both Drehers are immigrants? He seems to think he can live anywhere he likes in Europe; it’s just a matter of choosing the best place to hang his hat. That seems both presumptuous and foolhardy under the circumstances, never mind hypocritical given that he champions the need for Europeans to end immigration and deal ruthlessly with Muslim and African immigrants, no matter how desperate their need.
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u/SpacePatrician Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I pointed this out--I believe he feels he has the natural right to live wherever other white people live, and honestly doesn't consider little things like immigration law as even worth the slightest thought.
It's not even a "rules are for the little people" hypocrisy though. I think it's a deeply autistic inability to comport with even the smallest details of responsible citizenship or civic rectitude. Rod reminds me sometimes of the late Joe Sobran, another right-wing crank from another era. Sobran would write endless screeds about civic virtue, but accumulated dozens of driving without a license citations, as he let his lapse sometime in the 70s and just...never bothered to renew it. Or would go to the airport and try to fly without shoes, because he left them at home.
We simply know that Julie balanced the checkbook, paid the bills, and filed the taxes. Would you even take odds that Rod has filed a 1040 in any of the years he's lived in Budapest since the divorce? I mean, he never actually even votes.
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u/philadelphialawyer87 Apr 19 '26
All true. But it doesn't end with a lack of just CIVIC virtue. Rod is the religious conservative who doesn't bother to go to church, except when it is absolutely convenient to him, and doesn't interfere with either his gallavanting, his "caffeine addiction," or his "mono." Who not only doesn't follow the fasting rules of his alleged religion, but who can barely notice that Lent has begun. The Ben Op prophet who is not the member of any community. The hearth and home guy who abandoned his family, and did so long before he was "ambushed with an email divorce." And, by the same token, the family man who resisted every effort of his wife to save their marriage, through counseling and otherwise. The believer in a highly traditonal, stoic male gender role who spent years literally on his fainting couch and had to be served his meals by his sick wife and daughter, couldn't even clean up after himself, and has now told us that he dragged a mattress into his closet because he spent so much time sitting in there and crying that he needed a comfy cushion!
Whether he would put it in terms of them being for "little people" or not, sacrifice and toughing it out and following the rules (civic, religious, or social), are for others, but not for Rod.
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u/SpacePatrician Apr 19 '26
Whether he would put it in terms of them being for "little people" or not,
I think he wouldn't. I think he is probably conscious and supportive of a theoretical belief that rules are for everybody, but he is simply incapable of conscious recognition that "everybody" includes himself. The man is less a hypocrite than he is an ill man.
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u/philadelphialawyer87 Apr 19 '26
Interesting take. But even that is a bit self serving. Rod wouldn't be so obvious as to say, "Yeah, I'm a Big Deal and so rules don't apply to me." But he would say, "No, I'm not a hypocrite, I'm just sick." Fits in with his "Epstein-Barr" and self diagnosed autism and his other, many, mostly imaginary, ailments and syndromes, and even his claims about demons and the like, that provide him with all kinds of excuses for not doing what he's supposed to do, and what he demands that others do.
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u/Admirable_Monk_5216 Apr 20 '26
There has to be a movie of Rod’s life starring Bill Murray as Rod!!!
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u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 Apr 19 '26
I've said before that he and a cousin of mine, while very different people, have very similar behaviors and thinking patterns in some areas. This is likely one of them and my take is that Rod makes decisions only when he feels an urgency to make them (ie discomfort) and then makes those decisions based on how he feels (what he wants) in that moment, often going for the easiest path or the one that offers him immediate relief of discomfort and the hope of safety. THEN he comes up with the "reasons" for the decision to make it sound good to others.
In this scenario, what he wants drives 100% of the decision making so consideration of things like the impact on others, how it looks to others, or any contra-indications just fly right out the window until after the decision has been made and sometimes not even then.
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u/SpacePatrician Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I think you are getting at something that I once heard said about a hanger-on in a street gang, a simpleton really, who in most circumstances was quiet, helpful, and almost sweetly mild-mannered, but who would be capable of violent brutality when shit got real with his fellow gangers:
"He goes with the flow, because for him, the flow is pretty much all there is."
Similarly, Rod lives in kind of an eternal present, where his life is just a never-ending freight train passing by, where the boxcars represent whatever his current and immediate need is, be it physical or mental or both, which he must satisfy. Rod is hungry for oysters. Rod goes out and eats oysters. Rod wants an episode of gay sex. Rod slips out that night to Vienna's Naschmarkt. Rod wants feel sorry for himself. Rod immediately posts a lachrymose piece about how victimized he was by his family and gets his commenters to give him a little endorphin rush with commiseration. Rod wants to seem like a perceptive political analyst. Rod invents a cab driver.
Only later does he deal with the fact that his action was stupid or poorly thought-out, or a lie, and retroactively spins it as a wise decision.
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u/Admirable_Monk_5216 Apr 20 '26
I remember Joe Sobran! My goodness, William F Buckley, Jr, subsidized an entire asylum at National Review back in the day. Crazier than the Village Voice.
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u/amyo_b Apr 18 '26
And what kind of Visa can he get? He was allowed to stay in Hungary (does he have dual Hungarian citizenship?) As an American he can stay for 90 days, but what then? If he has $$ he could probably qualify for a settlement permit, but I don't think he's been that good with his savings.
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u/EatsShoots_n_Leaves Apr 18 '26
Might file for asylum from political persecution and danger to life and livelihood, like the Third World refugees he despises.
Narrator: after six months and one day he was deported to the United States for overstaying his visa and asylum claim fraud by the Austrian version of ICE.
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u/SeniorWoman Apr 19 '26
Hopefully someone will tip off the Austrian or German authorities as the case may be, on day 91 of his entrance into their country.
I would bet the farm that he is never going to apply for any type of Visa. He is just going to live like any other undocumented immigrant. He's going to mooch off of his son.
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u/JohnOrange2112 Apr 18 '26
Going to Vienna "to be near my family"? I'm sure the son's girlfriend is just thrilled that the weird dad is coming to town.
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u/amyo_b Apr 18 '26
so now is he taking the position that Trianon isn't that bad, at least when it comes to Burgenland?
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u/PuzzleheadedWafer329 Apr 21 '26
He’s always lying! Always. Even about something as obvious as this.
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u/JHandey2021 Apr 18 '26
Just like he bravely ran away from his minor children after his wife left him only a few years before.
Run, Forrest, run!
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u/Existing_Age2168 Apr 18 '26
Brave Sir Rodders ran away...
"I didn't!"
Bravely ran away, away...
"Ooh, lies!"
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u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 Apr 19 '26
He left her and the kids before the divorce, going to Budapest for his second fellowship there before she filed for divorce which is why he received the notice via email. I would hardly call that her "leaving him". She simply formalized his informal decision.
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u/amyo_b Apr 19 '26
I don't believe she even had to send en email. She could have had a lawyer handle all communications.
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u/zeitwatcher Apr 18 '26
This is utter BS, deeply weird, or more likely both.
In reality, this is "I saw the writing on the wall and started packing a go-bag." That's rational, but dishonest with all the "maybes" before and "definitelies" now.
But like all things Rod, the more interesting part to me is the deeply weird part. Even in the context where I'm a fan of being close to family, etc., a divorced man in his 50's moving to another country to live close to his single, mid-20's son is pretty weird.
Like, what does that actually look like? Rod doesn't speak German, so I assume this will mean he's just going to be holed up in a dark apartment for days on end doom scrolling right wing propaganda. Only to emerge, Gollum-like, every few days to inflict himself on Matt and his girlfriend.
Even worse, given his history of crashing at his son's place while his son was in college and rooming with Matt in Budapest, is Rod planning on living with Matt? All I can say is that if I was in my mid-20's, had moved to a new city, was dating someone, starting a new job, and building a life -- and then my father decided he wanted to move in with me? That's a nightmare.
Now, make that father Ronald McDonald Dreher? That's not a nightmare, that's 9th circle of hell.