There’s a generation a lot of people forget exists. We were born at the tail end of the Boomers, but we are not culturally the same as people born in the 40s and early 50s. We are Generation Jones. And honestly, it explains a lot. We grew up in a world that still felt fundamentally analog, but we were young enough to be dragged headfirst into the digital revolution. We are the bridge generation between rotary phones and smartphones, between slide rules and AI, between Walter Cronkite and algorithm driven media. We remember when there were only a few television channels and the entire country watched the same thing at the same time. We also adapted to the internet, email, forums, social media, streaming and now artificial intelligence. We lived before and after the technological singularity hit everyday life. That is not a small thing. People born in the 40s came of age in a post World War II America that was still industrial, deeply hierarchical and institutionally stable. Their formative years were shaped by the Cold War, Vietnam, the civil rights era and a society where information moved slowly. Generation Jones came later. We inherited the aftermath of all of that. We were the kids who watched Watergate destroy blind trust in government. We watched manufacturing begin to collapse. We saw divorce rates explode. We were the first truly latchkey generation in massive numbers. We learned independence early because many of us had to. We grew up with one foot in old America and one foot in whatever this new thing was becoming. We played outside until the streetlights came on but we also learned DOS commands. We learned cursive and keyboarding. We had card catalogs and Google searches. We went from vinyl records to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s to streaming in one lifetime. We remember maps. We remember memorizing phone numbers. We remember life before GPS and before every human interaction became filtered through a screen. And because of that, I think Generation Jones developed a very unique perspective. We are adaptable because we had no choice but to adapt. We learned technology as adults instead of being born into it. We remember a slower world but were forced to survive in a rapidly accelerating one. That creates a very different mindset than either older Boomers or younger Gen X and Millennials. A lot of us also reject the caricature people now associate with “Boomers.” We were not buying houses for the cost of a sandwich in 1965. The interest rate on my first house was over 14% and that was after buying down a point. Many of us got hit by recessions, outsourcing, pension collapses and economic instability just like younger generations did. We watched promises evaporate in real time. We understand older generations because we were raised by them. We understand younger generations because we had to evolve alongside them. That’s why the Jones generation often feels culturally homeless. We are rarely discussed, rarely defined and usually lumped into categories that don’t actually fit us. But we exist. We are the human transition point between the industrial age and the digital age. And frankly, there will probably never be another generation quite like us again.

I have arrived at the Sándor Palace to meet the President of Hungary. @DrTamasSulyok is unworthy of representing the unity of the Hungarian nation. He is unfit to serve as the guardian of legality. He is not fit to serve as a moral authority or a role model. Following the formation of the new government, Tamás Sulyok must leave office immediately.

🚨Statement on the Hungarian Election from MCC Brussels Sunday’s Hungarian election saw an unprecedented exercise of democratic rights by the Hungarian people. They voted in their millions for change, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán graciously conceded defeat to his opponent. This enormous mobilisation of the population should be the final nail in the coffin of the increasingly desperate narrative, favoured by EU elites and the Brussels media, that Orbán was a dangerous autocrat who had built an anti-democratic system. Orbán remained a democrat to his core. Orbán’s defeat is naturally a significant setback to those who support the values which defined his rule: national sovereignty, strong borders, and proud defence of national values. It is a sign of the depth of Orbán’s influence that even his opponent Peter Magyar was forced to speak in these terms. While Magyar should be judged on his record -and we hope he will be as firm in defending these values as Prime Minister Orbán has been -we should be wary of simply taking Magyar at his word. It is clear, not just from the ecstatic mood among EU elites but also from Magyar’s signature campaign promises - such as the unfreezing of EU funds and the expansion of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office - that Magyar plans to significantly accommodate to the diktats of Brussels. Magyar will have a difficult time protecting Hungary’s sovereignty, borders and culture whilst allowing Brussels to stamp its mark on the country. He also leads a highly heterogenous coalition which will be difficult to hold together under stress. EU elites should also be wary of celebrating too soon. Whilst Orbán may have been defeated, the wider mood of the continent is unchanged. The populist revolution is still very much ongoing. The pushback against the EU elite’s addiction to uncontrolled migration, its disastrous energy and environmental policies, and its culture war against the values of European civilisation is still well underway. Nonetheless, populists, patriots and genuine conservatives should seriously reckon with the lessons of this defeat. There will be much debate about the meaning of this election, and clearly the desire for change played a significant role, but we draw attention to three often under-emphasised factors. First, far from being a marginal phenomenon, the influence of the globalist outlook of identity politics ought to be a core concern for us all. There is a powerful ideology which seeks to detach people from their national consciousness, their sense of civilisation and history, and replace genuine solidarity with the contemporary identities of gender, race or sexuality. The considerable resources of the European Commission, such as its army of funded NGOs, push this ideology day and night. Defeating this is key to the success of any populist candidate. Second, and relatedly, is the need to thoroughly convince a new generation of voters – both young people and those who have been politically inactive for some time. Many European populist movements are successfully linking the sense of disaffection that exists among young people to their core concerns, but there is much more to be done. Third, we draw attention to a perennial problem on the European Right. The obfuscatory language and secretive operation of the European Union institutions means we must work exceptionally hard to translate the dangerous trends in Brussels into the everyday language of ordinary voters. People’s concerns will rightly be focused on everyday issues of peace and prosperity. This is why it is especially important to find new ways to link the destructive policies of the EU elites to people’s everyday reality. When so much of the threat to our civilisation happens “over there” in Brussels, we must be better at explaining what it means “over here” in the towns and villages of our nation-states. Finally, many are asking what the election means for MCC Brussels. As an independent organisation, we will continue to research, analyse and advocate around our core concerns, and continue to hold the European Union institutions to account. We look forward to continuing to work with our friends and comrades across the continent.

Orbán’s rival Péter Magyar said that his government would extradite Polish fugitives—former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro and his ex-deputy Marcin Romanowski—both sheltered by Orbán—on day one in office. Magyar added they may flee to Minsk or Moscow, hinting Orbán could, too.