alt Hacker News> Orbán, the EU’s most autocratic leader […] lost by a decisive margin in Sunday’s vote, amid the highest turnout in Hungary’s democratic history.
What a ridiculous sentence. He’s an autocrat, but he’s out of power after losing a democratic election. Which is it?
Words have meaning.
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Yes they do. A kindergardener can lead their kindergarden in an autocratic style. That means they (=auto) decide (=cratos) things and don't e.g. ask others (=demos) in a democratic sense.
Then they can still end up being fired. Autocratic is a style of leadership, and nowhere in the definition does it say autocrats can't be removed from their position of power. Sure, it is hard to remove autocrats once they have consolidated power, but that doesn't mean they are not autocrats before they did.
Whst you do is like calling a fire only a fire if it burns down a house. But that would be too late you know?
I think there's quite a difference between calling someone an autocrat vs an autocratic leader, the latter being more of a characterization of how they are leading, which is I imagine why those words were chosen.
It was election, but Hungarian democracy is severely lacking and barely a democracy. A miracle happened, because too many people were too pissed at Orban. That does not make the country non autocratic, it means miracle happened and now new guys has all that power.