I'll give you that, I know a few Jobbik myself and they're exactly as you describe. And I also remember the party official who discovered last year that he himself was ethnically Jewish and was forced out.
But fair's fair, I haven't personally been at any such demonstrations - but I'll bet you haven't been at any knife fights, either.
As to the media - after 25 years of marriage to a Hungarian, and now a year living in Budapest, my Hungarian still sucks. I can keep up my end of a conversation if I've had enough sleep and I can read text fine, but I usually have to ask my wife what any given news story is about. Most of my exposure to current events consists of her watching the news while I'm finishing up one job or another on the laptop. So I'm not 100% up to speed on detail.
The media here honestly seems less slanted than in the States, but that is a really vaguely anecdotal judgement. It would be nice if a study were actually possible, but such is the nature of media that it isn't, really.
Also: they may personally believe that Roma are not the problem - but is that the rhetoric they use to sway voters? Even subtly? Because you started out trying to justify the Jobbik by citing knife attacks, and got widely slapped down for using local rhetoric in a global forum - that's a good sign that your local rhetoric is a lot more slanted than you think. And what you say ends up being what you believe.
I don't think I ever mentioned anything about knife fights on this forum. I also use no local rhetoric. I just wrote what I see on the country side. If you think it is a rhetoric to trick voters into voting then I am glad - you must be very far away from the problems these voters experience, and that's fine.
You live in Budapest you say. That's an entirely different place then the rest of the country.
The amount of poverty and suffering people endure in the country side is almost unimaginable. Unfortunately I can imagine it because I grew up in it.
PS:
I have been at knife fights unfortunately. That can happen when you want to drink an orange juice in a pub here.
PS2:
How do you like the Hungarian language? I am a natural language geek. What do you think how does it sound? Any thoughts appreciated.
But fair's fair, I haven't personally been at any such demonstrations - but I'll bet you haven't been at any knife fights, either.
As to the media - after 25 years of marriage to a Hungarian, and now a year living in Budapest, my Hungarian still sucks. I can keep up my end of a conversation if I've had enough sleep and I can read text fine, but I usually have to ask my wife what any given news story is about. Most of my exposure to current events consists of her watching the news while I'm finishing up one job or another on the laptop. So I'm not 100% up to speed on detail.
The media here honestly seems less slanted than in the States, but that is a really vaguely anecdotal judgement. It would be nice if a study were actually possible, but such is the nature of media that it isn't, really.