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In the United States, both left- and right-wing politicians agree that American civil society has been in decline for decades, said Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and Danube Institute visiting fellow at the latest event of the Budapest Lectures series at MCC.

At a joint event of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium and the Danube Institute, participants spoke about the so-called "long march", which dates back to the early 1970s in the United States. At that time, the radical left was facing difficulties both in the United States and in Europe, and leftist intellectuals had to reconsider their strategy. How did they get from radicalism to transforming bureaucracy? What were the key factors in this transformation and how did they contribute to the change? These are some of the questions addressed by the conservative activist and Danube Institute visiting fellow Christopher Rufo. According to the expert, American civil society has been in decline for decades and the state is now trying to fill the role of civil society. Christopher Rufo also pointed out that the left had already moved away from the moral consensus. Left-wing ideologies have slowly infiltrated educational institutions and today there is no branch of government where they are not present, he stressed.