The Pestiside Instant Interview: Tamás Polgár, a.k.a "Tomcat"

Well, never again let us be accused of creating this feature just so we can yak with our friends, as today's subject is not only not a friend, but someone roundly hated by enough of our friends that we are likely to lose at least one for posting the following interview. The non-friend in question is Tomás Polgár (left). Better known by the alias "Tomcat," Polgár made headlines this week when he was awarded the "Bearded Man Award" from members of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), the liberal political party that is the junior member of Hungary's current government. Polgár won the curiously-titled "prize" for his gleefully impolitic online rants and public theatrics, many involving the country's Gypsy (Roma) minority, one of which recently saw him nearly lynched at a demonstration in Budapest held in the wake of a brutal stabbing of a young Roma boy. (A stabbing that Polgár at the time outrageously - but correctly - said had probably been committed by other Roma, rather than white racists.) When not getting beaten up or dragged to the police station or shocking other local shock-artists, Polgár works as a developer of computer games and a 3D graphic artist. He's also a freelance graphic artist and web-designer, and has written a book on underground computer art. But at least this week, controversy is his full-time job.

So what do you think of this whole Bearded Man business?
I think I already expressed [my feelings]. I think it's quite ridiculous. After all, who are these SZDSZ guys to tell us how we, the majority, must behave? Are they our common conscience or what?

Are you a fascist?
As I recall, when you interviewed the Matula editor, Márton Bede, you never asked if he's a Zionist, have you?

You say you have political views, and are not just a publicity-seeker. Which party's program or rhetoric come closest to your views?
Why am I supposed to follow any party? I don't think any of the Hungarian parties is expressing the true will and demand of the Hungarian people. Nevertheless, there are questions in which I can agree with each of them. Even with SZDSZ.

What's more offensive to you: gypsies, or pushy liberal foreigners?
Aha, seems you haven't done your homework. Please go and read my blog thoroughly. I've never blamed "the Gypsies" for anything, as a nation. I don't really understand the term "aspiring foreign liberalists" [see translation note below] but I [can] guess who are you referring to. Well, as I am a liberalist myself, I have nothing against cosmopolitan values, but only as long as these foreigners don't try to destroy my nation's own moral values. But this is what they call liberalism, isn't it? Being part of the international creative hacker subculture, I've travelled a lot in Europe, and have good friends in many countries, from Finland through France to Israel. We are almost all nationalist liberals. That means that we tolerate different cultures, different thinking and even weirdness, but only as long as they don't oppose our nations' culture and common sense in general. You'd be shocked if you knew what kind of friends do I have - a person widely considered a Neonazi. What we call "liberalism" in Hungary is not liberalism, but stupidity.

Someone we know characterized you as, among other things, a "dumb, sad loser, who likes to wear military-type clothing and play with Dungeons and Dragons." Is this true?
You can be really proud of your friends... Actually I never played D&D.

On your site you say you hate everyone. So you don't have any people you would call friends?
But yes, for example, Berta, my dog.

If you could go on a date with anyone in Hungary, who would it be, and why?
I am already dating her.

Where would you take Diána Bácsfi on a date?
Nowhere, go ahead, she's yours.

What's your favorite bar and restaurant in Budapest?
I don't go to bars, as I never drink alcohol. My favorite restaurant is the Govinda Hare Krsna restaurant, in the Vigyázó Ferenc street.

[Editor's note: questions for the above interview were given to Polgár in Hungarian, who responded in English. And if that, or anything else about the interview bugs you, take a pill.]