My (marginally informed) attempt to set the record straight on North Korea (DPRK) content on Political YouTube. I examine claims made by celebrity defectors ...
Video seems well made and watchable so far. My only thought with DPRK discussions by anyone, regardless of their opinions on the government there, is “are they even aware of the history of the Korean Peninsula and why the northern part has been so isolated since the 1950s onward?”
The creator included a small clip of Lex Friedman (sp?) at the beginning (he was mocking Lex) saying the DPRK had massive famine in the 1990s… Lex blames the leadership in the DPRK, which sure probably deserved blame, but I wonder if Lex is aware of some other major events that happened in the early 1990s that devastated allied countries like DPRK and Cuba… hmm… perhaps the dissolution of a superpower that was competing with the USA and was supporting countries the USA was purposely fucking? Hmmmmm (yes Lex knows this of course. His family was from the USSR. He’s just a right wing asshole)
That’s my major issue with discussion though. Especially from Americans and most Western Europeans they will never ever admit that the USSR was good in many respects one of which was helping countries like the DPRK avoid famine while the US was busy trying to cause famine. They’re incapable of putting aside reactionary ideology and hatred for socialism to see that, no, it wasn’t just that the DPRK has a cult leader who hoarded all the food (or whatever right wingers think) it’s that the US was purposely starving an entire nation, the USSR (and others) were helping prevent that catastrophe, and with the dissolution and chaos in Russia post-USSR, of fucking course countries that depended on it for trade were left fucked over.
It’s like if China just went poof tomorrow and had a decade of extreme instability, Americans would have no cheaply made commodities, and surely this would result in bad things like lack of medical supplies and stuff. Would some future-Lex in 30 years say “wow. What happened in 2024 to America? It was Trump. He hoarded all the needles and destroyed them.” It’s just such birdbrain shit and lack of logic because at all costs they must never even accidentally acknowledge that the USSR did good things and had trade agreements that benefited other nations. Like that is just too hard for them. It’s just sad and pathetic. Makes it hard to disagree with Putin when he criticizes Americans for knowing nothing. He might be an asshole, he might be doing a creative reading of history at times, but at least he has knowledge of stuff.
I watched it while multitasking, but my best summary would be… if you have a highly reactionary person you want to slowly bring back from the brink, maybe this is methadone for them? To help wean them off liberalism. But that’s rather generous really.
The creator hits a few more nuances than most liberals would. Acknowledgment that US imperialism is bad, although he does give a semi-mocking tone to this so I’m not totally sure of his opinions on it. I think he’s kind of right that some “leftists” (or whatever they are. Maybe actually leftists) go too far in “defending” the DPRK. Again, my stance is basically “you don’t need to “defend” anything. Just analyze it as factually as possible. And before any real analysis can be done in the case of DPRK there is a pre-requisite that almost no one except those on the left will meet- acknowledge that the USA totally destroyed the infrastructure there, sanctioned them for about 75 years now, and has done everything in its power to force its citizens to die or live lives of extreme poverty.”
If this resulted in some “quirky” behavior, hey, no fucking shit?
Maybe that seems like a cop out or whatever to “avoid” real discussion, but I’d just reply with “no, I’ll discuss any negatives or positives of the government of DPRK, right after we discuss the incredible hardships they’ve been forced to endure mostly at the hands of the Japanese empire and then immediately after the American empire.” You can’t discuss any country in a bubble or vacuum. You can I guess, but your analysis is immediately flawed and probably just bullshit.
So the creator is like a couple ticks down from typical libs on “let’s nuke DPRK immediately” (he also denies that western powers have desired to destroy DPRK for… 70 years which was weird as fuck. He thinks it’s wrong to say them having nukes keep them safe from invasion which is objectively true. Unless I misunderstood some point he was making).
Still shit. Still a reactionary saying things. Appropriately placed content.
Video seems well made and watchable so far. My only thought with DPRK discussions by anyone, regardless of their opinions on the government there, is “are they even aware of the history of the Korean Peninsula and why the northern part has been so isolated since the 1950s onward?”
The creator included a small clip of Lex Friedman (sp?) at the beginning (he was mocking Lex) saying the DPRK had massive famine in the 1990s… Lex blames the leadership in the DPRK, which sure probably deserved blame, but I wonder if Lex is aware of some other major events that happened in the early 1990s that devastated allied countries like DPRK and Cuba… hmm… perhaps the dissolution of a superpower that was competing with the USA and was supporting countries the USA was purposely fucking? Hmmmmm (yes Lex knows this of course. His family was from the USSR. He’s just a right wing asshole)
That’s my major issue with discussion though. Especially from Americans and most Western Europeans they will never ever admit that the USSR was good in many respects one of which was helping countries like the DPRK avoid famine while the US was busy trying to cause famine. They’re incapable of putting aside reactionary ideology and hatred for socialism to see that, no, it wasn’t just that the DPRK has a cult leader who hoarded all the food (or whatever right wingers think) it’s that the US was purposely starving an entire nation, the USSR (and others) were helping prevent that catastrophe, and with the dissolution and chaos in Russia post-USSR, of fucking course countries that depended on it for trade were left fucked over.
It’s like if China just went poof tomorrow and had a decade of extreme instability, Americans would have no cheaply made commodities, and surely this would result in bad things like lack of medical supplies and stuff. Would some future-Lex in 30 years say “wow. What happened in 2024 to America? It was Trump. He hoarded all the needles and destroyed them.” It’s just such birdbrain shit and lack of logic because at all costs they must never even accidentally acknowledge that the USSR did good things and had trade agreements that benefited other nations. Like that is just too hard for them. It’s just sad and pathetic. Makes it hard to disagree with Putin when he criticizes Americans for knowing nothing. He might be an asshole, he might be doing a creative reading of history at times, but at least he has knowledge of stuff.
I watched it while multitasking, but my best summary would be… if you have a highly reactionary person you want to slowly bring back from the brink, maybe this is methadone for them? To help wean them off liberalism. But that’s rather generous really.
The creator hits a few more nuances than most liberals would. Acknowledgment that US imperialism is bad, although he does give a semi-mocking tone to this so I’m not totally sure of his opinions on it. I think he’s kind of right that some “leftists” (or whatever they are. Maybe actually leftists) go too far in “defending” the DPRK. Again, my stance is basically “you don’t need to “defend” anything. Just analyze it as factually as possible. And before any real analysis can be done in the case of DPRK there is a pre-requisite that almost no one except those on the left will meet- acknowledge that the USA totally destroyed the infrastructure there, sanctioned them for about 75 years now, and has done everything in its power to force its citizens to die or live lives of extreme poverty.”
If this resulted in some “quirky” behavior, hey, no fucking shit?
Maybe that seems like a cop out or whatever to “avoid” real discussion, but I’d just reply with “no, I’ll discuss any negatives or positives of the government of DPRK, right after we discuss the incredible hardships they’ve been forced to endure mostly at the hands of the Japanese empire and then immediately after the American empire.” You can’t discuss any country in a bubble or vacuum. You can I guess, but your analysis is immediately flawed and probably just bullshit.
So the creator is like a couple ticks down from typical libs on “let’s nuke DPRK immediately” (he also denies that western powers have desired to destroy DPRK for… 70 years which was weird as fuck. He thinks it’s wrong to say them having nukes keep them safe from invasion which is objectively true. Unless I misunderstood some point he was making).
Still shit. Still a reactionary saying things. Appropriately placed content.