a reply to:
JBurns
First of all, you have this a little bit backwards.
North Korea will, of course, steal material from GENUINE socialist movements, it has to. Its entire propaganda departments success relies on their
insistence on referring to themselves as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, DESPITE the fact that much of its internal policy is not in the
least bit democratic. There are no free and fair elections, its a tinpot dictatorship at best, which is not a democratic methodology. In fact, many of
the worst aspects of North Korea have to do with its LACK of democratic ideal and principle, not a result of too much of these things, but instead far
too little of them.
The name the countries leaders chose for it post separation from the rest of Korea, do not reflect its internal workings at all, what with those
internal operations being far more familiar to a fascism (which, as you must know by now, is anathema to all socialist and democratic ideals of note
or worthy of praise). The Nazis did the same thing, its a common thread amongst fascisms to dress themselves up as something they are not. The Nazi
party actually killed more socialists than it aided, having used their resources of man power and technical expertise in organising labour movements,
then cast them aside to continue their eugenicist nightmare policies.
Again, these are not the habits or mechanisms which one can accurately or fairly attribute to democratic thinking, regardless of the words used by
"journalists" from the DPRK.
Also, it has to be said that if you saw these comments out of context, and knew not who had specifically uttered them, there is an awful lot to agree
with. In fact, that is how effective propaganda is SUPPOSED to work (i.e. not in the Trump way, where he says things that are fundamentally appalling,
and people just fall over themselves to jam their noses closer to his colon). This example of propaganda is very slick, because the statement is
accurate. However, the fact that DPRK government (the people who wrote this statement in all likelihood, the people in control of state media
concerns) is the issuer of these statements, does not detract from their truth. All it means is that the issuers are hypocrites, and meant only to put
another layer on the pointless veneer of legitimacy that their government likes to think it is viewed through.
Let me be clear, the government of the DPRK is flawed, evil and needs (by the action of its citizens, and by no other means) to be dealt with,
STERNLY.
Comparing the DPRK government, with people who, on balance, have left wing views about things and want to spend less on murdering people, and more on
healing the sick in their own country, less on controlling foreign resources, and more on protecting the environment that we all live in, less on
corporate shenanigans, and more on publicly financed and forward thinking projects, is just like comparing lead to water. It does not function, beyond
a shallow and thoughtless "Hurr durr, Democrats...DPRK...hurr duurrr, what's the D stand for, suckers!", an observation which, to clarify, has no
value to it whatsoever.