North Korean propaganda

[Mofo Rising]

I'm still following this story. For a while it was going to be the new thing everybody was scared about. That's the way the media in the U.S. works.

But then Boston happened, and now nobody even remotely cares. Not a dismissal to Boston, that was terrible and f**k those guys.

What really gets me about the North Korea thing is what little respect everybody involved gives to North Korea. Basically, what they said was "We have nuclear weapons and you should all be terrified!" The universal response was "Hey, maybe you idiots should stop talking."

So, North Korea sucks. China sucks for supporting them, especially now that the idea of a Communist China is ridiculous lip-service. We all know you're capitalist, China. Just come out of the closet. It's okay, we understand and we've known all along. You don't need your beard of North Korea.

And by the way, that guy is really p**sing the entire world off.

[Umaril Has Returned]

Well, as Newt said before, N. Korea may be just a tool that China uses to try to legitimize Communism by saying that we can either have it N. Korea's way, or the "better" way of Chinese Communism, all while they remind the world that neither system is going anywhere soon.

And if that truly is the case, then China itself is just as deluded, with their own series of human rights violations and abuses. Only with their economy in full swing, it's as if they've created a slightly better model, with the gilded cage they've created for their citizens and the idea that the govt. is all they want and need. Just my take on it anyhow..

Good points. Of course a strong economy doesn't mean that everyone's happy and money also creates it's own evil. Trying to combine Capitalism and Communism will eventually make for a very conflicted system. Not a great example.

Very true, especially when you look at the way that the Soviet Union spurned Capitalism as a "necessary" part of the Communist edict. So what they did to make up for it was simple..they took everything off of their neighbors, poured into their military to provide the illusion of power, when in reality they were so poor they couldn't even feed themselves.

Eventually their tanks and planes and military in general began to dissolve as no money was coming in. There are entire graveyards of Cold-War era military hardware that went to rot because there was no money to maintain them with.

[Trevor]

And by the way, that guy is really p**sing the entire world off.

Agreed: South Korea should fly a couple of bombers over Pyong-oing-oing-yang and drop a few empty tin "bombs" on the capital: then Mr Kim Jong Un will do one in his pants. 

BTW: the BBC broadcast an undercover documentary last week showing that North Korea is a hopelessly backward and impoverished country.

[Mofo Rising]

And by the way, that guy is really p**sing the entire world off.

Agreed: South Korea should fly a couple of bombers over Pyong-oing-oing-yang and drop a few empty tin "bombs" on the capital: then Mr Kim Jong Un will do one in his pants.  

BTW: the BBC broadcast an undercover documentary last week showing that North Korea is a hopelessly backward and impoverished country.

Well, I don't remember who produced this documentary on North Korea I watched. I think it was National Geographic.

But basically it presented a nation that is under the sway of a cult of personality. Basically, some Western doctors showed up and helped people with their vision problems. Glasses, etc. As the information was filtered to them, it was the benevolence of the Kim Jong-il family. They were weeping with gratitude that their beloved leader helped them fix this problem.

Now I don't want to say that "Western" society is the greatest thing ever. Far from it. But the people in North Korea live horrible lives, and the people in charge in that country are directly responsible. But the people don't get any information about the outside world, so they believe it is the benevolence of their dictators that is responsible for this good fortune. For a simple thing that is readily available in the rest of the world.

They have no access to the idea that things could be better. In the U.S.A. we take for granted freedom of information, and the guaranteed right to tell any of our leaders to f**k off. But maybe that's an anomaly, and North Korea is an anomaly in showing how bad things can get when you choose to deny your citizenship that right.

Fun fact, Putin's Russia has spent a good amount of time creating new measures to deny their citizens that right.

The right to free speech is not a given. It's constantly imperiled. You should probably speak up when some d**khole tries to take it from you, because the consequences of not defending it almost always end up awful.

[indianasmith]

Well said, Mofo, but I will take exception to one thing above: I believe Western Civilization IS "the greatest thing ever."  Not America per se, but the whole post-Enlightenment idea of government: inalienable rights, free speech, free press, free religion, and the worth of the individual.  I'm a student of world history, and I can't think of a better system that has ever existed.

[lester1/2jr]

Islamic golden age was pretty good. virtually stateless. Have you ever read " The Discovery of Freedom"?

[Rev. Powell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfJqbbkZaZ4

[Bushma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfJqbbkZaZ4

   

Wow! I never knew America was this bad! I've lived here my whole life an never knew that I lived like this!  All of the good coffee not made from snow comes from the Glorious Leader! I should write him a thank you letter, too bad I don't have a pen or paper!

[indianasmith]

Islamic golden age was pretty good. virtually stateless. Have you ever read " The Discovery of Freedom"?

The Islamic "Golden Age" was good if you were a Muslim, but not so great for the Christians they conquered.  The Jizya tax was heavy, and collected with great humiliation and abuse.  Also, your children could be taken from you at any time and forced to serve in the Sultan's Janissary Corps.

I am unfamiliar with the book you cite.

[Newt]

Indy, I believe that book is considered seminal to Libertarianism.  If the argument is for sympathy for Islam, I would have expected The Mainspring of Human Progress (1947), by Henry Grady Weaver to be suggested. 

[indianasmith]

Thanks Newt!

[Bushma]

I saw a homeless guy sleeping on a bench this morning.  I thought of the above video, then I thought it was be really fun to make a propaganda video for North Korea.  There's a decent sized homeless community here in Portland (OR) and there's even a guy that lives in a tent on a beach near where I would.  Could be fun to do some interviews then cut it all into a film to post on youtube for the North Koreans.

...

Am I crazy for thinking it would be fun to make a propaganda video for North Korea?

[Leah]

Well said, Mofo, but I will take exception to one thing above: I believe Western Civilization IS "the greatest thing ever."  Not America per se, but the whole post-Enlightenment idea of government: inalienable rights, free speech, free press, free religion, and the worth of the individual.  I'm a student of world history, and I can't think of a better system that has ever existed.

Every Civilization has it's ups and downs, not one is better than the rest.

[lester1/2jr]

Indiana / newt - Yes, It is a seminal libertarian text, written by Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder

http://mises.org/books/discovery.pdf

Islam stuff is on page 82 if anyone is so inclined. chapter The Second Attempt" 

[indianasmith]

Well said, Mofo, but I will take exception to one thing above: I believe Western Civilization IS "the greatest thing ever."  Not America per se, but the whole post-Enlightenment idea of government: inalienable rights, free speech, free press, free religion, and the worth of the individual.  I'm a student of world history, and I can't think of a better system that has ever existed.

Every Civilization has it's ups and downs, not one is better than the rest.

I don't know that I agree.  I think, for all its flaws, our American system is infinitely superior to the Aztec culture, which cut the hearts out of some 20,000 victims a year to satisfy the bloodlust of their god Huitzilopitchli.  Or that of Stalinist Russia, where some 40 million were mass murdered by the government in a 35 year period. 

That being said, if I could live at any point in history, I would have loved to have been a citizen of Rome in the last century of the Republic.