I am eager to travel to the DPRK again, this time with Trotsky in my luggage.
*wheezing pained laughter*
Jacobin posted:What is North Korea? It is a planned economy without democracy; a privileged caste makes all the decisions; at the head of this caste sits an infallible leader.
Crow posted:apologize for being a racist that emptily parrots spurious claims
The head of government in the DPRK is premier Pak Pong-ju. The head of state is the unrelated President of the Presidium Kim Yong-nam.
The Presidium and the Supreme People's Assembly are the legislative bodies of the DPRK and the premier heads the executive part of the government.
Kim Jong-un is first chairman of the National Defence Commission and has no say in making or establishing policy.
As a deputy to the SPA he has one vote.
"No investigation, shut the fuck up." -mao
tears posted:I am eager to travel to the DPRK again, this time with Trotsky in my luggage.
*wheezing pained laughter*
well you have to admit he probably doesn't need his own seat
imho the DPRK is revisionist but at least its not Trotskyism right?
i'm still a bit unclear on which "facts" are western propaganda and which are real problems
for example, is this testimony legit? it's from a labor camp survivor
"...I heard the crying voice of Byung Ok Kim, 32 years old, and peeped into
the room through the half open door. She had just delivered a baby and cried, "Sir, please save
the baby. My parents in law are anxiously waiting for the baby. Please, please save the baby."
She was out of her mind with sorrow. All the other women remained quiet and she was the only
woman crying and begging loudly. The doctor was taken momentarily by surprise. But soon, he
regained himself and shouted, "You want to die, eh? Kill the baby!" He kicked her hard.
Then, the Chief Medical Officer came in and said, "Who was it yelling like that? Put her in the
punishment cell!" The Chief Medical Officer kicked her hard several times and had her dragged
to the punishment cell because she could not hold herself up. This is one of the scenes that I will
never forget. She died shortly after she was released from the cell..."
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/lee_testimony_06_21_02.pdf
We were flying during the day, just looking for any IED-related suspicious activity. We saw these two guys walking kinda suspiciously down the side of the road, constantly looking around, just generally acting shady. We called for the closest CAS on station to respond; they were close, and would get on station over the target very quickly. They got there, and we continued watching the suspicious guys. They came to a culvert, and ducked down into it.
We were on the far side of our orbit, and couldn't see them. As we came around, we see one of the guys kind of hunched over. We think we have him caught red-handed emplacing it, so CAS prepares to drop the munitions. Right before he drops it, we see that one dude is vigorously sucking the other dude's dick. We obviously start laughing, but I guess some general back in the JOC didn't like that some homosexual haji cock sucking was going down on his giant 80” plasma screen in there. So he gave clearance for CAS to drop the munitions. It had good effect on target, and both dudes were pretty well obliterated. My only consolation is that their last moments must have been very enjoyable.
this guy is more thoughtful and introspective than the majority of u.s. politicians lmao
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i wonder why people universally feel weirded out and suspicious when they go to this insular psychotic dictatorship. it must be something wrong with them
this is a good point. if we visited utopia, would we be able to tell it was utopia? or would our own flaws cloud our judgment, horrifying us with the solidarity and friendship we saw? "everyone is smiling... but i rarely smile"
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i wonder why people universally feel weirded out and suspicious when they go to this insular psychotic dictatorship. it must be something wrong with them
"people universally" is probably accurate shorthand for "some American and British people"
getfiscal posted:le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i wonder why people universally feel weirded out and suspicious when they go to this insular psychotic dictatorship. it must be something wrong with them
this is a good point. if we visited utopia, would we be able to tell it was utopia? or would our own flaws cloud our judgment, horrifying us with the solidarity and friendship we saw? "everyone is smiling... but i rarely smile"
those who yob away at omelas
tears posted:I am eager to travel to the DPRK again, this time with Trotsky in my luggage.
*wheezing pained laughter*
lol the context to that. is he making a joke
Tourists to North Korea are allowed to bring books as long as they are not religious. So the writings of Trotsky, in which he calls for the overthrow of the bureaucracy, would be legal gifts for our Korean hosts.
I am eager to travel to the DPRK again, this time with Trotsky in my luggage.
le_nelson_mandela_face posted:i wonder why people universally feel weirded out and suspicious when they go to this insular psychotic dictatorship. it must be something wrong with them
i can't tell if people are trolling in this thread or seriously think North Korea is some kind of socialist utopia. the US and other western allies deserve all the criticism they get but to pretend there aren't any problems in North Korea is pretty bizarre tbh
like i legit just want to know what's true and what's fabrication
Ufuk_Surekli posted:but for real, if you want to talk about the current standard of living, municipal provision/coverage of basic needs, employment opportunity, etc., of a city which was literally destroyed, TO A BUILDING (by 1953, TWO major buildings in Pyongyang were left standing as a result of US bombing campaigns; in 2016 it is one of the largest cities, by population, on the continent)
then I am happy to talk about it
sometimes, though, it boggles my mind how unwilling self-proclaimed left-wingers are to learn even the most basic facts about the history of Korea, so that they might even understand the perspective that could lead to not condemning it as an obvious enemy of freedom
like what the fuck. the entire country's infrastructure is built from scratch out of the literal ashes of an imperialist bombing campaign/occupation that spanned the whole of the second half of the 20th century, but if The Guardian or the New York Times or some other cunt newspaper from the Belly of the Beast tells you it's a hideous mutant anti-socialist atrocity then we are the ones who have to defend its good name against the impetus for a full-blown US-led "humanitarian intervention" that they've been cumming their boxers over in the White House since my grandad was born
fuck that shit I have more in common with the people of Korea than I do with my own government, damn right believe it
I don't disagree with any of that. It's just when you're surrounded by western propaganda it's hard to know what's actually happening. I'm not a researcher, I don't know where to dig to find this stuff. I only have this forum to tell me the real deal and instead of answers I just see a bunch of "lol the usa are hypocrites" stuff that I'm well aware of. Are the labor camps real? Do people really disappear for having the wrong political opinions? I already know a lot about US atrocities but I'm asking about the current state of North Korea only.
I also don't mind if people post funny things, that is one of the reasons I read this site but I was hoping for some actual information. You can't expect everyone here to already know everything, especially if they're new members.
if people don't want me to post here anymore then i'll just go back to reading, i don't want to upset anyone
Synergy posted:socialist utopia
please don't troll
Synergy posted:it's hard for me to fit into the posting style of this forum, if i ask questions i risk being seen as lazy or stupid and if i try to post something funny it comes off as trying too hard so i don't know what to do
if people don't want me to post here anymore then i'll just go back to reading, i don't want to upset anyone
i don't know even a sliver of everything i would want to know, and i never will, because there will always be more. but i have learned a lot lurking here, and continue to learn. posting is fraught, everyone's been here for ages and i am not as well read as others in marxism. it's cliquey, everyone posts a certain way, there's a certain stylistic "thing" you have to do, a certain tone you need to adopt, and a lot of people clearly have a bond forged over a long time. fuck it though. ask questions, get made fun of, who cares. reading is lonely. you can fill your head with this stuff but without other people to refine it down or argue it over with or point out shit you didn't see it's not going to work properly, and you'll be alone, reading things. and i've found it pretty difficult to get people to see things from a communist perspective in my everyday life, although i am trying, but the most leftist person i know is an ex swappie (now RS21) and everyone else i know considers him a loonie career leftist, and his position to be the leftermost position possible. so i am a) fucked and b) need new friends
basically don't stop posting, let's be the idiots together. there's way way way more lurkers on this forum than posters, learning as i did, we can be the morons who ask the questions they want to ask. what is a lenin. does everyone REALLY get the same amount of money under communism? if communism was so good, why were there gulags? how many bunkers did enver hoxha have? is bernie sanders the future of the left?
you're good. keep going
tpaine posted:REDACTED by drwhat
yesssssss
Edited by drwhat ()