I swear that educating people on the history of Korea since the war is one of the most effective ways to radicalize them. As soon as you understand why there even IS a North Korea and a South Korea, suddenly all these stories about K-dramas and unicorns are revealed to be the embarrassing fiction that they are.
Looking at the make-up of the two governments was big for me too; one led by freedom fighters and the other by Japanese collaborators. Guess which was which?
excvse me, commvnist, but general dovglas “nvke the entire 38th parallel” mcarthvr and his band of merry fascist collaborators were the real freedom fighters and don’t yov forget!
Absolutely true, it’s astonishing to me but also not how few people know the US conducted a full scale genocide in the country, and set up a military dictatorship in the south that directly took over the implements of the Imperial Japanese occupation. At the very least people tend to shut up when I ask what they have to say about 2 million Koreans being killed and 80%+ of infrastructure being leveled in one sided bombing.
When I was in high school just over a decade ago they were still peddling the Korean War in canada at least as a “just war” that we should be proud of like WW1/2. Absolutely zero mention of the whole genocide thing, really disgusting stuff in hindsight. I knew I was morally in the right to skip Remembrance Day nonsense to drink and play Minecraft
Yep my Canadian history classes in the late 90s also conveniently excluded the Korean War genocide, said it was a just war and that almost none of the good guys died so such a success for Canada’s military prowess.
I wonder if that’s why the DPRK, out of all AES nations, gets so much outrageous propaganda pushed about them? Even China doesn’t get the same extreme levels of fantastical claims. The goal is to stop people ever even taking that first step towards thinking about it as a real country, it needs to be a fictional villain that is cartoonishly evil in order for the western viewpoint of the country to even exist.
I think the DPRK gets it because it’s an entire business in South Korea to sell salacious rumors to newspapers. South Korea has entire media empires built specifically on selling shocking stories from defectors or spies or whatever. Since the UN doesn’t allow North Koreans to travel freely, it’s easy to make up whatever you want and get no backlash.
My favorite part of the interview is that the movie presents DPRK’s citizens as brainwashed by violent media that depicts the deaths of foreign politicians. The Interview’s climax is a gratuitous slow motion shot of Kim Jong-un dying in a helicopter explosion. If it was satire it would be brilliant.
The DPRK is a lot more culturally, economically and politically isolated than other AES states. It’s easy to counter propaganda about, say, Cuba, because despite the USs best efforts Cuba does have some stronger geopolitical allies who are willing and able to counter the more egregious disinfo about them. The DPRKs allies are all states the West hates and doesn’t take seriously.
Where can I read some info about the DPRK, that isnt trying to blame them for everything wrong in the world at every sentence? I just read the wikipedia page and its full of blaming the north while forgetting the south puppet dictatorship
I swear that educating people on the history of Korea since the war is one of the most effective ways to radicalize them. As soon as you understand why there even IS a North Korea and a South Korea, suddenly all these stories about K-dramas and unicorns are revealed to be the embarrassing fiction that they are.
I always think this one is a good jumping off point
Looking at the make-up of the two governments was big for me too; one led by freedom fighters and the other by Japanese collaborators. Guess which was which?
excvse me, commvnist, but general dovglas “nvke the entire 38th parallel” mcarthvr and his band of merry fascist collaborators were the real freedom fighters and don’t yov forget!
Absolutely true, it’s astonishing to me but also not how few people know the US conducted a full scale genocide in the country, and set up a military dictatorship in the south that directly took over the implements of the Imperial Japanese occupation. At the very least people tend to shut up when I ask what they have to say about 2 million Koreans being killed and 80%+ of infrastructure being leveled in one sided bombing.
When I was in high school just over a decade ago they were still peddling the Korean War in canada at least as a “just war” that we should be proud of like WW1/2. Absolutely zero mention of the whole genocide thing, really disgusting stuff in hindsight. I knew I was morally in the right to skip Remembrance Day nonsense to drink and play Minecraft
Yep my Canadian history classes in the late 90s also conveniently excluded the Korean War genocide, said it was a just war and that almost none of the good guys died so such a success for Canada’s military prowess.
I wonder if that’s why the DPRK, out of all AES nations, gets so much outrageous propaganda pushed about them? Even China doesn’t get the same extreme levels of fantastical claims. The goal is to stop people ever even taking that first step towards thinking about it as a real country, it needs to be a fictional villain that is cartoonishly evil in order for the western viewpoint of the country to even exist.
I think the DPRK gets it because it’s an entire business in South Korea to sell salacious rumors to newspapers. South Korea has entire media empires built specifically on selling shocking stories from defectors or spies or whatever. Since the UN doesn’t allow North Koreans to travel freely, it’s easy to make up whatever you want and get no backlash.
People probably think The Interview was a documentary
My favorite part of the interview is that the movie presents DPRK’s citizens as brainwashed by violent media that depicts the deaths of foreign politicians. The Interview’s climax is a gratuitous slow motion shot of Kim Jong-un dying in a helicopter explosion. If it was satire it would be brilliant.
The DPRK is a lot more culturally, economically and politically isolated than other AES states. It’s easy to counter propaganda about, say, Cuba, because despite the USs best efforts Cuba does have some stronger geopolitical allies who are willing and able to counter the more egregious disinfo about them. The DPRKs allies are all states the West hates and doesn’t take seriously.
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Where can I read some info about the DPRK, that isnt trying to blame them for everything wrong in the world at every sentence? I just read the wikipedia page and its full of blaming the north while forgetting the south puppet dictatorship
Possibly something by Stephen Gowans?
Or start here: https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2063780
Or here: https://dprkorea.carrd.co/
Gowan’s Patriots, Traitors, and Empires
Blowback Season 3