Friday, March 1st, 2013 at 4:05 pm  |  151 responses

US Government Slams North Korea for Wining and Dining Dennis Rodman


Dennis Rodman’s completely insane adventure in North Korea has come to an end. And the U.S. government is none too pleased with the antics that took place. It released a statement today, putting the North Korean government on blast for showing The Worm a good time while its own people starve. (So much for “basketball diplomacy”.) Per the AP: “At Pyongyang’s Sunan airport on his way to Beijing, Rodman said it was ‘amazing’ that the North Koreans were ‘so honest.’ He added that Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder, ‘were great leaders.’ … ‘He’s proud, his country likes him — not like him, love him, love him,’ Rodman said of Kim Jong Un. ‘Guess what, I love him. The guy’s really awesome.’ At Beijing’s airport, Rodman pushed past waiting journalists without saying anything. Rodman’s visit to North Korea began Monday and took place amid tension between Washington and Pyongyang. North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test just two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a ‘hostile’ policy toward the North. The State Department on Friday distanced itself from Rodman’s visit and his praise for Kim, saying he doesn’t represent the United States. ‘The North Korean regime has a horrific human rights record, quite possibly the worst human rights situation in the world,’ spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters in Washington. He accused the regime of depriving their people of food, shelter, water and maintaining prison gulags. Ventrell also took aim at Pyongyang for its grand treatment of the visiting basketball stars. ‘Clearly you’ve got the regime spending money to wine and dine foreign visitors, when they should be feeding their own people,’ he said.”

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  • Teddy-the-Bear

    don’t worry Happy, I just posted a comment that straight up annhilated that fool. Not sure how long it’ll take to show up, but yeah. This is just a test comment to see if my comments show up at all.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Oh yeah, also: The DPRK had a higher standard of living than South Korea up until the 1980s. Their economy was hit hard in the early ’90s due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but also due to American-led sanctions (who else?!) which led to widespread famine killing hundreds of thousands of people.

  • Redd

    Wow we’re in agreement..damn you.

  • Redd

    Exactly

  • Redd

    Agreeing with you again..wtf.

  • Redd

    I think simply pointing out how in the US we celebrate a day for a man who used child prostitution for profit envelopes why your stance is so wrong.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    I’m kind of angry today, so I’ll just own initbruv some more here.

    Who is threatening whom here? Actually, the US has
    repeatedly threatened to use nukes on North Korea since the Korean
    War… In fact, since 1946-1980, there were only 15 instances of
    countries threatening to use nukes on each other. EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE
    WAS BY THE UNITED STATES. LMAO.

    The only other country to do so during that
    period was the USSR, and it only did so twice, against the US–while the
    US also threatened to nuke them.

    Since then, the US has
    threatened to nuke North Korea at least a few more times, including recently, i.e. within the last few years. It also holds
    military drills along the North-South border with South Korean troops
    every year, in direct provocation of North Korea. I mean, your military literally f*cking occupies South Korea, just to contain North
    Korea and keep it under constant siege. Yet this “initbruv” dumb f*ck
    actually has the nerve to accuse North Korea of threatening people???

    The
    only country in the world ever to actually USE nuclear weapons is
    criticizing a country for developing nukes, and people like initbruv eat
    that sh!t up and parrot the same racist, pro-imperialist arguments.
    You couldn’t make this sh!t up. This is something straight out of
    dystopian fiction, only it’s reality… and idiots like initbruv probably form
    most of their opinions on other soc!alist nations based on fiction like “Animal Farm.” The only actual knowledge of North Korea he has is from watching 30 Rock and Team America.

    Just give up, initbruv. All your bullsh!t has been thoroughly debunked.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Wow @ initbruv. Who is threatening whom here? Actually, the US has repeatedly threatened to use nukes on North Korea since the Korean War… In fact, since 1946-1980, there were only 15 instances of countries threatening to use nukes on each other. EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE
    WAS BY THE UNITED STATES. The only other country to do so during that
    period was the USSR, and it only did so twice, against the US–while the
    US also threatened to nuke them.

    Since then, the US has
    threatened to nuke North Korea at least a few more times. It also holds
    military drills along the North-South border with South Korean troops
    every year. It occupies South Korea militarily, just to contain North
    Korea and keep it under constant siege. Yet this “initbruv” guy
    actually has the nerve to accuse North Korea of threatening people???

    The
    only country in the world ever to actually USE nuclear weapons is criticizing a country for developing nukes, and people like initbruv eat that sh!t up and parrot those same racist, pro-imperialist arguments. You couldn’t make this sh!t up. This is something straight out of dystopian fiction, only it’s reality… and idiots like initbruv form
    most of their opinions on other nations based on fiction like “Team
    America” and “Animal Farm.”

    Just give up, initbruv. All your bullsh!t has been thoroughly debunked.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    One more thing: the LAST COUNTRY in the world who should be talking about f*cking “gulags” is the United States, which is literally the biggest police state in the world and has the largest prison population in the world by FAR (both total prisoners and incarceration rate). 1 in 4 prisoners in the world is someone in the US. You have people being sentenced to life for selling marijuana in the US! Unbelievable. Interestingly, weed happens to be perfectly legal in North Korea and an accepted part of society, especially amongst soldiers (this is an actual fact, look it up).

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    You are the LAST person in the world who should be talking about f*cking
    “gulags.” The US is literally the biggest police
    state in the world. It has the largest prison population in the world by
    FAR (both total prisoners and incarceration rate); 1 in 4 prisoners in
    the world is someone in the US.

    We don’t accept your criticisms of North Korea because A) They aren’t true, and B) Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but your country and your government is FAR f*cking worse and a MUCH bigger threat to the rest of the world. It’s probably blasphemy for wh!te amurrikkkans to be told that they aren’t better human beings than people of color, though, so I’ll give you some time to recover.

  • initbruv

    -Aid agencies have estimated that up to two million people have died
    since the mid-1990s because of acute food shortages caused by natural
    disasters and economic mismanagement. The country relies on foreign aid
    to feed millions of its people.

    -More than a quarter of young children are chronically malnourished.

    -The totalitarian state also stands accused of systematic human rights
    abuses. Reports of torture, public executions, slave labor, and forced
    abortions and infanticides in prison camps have emerged. A US-based
    rights group has estimated that there are up to 200,000 political
    prisoners in North Korea.

    -Output per head is over 17 times larger in the South than the North.

    -South Koreans stand 3-6 inches above North Korean
    contemporaries stunted by famine and malnutrition.

    -Recently there have been increased defectors. Television shows and films smuggled in on memory sticks confront North Koreans with the potentially revolutionary fact that their brethren in the South live in comfort and plenty—and without the fear of a knock on the door at midnight. They discover that the Workers’ Utopia is built on a Great Lie.

    -N.Korea is based on totalitarian “military first” mobilization, is maintained
    by slave labor, and instills an ideology of the most unapologetic
    racism and xenophobia.

    -Even in the days of communism, there were reports from Eastern
    Bloc and Cuban diplomats about the paranoid character of the system
    (which had no concept of deterrence and told its own people that it had
    signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in bad faith) and also about its
    intense hatred of foreigners. A black Cuban diplomat was almost lynched
    when he tried to show his family the sights of Pyongyang.

    -North Korean women who return pregnant from China—the regime’s main ally and protector—are forced to submit to abortions.

    -Wall posters and banners depicting all Japanese as barbarians are only equaled by the ways in which Americans are caricatured as hook-nosed monsters.

    -The United States and its partners make up in aid for the huge shortfall in North Korea’s food production, but there is not a hint of acknowledgement of
    this by the authorities, who tell their captive subjects that the bags of grain stenciled with the Stars and Stripes are tribute paid by a frightened America to the Dear Leader.

    -Many of the slogans employed and displayed by the North Korean state are borrowed directly from the kamikaze ideology of Japanese imperialism. Every child is told every day of the wonderful possibility of death by immolation in the service of the motherland and taught not to fear the idea of war, not even a nuclear one.

    -The people of N.Korea are not allowed to make comparisons with the lives of
    others, and if they complain or offend, they are shunted off to camps that—to judge by the standard of care and nutrition in the “wider” society—must be a living hell excusable only by the brevity of its duration.

    -When viewed by satellite photography at night, it is an area of unrelieved
    darkness. Barely a scintilla of light is visible even in the capital
    city.

    -From Christopher Hitchens: “Unlike previous racist dictatorships, the North Korean one has actually succeeded in producing asort of new species. Starving and stunted dwarves, living in the dark, kept in perpetual ignorance and fear, brainwashed into the hatred of ]others, regimented and coerced and inculcated with a death cult: This horror show is in our future, and is soghastly that our own darling leaders dare not face it and can only peep through their fingers at what is coming.”

    -Visiting Westerners view people cutting grass with scissors to supplement their food rations of 1,000 calories a day, or of the gulags like Camp 15 and Yodok, a complexthat houses 50,000 prisoners.

    -Even defectors admit to being so brainwashed from a very early age that they still cannot bring themselves to criticize their leader.

    -There is an actual, literal fashion police.

    -More than a quarter of young children are chronically malnourished

    But yeah, America’s done stuff too. No biggie.

  • initbruv

    Nothing has been proven or dis-proven. Because you guys agree means nothing. It just shows that I’m talking to a bunch of basketball junkies about real life.

  • initbruv

    None of the sh*t I wrote will change any of your minds. I just want it on the record that you are all f*cking insane. Leave it to a bunch of pampered Americans to think that North Korea is no big deal. Just keep reading the paper (though according to you documentary watching types that is all just Western propaganda) and remember what I tried to tell you.

  • jaycee

    cannabalism? in America they are allowing product lines developed from aborted foetus cells to be sold on every shelf in your supermarkets. You guys have taken adulteration to a whole new level.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Oh please, cut the “totalitarian” bullsh!t. The US spends as much as the rest of the world combined on its military, and has the largest prison population on the planet–which I said previously. You have also the most racist “justice” systems in the world: Black people make up 10% of all drug users in America, yet roughly 40% of all people arrested for drug crimes. You don’t get to talk about “totalitarianism” or “police states” or “militarized regimes.”

    Yes, we get it, their people are facing malnourishment. It’s highly American of you to blame them for “economic mismanagement” when they are being sanctioned, the same sanctions that I JUST SAID killed 500,000 Iraqi children. It’s called imperialism–maybe you’ve heard about it?

    There are stories of South Koreans defecting to the North, as well as North Koreans who defected to the South and then re-defected to the North again, because they were treated like sh!t in the South.

    And f*ck Christopher Hitchens. He also championed the invasion of Iraq, a SECULAR Arab country, in the name of fighting off Islamic fundamentalism. It doesn’t get any more disgusting than that. Wh!te liberals j!z their pants over any “rebellious” journalist who criticizes the US while not full opposing imperialism. It’s called maintaining your privilege.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Basically, we’re insane because we refuse to believe that North Koreans are demons and that the US, by default, can’t be worse than its “enemies” (really its victims).

    In other words, we’ve committed the sin of *gasp* saying that white people and white countries aren’t superior to people of color and their societies.

    The sh*t that you wrote is just that: absolute sh*t. It’s not changing our minds because what you’ve said is A) untrue B) basically a defense of imperialism, and blaming colonized countries for their own poverty when they’ve been attacked and plundered by YOUR country C) just flat out stupid. Like, UK Daily Mail stupid… “Fashion police”? Let me guess… you also believed the story about a government official being executed for drinking while the country was mourning for Kim Jong Il, right? LOL.

    Next you’re gonna tell me North Korea’s president throws babies out of incubators. Wait… that was a lie told by the clearly infallible Western media about Saddam Hussein, to justify the sanctions that killed 500,000 children. Only an id!ot like you thinks that kind of logic is justifiable. You are sick.

    You can have your George Orwell novels and your other infantile liberal-left circle jerk writers like Christopher Hitchens. No thank you.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    “The totalitarian state also stands accused of systematic human rights
    abuses. Reports of torture, public executions, slave labor, and forced
    abortions and infanticides in prison camps have emerged. A US-based
    rights group has estimated that there are up to 200,000 political
    prisoners in North Korea.”

    Accused by whom? By the US? The US also accuses Cuba of the exact same things, actually, and Cuba has better healthcare and education indicators across the board. The US accuses every anti-imperialist country of these same things, actually. The irony is, of course, that there are more people imprisoned or under some sort of correctional supervision than there ever were in ANY gulags of ANY soc!alist country, ever.

    Most US-based “rights groups” are basically imperialist missionaries. That is, they play the same pacifying role of putting on a human face for Western white atrocities as Christian missionaries during the European conquests not too long ago. Hell, NGO’s are directly funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED–an oxymoron if ever there was one). So yeah, your argument is, yet again, moot.

    Your entire argument boils down to wealth… if you’re a wealthy country, you automatically have a better human rights track record than countries that are poor. This is nothing but a classist, privileged wh!te male argument, through and through.

    And lastly… how DARE you expect North Korea to acknowledge US “aid”, as if they should be THANKFUL that your country has been f*cking laying siege to them and the root of their poverty and starvation? I guess Africa should be thankful for Western aid too, even though they live in the richest continent on Earth while having been enslaved and plundered for hundreds of years by the West, which continues today. They should just shut up because the kind wh!te mastuhs gave them aid, right?

    Seriously, I don’t even need an argument for that one. F*ck you, you f*cking d0uche bag.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    just to clarify, I typed that kinda hastily and might not have been clear enough:

    Cuba has better healthcare and education indicators across the board *than the United States*.

    And: there are more people imprisoned or under some sort of correctional supervision *IN THE UNITED STATES* than there ever were in ANY gulags of ANY soc!alist country, ever. Also, the number of black people ALONE, in prison or on parole/probation, exceeds the number of black people enslaved during the 1800s.

    Thanks for the condescension, though. You’re very good at that. Would you like to share anymore nonsense for me to debunk?

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    “It just shows that I’m talking to a bunch of basketball junkies about real life” = “I was given facts, but cognitive dissonance is a h3ll of a drug”

    You can stop playing that “you guys know nothing outside of basketball” card already. We’re all on the same basketball site, talking about non-basketball related issues here. Why you think you’re superior on this forum is beyond me… although the racist and imperialist drivel you’ve displayed in your comments gives me insight into your logic.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    You said: “The totalitarian state also stands accused of systematic human rights abuses. Reports of torture, public executions, slave labor, and forced abortions and infanticides in prison camps have emerged.”

    Torture:
    Guantanamo Bay which is literally an island of torture, CIA detention centres in foreign countries to bypass
    laws that prohibit torture, and widespread torture of prisoners through
    the largest network of solitary confinement in human history. Seriously, you could even just Wikipedia “Torture and the United States”… CHECK.

    Public Executions:
    -
    Drone strikes that have killed 4000 civilians in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc., included more than one instance of killing people at wedding parties. The “double-tap” is a FAMOUS, FAMOUS move by
    the US military, whereby they purposely strike a second time to kill the
    people at the rescue scene. Also, two American citizens were killed in
    these drone strikes, and now domestic drones are FULLY LEGAL.
    -
    Police literally dropped a f*cking bomb on the MOVE house in Philly, which was in the middle of a residential
    neighborhood, killing entire families.
    - One of the largest police manhunts in history, in which
    Christopher Dorner was burned alive, and three cars full of civilians
    were shot at by the LAPD just for driving a similar-looking pick-up truck.
    - In fact, every 36 hours, one black person is murdered by a police officer or self-appointed vigilante without trial.
    Hmmm… CHECK.

    Slave labor:
    - Umm… how about hundreds of years of actual f*cking slavery?!
    -
    Privatization of prisons and prisoners making less than minimum wage.
    Basically prison factories. Many of these “slaves” young black
    males–coincidence? CHECK.

    Forced abortions and infanticide:
    -
    Between 1929 and 1976, 7600 people (!) were forcibly sterilized in North
    Carolina alone! 85% of those people were women and 40% were people of
    color. America, land of the “free,” home of the eugenicists! CHECK.

    Sounds a lot like the United States to any critically thinking person, actually. Not North Korea, unfortunately for you and your entire argument.

    That isn’t to say that North Korea is perfect, or that people there don’t have any legitimate grievances (as they do in all countries). Just that, you know, your criticisms aren’t so much “criticisms” as they are pure venom that justifies atrocities that FAR, far worse than anything North Korea would ever be capable of.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    LAST THING: And the crap you wrote about North Korea being xenophobic and having an “intense hatred of foreigners” and wanting to lynch black people? Another absolute lie. It’s possible that there are ignorant people in Korea (like in all countries) who dislike foreigners, which should be condemned, sure, but to say that the country is *founded* on the principles of xenophobia and isolation is a lie. Plain and simple.

    For instance, while the US was supporting apartheid in Africa, North Korea provided DIRECT material support to the ANC, the black revolutionaries who were fighting the racist apartheid government of South Africa (and who eventually won, thank God). North Korea also provided assistance to black Zimbabweans (then known as “Rhodesians” after the mass murdering colonizer Cecil Rhodes) who were fighting a war of liberation against the racist wh!te-minority government of Ian Smith. And finally, they also aided the MPLA in Angola who were liberating themselves from the Portugese.

    This was one of the most important and revolutionary periods for Africa, and one of the most important victories against colonialism in the world. North Korea also provided substantial aid for the Arab resistance to apartheid Israel. North Korean pilots flew planes on the Arab side during the Yom Kippur War.

    You know what all that’s called? It’s called internationalism. Hardly the signs of a “xenophobic” country. But sure, you’re absolutely right, they hate everyone who isn’t Korean and are basically Nazis, the way you describe them. That’s totally why they helped African countries overthrow their colonizers. Or it could be that you’re just really, incredibly, obviously wrong.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    I seriously think, as initbruv’s later comment confirms, that most Americans’ opinions about soc!alist countries or other “rogue states” comes from fiction–movies and books, “Animal Farm” in particular–than anything of actual substance. “Knocks on the door at midnight,” “Fashion police,” ” “Having to smuggle USB drives into the country showing videos of South Koreans living a better life”, “camps for people who say one word criticizing the government”… I mean, are you freaking serious? Who the hell do you think you’re fooling?? Yeah, totally, every prisoner in North Korea is there for political reasons, because we all know in soc!alist countries NOBODY commits any real crimes. They only imprison people for being really really nice, loving horses, giving good foot massages, and wanting a better life for their families. Sounds legit cuz I read about a fictional pig named Napoleon who unleashed havoc on all his fellow farm animals.

  • shutup

    Too many long a$$ comments wtf, didn’t even know a comment needed me to click a tab to “read more”

  • MikeC.

    This is the only comment that cannot be disputed

  • i_ball

    I think you would like to be born and raised in a federalized prison than in a town in N Korea.

    It’s just stupid to compare the two countries. I am sure one state in USA throws away more food that the N Korean people eat.

  • i_ball

    No I don’t. But since a lot of countries have been “freed” (Afganistan, Iraq, Kosovo) and in all those the situation for the people was much better I can’t see a reason why the people who rule N Korea haven’t been whiped out – makes sence to me…

  • danpowers

    lol too funny. not only that the usa is the biggest police state in the world as other comments stated already here, but how well are the poor doing over there? some of them really deserve their fate by electing republicans and strenghtening that party on the political stage. but how many people are struggling over there due to their “perfect system” having a few people live in luxury and wealth getting richer and richer why the majority of the people is working their a*s off for literally nothing, often still having to worry abouthow topay rent and send their kids to school properly.

  • danpowers

    so far there was only one government in world history who was rogue and evil enough to actually drop a nuke bomb on civilians…

  • Max

    Holyyyyyyyyy shiiieeeeeeeeeeeettttt!!!!

  • Max

    Looks like someone dropped a nuke in this comment section.

  • initbruv

    We are a socialist country, you realize that right? Every western nation is a hybrid between capitalism and socialism. So don’t try to make this an Animal Farm, 1950s argument about the perils of Communism. That’s not what we’re talking about. And obviously the things that I’m bringing up aren’t things that I am pulling out of my a**. These are from reports from journalists who have written about their own experiences there, or from defectors who tell us what life is like. If you don’t want to believe it, that is fine. Just settle down, all of you. You’re not arguing with me, you’re arguing with the information that I have that to me comes from reliable sources. Everyone has their people/sources that they trust, and they often are in direct conflict with other sources information. And don’t give me that “think for yourself” nonsense in response, at some point you have to just try to get accurate information that informs your opinion. I think that I have, you think that I haven’t. Big deal, welcome to the real world. Calm down Teddy, for Christ sake, calm down.

  • initbruv

    Wow, you are upset about me referring to N.Korea as a totalitarian state? I mean, we are just in two different worlds of reality. And due to the fact that you seem to be saying that you do not trust western journalists, which I guess means that you don’t read the paper or trust anything in it, we really don’t have anything to talk about. I get almost all of my news either from the NYT, the Economist, and the Salt Lake Tribune. You, like those who get their info from sensationalist documentaries, Fox News, or conspiracy theories, are in a different realm of information that holds no water with me. Like so many arguments these days, this is pointless because we do not accept each others’ sources as legitimate. So take a breath….now take another one…try to learn to control yourself…and enjoy your weekend.

  • Lorne

    I co-sign Happy. Anyone who defends the kinds of atrocities the U.S. commits, or tries to minimize them deserves to through that which they defend. Its only real until it’s real. Whatever you have been through, no one cares unless it equals or exceeds the pain of the things he spoke of.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Ah yes, the “conspiracy theory” line. None of what I’ve presented is in the slightest bit controversial. Western economists were actually quite astounded by the progress made by DPRK in the 1970s.

    FOX News? Are you serious? When has FOX News done anything other than promote imperialism and American/wh!te supremacy, which is the exact thing that you’re doing right now? You’re not only a condescending dipsh!t, but also incredibly dishonest. Wow.

    The US government actually does acknowledge the free healthcare and universal literacy in North Korea by the way… hence why CIA World Factbook presents those statistics.

    This is more wh!te supremacist nonsense–you’ve clearly been debunked, and now you’re trying to frame this discussion to be about “sources,” as if I got my information from f*cking Alex Jones, and you got yours from the most respected scholars on earth. As if you’re more “educated,” and because we don’t agree with your pro-imperialist whitewash, we must not be smart enough to “read the paper.” Lol.

    So it’s okay if you lie, and slander North Korea, because you “read the paper” without critically thinking. You can’t pinpoint any concrete evidence to attest to what you’re saying besides some NYT articles in which unnamed “defectors” described some generic acts of brutality. Did you know that in the case of Cuba, Cuban defectors are actually given rights and privileges and assurances not available to any other immigrant group, so as to entice them to leave?

    Next you’re going to tell me how the Dalai Lama paints an accurate portrayal of Tibet because he too “defected” from there.

    And yeah, please tell me how reading daily newspapers make you better informed about HISTORY, and the historical context that shapes our events today?

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Um yes, I am “upset” (more patronizing wh!te man’s bullshit) that you
    refer to North Korea as a totalitarian state, because that’s a term that
    carries with it no substance whatsoever. It serves no purpose other
    than to elicit knee-jerk, sensationalist revolt against people who
    present actual evidence in defense of the DPRK.

    In fact, can you
    even define “totalitarianism” for me without using google? Is it a
    militarized state? Is it a state where people’s actions are monitored?
    “Knocks on the door at midnight” (LOL)? You know, the US is the most
    militarized state on the planet; according to the UN, less than 10% of
    what it spends on its military could end world hunger. The US monitors
    people’s actions on the Internet, goes through people’s mail, and plants
    undercover FBI agents within radical/activist circles–as demonstrated
    by COINTELPRO and the PATRIOT Act. And lastly, stop-and-frisk searches
    by the NYPD sounds a lot like “knocks on the door at midnight.” Sounds pretty totalitarian to me.

    It’s a stupid word, and if it was, in fact, something real, no government would be better called “totalitarian” than yours.

  • initbruv

    I’m a history major so I get my history from books and I get my news from newspapers. Weird right? And how do you expect to have a rational conversation when you keep losing your temper and arguing like a child who has to use name calling to get his point across. You think I don’t want to call you all sorts of sh*t? I slip into it sometimes but it’s always unacceptable. Grow up, you live in a world where everyone disagrees with each other. You might as well learn not to sh*t your pants when you hear opinions that you disagree with.

  • initbruv

    Well they don’t allow for civil society. They have one ruling party which represents everyone’s interests that it believes deserve representation. That one party controls all aspects of society. That is what is meant by totalitarian. It isn’t a synonym for bad.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Your patronization toward me and other commenters here, along with your racist demonization of North Koreans, is far more offensive than me calling you out on being a condescending dipsh!t. Telling the black commenters below that they should “read more” instead of getting their info from rappers like Immortal Technique–that wasn’t racist? That wasn’t offensive?

    There is no rational conversation when you use blanket statements like “totalitarian” and say blatantly false things like “America is socialist.”

    And yeah, I totally don’t read books, I don’t use books as sources, and my sources totally don’t read books either. I don’t follow the news ever. Makes perfect sense.

  • initbruv

    Totalitarian is not a blanket statement, it’s a specific form of government. And I apologize for being offensive and for being being patronizing. You’re right. But saying that I’m racist for saying that you guys sound like you get your info from Immortal Technique isn’t racist. Nor is criticizing N.Korea. And I like Immortal Technique even though I don’t agree with him about a lot of things.

  • initbruv

    btw how am I supposed to know who is black and who is white?

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Totalitarian is not a form of government, and it’s not a specific word, at all…

    Totalitarianism came into public consciousness with a book by Hannah Arendt, called “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” that tried to equate communism with fascism, and argued that the only “non-totalitarian” ideology is liberal capitalism. This, despite the fact that fascism IS itself a form of capitalism, and despite the fact that the socialists were the ones who defeated fascism in Europe.

    Despite the fact that in liberal “democratic” societies, capital literally IS totalitarian–more than any “dictator” or “one party” could ever dream of being.

    http://theredphoenixapl.org/2009/09/10/the-myth-of-totalitarianism/

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    That is a good point, about not knowing people’s races on here. We’ve had conversations like this before on SLAM and some people revealed their ethnicities. I guess you weren’t there. And I don’t actually listen to Immortal Technique.

  • initbruv

    I was looking through my comments and you’re right that I was a bit of a dick. I’m not expert on anything. And judging from what you wrote we probably agree on a lot of things particularly about America. So my bad.

  • jaycee

    sorry to say, but your history books are full of lies, and news limited publications dont count as journalism.

  • jaycee

    no. In all those situations it is far, far worse. Millions dead, more corruption, more fear, more lawlessness. You know every morning during call for prayer the USA blasts heavy metal throughout whole towns…. thats after the war has ‘finished’ they carry on with psycological warfare… also they chemically tip bullets, so now in IRAQ there are record numbers of Leukemia as a direct result of this action – still birth defects in vietnam to this day due to the USA’s chemical warefare program. Open your eyes up bruh for your own good.

    Its all about the money bro, USA doesnt want to ‘free’ anyone.

  • The Philosopher

    You are precisely correct. Which is why I asked Happy that question. And I ask you, as well;
    How do you, or Happy know that my family, my friends, or myself have not been through any or all of these maladies?

    Different situations affect different people in different ways.
    And for you to seemingly suggest that anyone in any walk of life deserves to go through any of those things for any reason, is quite becoming.
    In my opinion.
    It has a tinge of a superiority complex, and it sounds as if you are suggesting that your estimation is the accurate estimation. When determining the difference in severity of one’s hardship.
    And it is, in my judgement, especially becoming of you to also suggest that you would necessarily know what another member of our brethren would, or would not care about. When concerning what one may have been through in a particular moment in time.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    I appreciate that… I also think I went a bit overboard in insulting you. tbh I was fed up with all sorts of other little sh!t yesterday so I took it out on you. That probably wasn’t entirely fair on my part, so I’m sorry about that. You aren’t the first to talk bad about North Korea either–and I’ve been fed up about it with LOTS of people–so to single you out specifically like that was not in great taste, I’ll admit. Have a good weekend.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    How do you know Rodman doesn’t have any political concepts? East Germany invited many revolutionary socialists from other countries, not just “musicians”–and why can’t musicians and athletes have political knowledge? Paul Robeson was an actor and musician and was a key figure for African justice in the US; he also happened to be a Communist who admired Stalin, and visited (I’m sure more than once) the USSR.

    MANY African-American artists like Robeson were adamant socialists who admired the Soviet Union. LANGSTON HUGHES, for example, wrote poems in dedication to Vladimir Lenin and the USSR in the battle of Stalingrad. Look up “Good Morning, Stalingrad.”

    And the Black Panthers were huge admirers of Kim Il Sung and People’s Korea, and upheld them as a model for colonized people seeking liberation (as Africans happen to be internally colonized in the US). Che Guevara also saw North Korea as an inspiration and a model that Cuba should follow, or at least learn from.

    Lastly, East Germany had a higher overall standard of living than West Germany for decades.

    Basically, you’re talking out of your @ss… As if Western capitalist countries don’t CONSTANTLY cultivate defectors to smear socialist countries. The Worm is the man; you seem to be the one with “no political concepts”, and frankly sound “plain stupid”.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    What the actual f*ck are you talking about? Iraq had one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East before the US “liberated” them. They were a secular Arab country with full rights for women and free healthcare and education, and some of the most advanced infrastructure in the Global South. The US destroyed their entire nation and children are still suffering birth defects from nuclear weapons (depleted uranium shells) dropped on them.

    Read this article on Afghanistan to see just how much Afghanistan has been “freed.” As recently as 1998, the US paid for the ENTIRE SALARY of every single leading Taliban official.

    You sir, seriously need to stop talking out of your @sshole.

    http://www.michaelparenti.org/afghanistan%20story%20untold.html

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Props for your good sense, jaycee.

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