This. Their entire system of authoritarian control depends on it. The people are brainwashed into believing it’s true and if cracks start to appear in the facade, the government could (and definitely would for NK) quickly lose control of the people. The regime would be toppled.
Not that I support the DPRK, but considering the massive rise of fascism, I don’t think it’s anywhere near ‘wrong’ to consider capitalism a danger.
I criticise the DPRK for its horrific repression, but considering what capitalism in the US has brought, it is naïve to assume the US is all benevolent.
Capitalism is economic policy, not a governance system. You are committing the gravest sin leftists struggle with by conflating it with a power structure. They are not the same thing. Capitalism is not actually practiced anywhere in the world now, as oligarchy is the norm. The whole “capitalism vs socialism” argument has been conflated and abused to drive a wedge between Democrats and leftists in the USA.
Capitalism is oligarchy. It is actually practised pretty much everywhere.
That’s total nonsense. Socialism and capitalism are both economic, and economics are tightly integrated into governance. To divide the two so wholly is a fool’s errand. The difference between the two lies in who owns the factories and fields. If the factories and fields are privately owned, it’s capitalism. The US has been practicing capitalism since before the declaration of independence was even written. Capitalism is also an inherent hierarchical power structure.
Oligarchy is a political form of governance, not an economic model. Oligarchy can exist in several economic models, but let’s focus on how we got oligarchs in this capitalist system. They were created by exploiting the labor of the working class to earn their wealth, but being rich isn’t enough to them. They use their money to buy power, and then leverage that power to increase their wealth.
It’s not as though that power structure is leveraged to dismantle and destroy competing economic systems or labor rights or anything. Yeah, totally and completely separate and never the twain shall meet. The CIA definitely didn’t use economic terrorism to force countries to submit to US cartels business demands.
Nothing has ever happened, like say, the US corporations using their wealth to dominate the court systems and laws of other counties to do something like put media pirates calling themselves “The Pirate Bay” in prison for things that were legal in their own country.
What an absolute crock of shit dude get a grip.
Maybe, but the DPRK government is on its third generation hereditary leader with a senior leadership consisting of children of previous senior leadership. It is functionally an absolute monarchy.
Who said the US is benevolent ever? It’s always a quod pro quo and the US always takes the more than gives.
I suppose they meant the fascists or liberals who think the US at some point ever really was benevolent.
IMHO, the closest it came was during Teddy Roosenvelt’s trust busting campaign, but still. The US is a capitalist project through and through. Being well-off I refuse to finance such a project. Let capitalism be destroyed through itself.
Are civilians really brainwashed and think it’s true though? Or are they just like regular people and deal with it while getting through the daily grind?
The authoritarian ruler maintains control when enough people are brainwashed. See the current situation in the USA as an example. It’s not necessarily even the majority, but enough to maintain and enforce power.
You make a good point there.
Out of sight out of mind. It's why authoritarian governments police speech and media. If you control what they see and hear. Then the worst that could happen is they might just feel that something is off. But have no evidence to necessarily back that up. Basically an echo chamber of the size of the nation.
There is a large amount of state propaganda using the conflict as justification for the state’s existence. I would imagine whether people believe to be true or not to be on a spectrum line other countries.
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So OP nailed it lol