6 ms·

Hitchins: North Korea is even weirder and more despicable than you thought

62 points by rglovejoy 17y ago

russrober 17y ago
The title of this article is: "A Nation of Racist Dwarfs" Translation: "A bunch of uppity oriental midgets. How dare these subhumans inferior to us in the "West" (i.e. whites) think that they can have a racialist state? Don't they know how inferior they are compared to us? Why don't they just do what we tell them to? We're the "multicultural" West now. Don't they know that we let non-white mud peoples like them hang around now?"
- delackner 17y ago
  Even though it is obvious you are intentionally misreading the article to try to find something to offend your feigned sensibilities, for some reason I respond. He is comparing north and south Koreans. Genetically basically the same people. Nevertheless the Northerners are 6 inches shorter due to lifelong malnutrition.
  - InclinedPlane 17y ago
    I don't think most people realize that the North Korean regime is nearly as bad as the Nazi and Soviet Stalinist regimes. The only difference is that the impact of that regime has been comparatively limited outside of the country. Which in many ways is very sad for the unfortunates trapped inside, since it seems to mean that the world pays very much less attention to their plight.
  - food 17y ago
    To call a group of our fellow humans "a sort of new species" - as the author does - is offensive, no matter who the target. That legitimately offends my sensibilities, as I consider myself to fall under the same umbrella as North Koreans - that of humanity at large. As you stated yourself, these people are physically different from others due to a lifetime of malnutrition, NOT a genetic evolution, which would be necessary for a new species to emerge. Also, using the term "dwarf", which is a colloquial term for a medical disorder, is simply inaccurate, and hints at the superiority bias of this author. The rest of the piece follows a similar tone, and to me does no good in bringing us to a more civil position with North Korea.
    - bballant 17y ago
      I think one of Hitchens' points is that there may be no good to be done with a civil position toward North Korea. In discussing the book, The Cleanest Race, he says the conclusions of the book could "mean that peace and disarmament negotiations with [N. Korea] are a waste of time—and perhaps a dangerous waste at that."
- heresy 17y ago
  Way to miss the point. Korea was one very homogenous nation for several thousand years. So the dramatic difference in height between North and South now is clearly a product of the despotic regime.
- philk 17y ago
  You appear to be either a troll or someone who gets off on feeling offended. Nonetheless, to clarify the title for you: a) The author cites several examples of pervasive racism in NK society (this is where the racist part comes from). b) The author indicates that North Korean citizens are six inches shorter than their genetically identical South Korean counterparts. (This is where the dwarves part comes from). Hence 'A Nation of Racist Dwarves' is merely a statement of fact.
- philwelch 17y ago
  You're obviously trolling your balls off. To be fair, so is Hitchens, in a sense. The difference is, Hitchens just does is so much more eloquently than you, and has a good point hidden behind all the invective. You're just giving voice to a cliche.
jcnnghm 17y ago
I watched this documentary some time ago, http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3 http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-.... Pretty cool, strange country.
- aquateen 17y ago
  The one on Liberia was great too: http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-gu...
pvg 17y ago
Author's name is "Hitchens". The original title refers to the North Korean regime. Among the 382096 reasons not to make up your own titles.
- adelevie 17y ago
  I don't think a reasonable person who knows anything about NK and its regime would take away from the title that Hitchens is calling the North Korean people crazy and despicable.
  - pvg 17y ago
    The point is, there's no good reason, most of the time, to leave it to the interpretations of a 'reasonable person'. An equally reasonable person can just leave the original title alone - problem solved. Oh and spell the author's name correctly.
    - adelevie 17y ago
      I think it's pretty fair to write using some assumptions about the audience (ie that they are 'reasonable').
      - pvg 17y ago
        I think it's pretty fair (and easy) to write accurate, correct titles. We can dance all night about what's 'reasonable' and what assumptions and on and on. The article was poorly retitled. No getting around that.
  - kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
    Did you read the article? That's pretty much what he's saying. He also insinuates that deep down South Koreans may share some of these properties.
    - radu_floricica 17y ago
      I find this kind of comments dangerous. Yes, technically he is calling North Koreans and some South Koreans insane. But taking this from the article can be done only by ripping it out of context. It's not the people who are evil, but the regime, the ideology. The meme complex, if you will. The distinction may be small, but missing it implies the author is himself crazy.
mynameishere 17y ago
I just started reading this, but I want to add something immediately: It's my understanding that South Koreans are also very racist. So I'm not sure if the regime is at fault for that one. ... Yeah, I dunno. It's Hitchens and he seems to be writing a sideglance apologia for Communism. (As in, "See these shrunken slaves: It's nationalism that made them this way, not Marxism.") Nothing new really. China is doing something very similar actually, and they have been replacing Communist rhetoric in schools with nationalistic rhetoric, and for them it seems to be not a problem.
- jbm 17y ago
  South Koreans racist? They aren't worse than the Japanese, and Japanese aren't really extremely racist (they appear so to people who never had to experience "race consciousness" in their country of origin). My experience with South Koreans is that they are generally proud of their accomplishments (rightfully so) and there is a subgroup that is abysmally ignorant. You could compare the second group to "rednecks" (and whatever the equivalent is wherever you are), except for the fact that it is much more difficult for a South Korean to travel than for a westerner. Throwing the racist epithet around in this case seems overblown.
- netcan 17y ago
  Hitchens is a sort of dying breed, a disillusioned communist. He takes Orwell's position: Communism and opposition to totalitarianism. Adherence to the latter led to abandonment of the former. Most of his atheist stuff boils down to hatred of totalitarianism. He is definitely not immune to bias, but I would bet the bias is hatred of the North Korean regime.
  - ahi 17y ago
    And yet he drank the neoconservative koolaid. Mostly I think he is a hell of writer that just wants to be read. I'm not sure the content matters much to him.
    - netcan 17y ago
      I think content content matters to him a lot. My theory on his axis of evil theory is that it comes from the same opposition to totalitarianism and internationalism. I think he wants to believe in internationalism also. The UN (which was never intended to be a guardian of democracy, human rights or such things) was failing. It would never 'liberate' Iraqi, Afghanis, Burmese, North Koreans or anyone else. So, he turns to the US for this job with, I think, the hope that this will eventually result in a paradigm shift empowering internationalism in general. Remember that he comes from a very internationalist socialist "heritage." Afganistan and Iraq were (and still are) oppressive totalitarian regimes where the individual's mind was being invaded. He supports liberation. Iraqis largely see the coalition as occupiers, not liberators (apart from the Kurds who never saw themselves as part of Saddam's Iraq) regardless of their views of the previous regime. Accepting that Iraq was not in fact liberated is accepting that liberation is not possible. His solidarity is delusional. That's got to be a bitter pill for someone like Hitchens. The thought of North Koreans rejecting liberation from their regime to Hitchens is like the thought of an American slave rejecting abolition to some lingering flag bearer of the Black Panthers, like Hatians begging for the return of the French.
kentosi 17y ago
This author holds an air of bias about him. Even in the title "...more despicable than you thought" suggests this is more of a tabloid than anything factual. I'm interested in knowing what's going on in North Korea, and he does have some facts in here, but on the whole I'd prefer something a little more informative.
- tphyahoo 17y ago
  Hitchens is a bit of a dweeb. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=site:antiwar.com+hitchens&aq=f&aqi=g10&oq= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=site:...
- patio11 17y ago
  Alright, here's some factual discussion for you. I'm about to make claims which you may not think I mean literally. I mean them literally. 1) North Korea runs concentration camps, in which inmates are worked to death in mines and factories to increase industrial production. 2) North Korea is a military dictatorship which has used democide via famine against its own people to make it impossible to resist its dictatorship. If you're on the winning side with the army, your family gets to eat better than grass. In the late 90s a famine killed about 3 million people. That's the regime's estimate, incidentally. (Communists tend to have rosy accounting about such things.) The population of North Korea is about 23 million. 3) North Koreans are some of the most desperately poor people on earth. They don't have much, and what they do have gets forcibly expropriated to maintain one of the largest standing armies in the world. Its number one enemy is its own people, though if you believe the propaganda it has crushed the imperialist Yankee under its boot and exacts tribute from him, which explains all the bags of rice bearing American flags without which the population would again starve. 4) The regime is supported by a personality cult of Kim Jong-Il and his father, Kim Il-sung, who has been essentially deified. That is not an exaggeration -- North Korean propaganda has attributed the creation of the world to him. Any educated person should know the above four facts already. If you know them, "Wait, hold on a second, let's not rush to judgement or use overly emotional language when discussing this country" sounds like you're so open-minded your brain has fallen out.
  - 17y ago
hh 17y ago
Most countries that have limited interaction with outsiders are often very racist. We are very lucky to live in an open society and in addition we are a country of immigrants that is why we don't see too much of that. In fact, we are the exception and not the norm.
- netcan 17y ago
  I assume that by "we" you mean Americans. It sounds a lot like you are saying that America hasn't seen much demagogy, racism or xenophobia which sounds like a delusion of the type that might disprove your point.
  - hh 17y ago
    Some part of the country, i.e. the red states are still having this problem but overall, we are much better then we were. The bottom line, we are a working progress.
    - patio11 17y ago
      Some part of the country, i.e. the red states are still having this problem but... ... the rest of us are paragons of tolerance!
      - aaronblohowiak 17y ago
        The japanese? Ha!
    - dantheman 17y ago
      I'd actually disagree, I think overall America is very tolerant of immigrants as long as they make some effort to integrate into society. Also, can we stop with this red/blue state madness -- it's very hard to generalize the views of a given state, especially large populous states.
      - chrischen 17y ago
cageface 17y ago
This seems kind of OT for hacker news.
gojomo 17y ago
Those curious about North Korea may also find the story of Joe Dresnok, the last American defector to-North-Korea still residing there, interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Dresnok http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Dresnok CBS's report, with video: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/60minutes/main2398580.shtml http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/60minutes/main2398... Some may also remember from the news a few years ago another Korean War defector, Charles Robert Jenkins, who was able to move to Japan with his wife in 2004 during a period of Japanese-North Korean rapprochement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Jenkins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Jenkins His wife had been shanghai'd from the shores of Japan by North Korean agents to help train their spies.
miked 17y ago
Hitchens' central claim thesis is that North Korea is really right-wing since it's racist and militaristic. In making that claim, his problem is that N.K. is a communist dictatorship, and he can't find any way to spin that as right-wing. The problem then reduces to showing that it's not really communist. He does this by saying that, since one recent government document doesn't mention the word communism, the country's not really communist at all. No mention about whether actions count more than words, or how that worked in years past, when there was plenty of racism and plenty of mentions of communism. A few notes: All dictatorships are militaristic in some important sense. That's because all dictatorships crush dissent, and sometimes you need a tank when all else fails. As for racism: Stalin launched numerous pogroms against the Jews (and, in a nice Stalinist touch, put a jew in charge of the operations). The Soviet Union had only one non-Russian on the Central Committee, despite a large number of ethnic minorities in the USSR. A guess on the Deeper Subtext behind this mess: "Yeah, I supported the war in Iraq, and I've lost readers like crazy. But I'm really a leftie. Here, watch me establish my bona fides."
- elblanco 17y ago
  > No mention about whether actions count more than words, or how that worked in years past, when there was plenty of racism and plenty of mentions of communism. Good then you agree that North Korea was never a proper communist state since it never really showed any of the classic characteristics of communism.
mahmud 17y ago
Christopher Hitchens: Even wierder and more despicable than you thought. This self-promoting buffoon should be exposed for the what he is. He went to Lebanon last year to film his one-man crusade to impose Liberal Democracy on the "unwashed Arab masses", he made a fuss about being attacked by Nazis in Lebanon! In reality, him and his photographer went to certain Beirut neighborhoods and provoked the locals until he was slapped around by teenagers. Let me say that again: Hitchens went to the Middle East to pick fist fights. Yeah, very intellectual. http://www.google.com/search?q=Hitchens+Lebanon+brawl http://www.google.com/search?q=Hitchens+Lebanon+brawl :-| I value his take on North Korea as much as I value Octomom's opinion on Cuba.
skulgnome 17y ago
But so is South Korea.
joeycfan 17y ago
The fact that we are suddenly upset with this Orwellian, warmongering murderocracy because they're also RACIST just shows how messed up our priorities are. We've been well trained, Pavlov-style, haven't we?

62 points by rglovejoy 17y ago

The title of this article is: "A Nation of Racist Dwarfs" Translation: "A bunch of uppity oriental midgets. How dare these subhumans inferior to us in the "West" (i.e. whites) think that they can have a racialist state? Don't they know how inferior they are compared to us? Why don't they just do what we tell them to? We're the "multicultural" West now. Don't they know that we let non-white mud peoples like them hang around now?"

delackner 17y ago
Even though it is obvious you are intentionally misreading the article to try to find something to offend your feigned sensibilities, for some reason I respond. He is comparing north and south Koreans. Genetically basically the same people. Nevertheless the Northerners are 6 inches shorter due to lifelong malnutrition.
- InclinedPlane 17y ago
  I don't think most people realize that the North Korean regime is nearly as bad as the Nazi and Soviet Stalinist regimes. The only difference is that the impact of that regime has been comparatively limited outside of the country. Which in many ways is very sad for the unfortunates trapped inside, since it seems to mean that the world pays very much less attention to their plight.
- food 17y ago
  To call a group of our fellow humans "a sort of new species" - as the author does - is offensive, no matter who the target. That legitimately offends my sensibilities, as I consider myself to fall under the same umbrella as North Koreans - that of humanity at large. As you stated yourself, these people are physically different from others due to a lifetime of malnutrition, NOT a genetic evolution, which would be necessary for a new species to emerge. Also, using the term "dwarf", which is a colloquial term for a medical disorder, is simply inaccurate, and hints at the superiority bias of this author. The rest of the piece follows a similar tone, and to me does no good in bringing us to a more civil position with North Korea.
  - bballant 17y ago
    I think one of Hitchens' points is that there may be no good to be done with a civil position toward North Korea. In discussing the book, The Cleanest Race, he says the conclusions of the book could "mean that peace and disarmament negotiations with [N. Korea] are a waste of time—and perhaps a dangerous waste at that."
heresy 17y ago
Way to miss the point. Korea was one very homogenous nation for several thousand years. So the dramatic difference in height between North and South now is clearly a product of the despotic regime.
philk 17y ago
You appear to be either a troll or someone who gets off on feeling offended. Nonetheless, to clarify the title for you: a) The author cites several examples of pervasive racism in NK society (this is where the racist part comes from). b) The author indicates that North Korean citizens are six inches shorter than their genetically identical South Korean counterparts. (This is where the dwarves part comes from). Hence 'A Nation of Racist Dwarves' is merely a statement of fact.
philwelch 17y ago
You're obviously trolling your balls off. To be fair, so is Hitchens, in a sense. The difference is, Hitchens just does is so much more eloquently than you, and has a good point hidden behind all the invective. You're just giving voice to a cliche.

jcnnghm 17y ago

I watched this documentary some time ago, http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3 http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-.... Pretty cool, strange country.

aquateen 17y ago
The one on Liberia was great too: http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-gu...

pvg 17y ago

Author's name is "Hitchens". The original title refers to the North Korean regime. Among the 382096 reasons not to make up your own titles.

adelevie 17y ago
I don't think a reasonable person who knows anything about NK and its regime would take away from the title that Hitchens is calling the North Korean people crazy and despicable.
- pvg 17y ago
  The point is, there's no good reason, most of the time, to leave it to the interpretations of a 'reasonable person'. An equally reasonable person can just leave the original title alone - problem solved. Oh and spell the author's name correctly.
  - adelevie 17y ago
    I think it's pretty fair to write using some assumptions about the audience (ie that they are 'reasonable').
    - pvg 17y ago
      I think it's pretty fair (and easy) to write accurate, correct titles. We can dance all night about what's 'reasonable' and what assumptions and on and on. The article was poorly retitled. No getting around that.
- kingkongreveng_ 17y ago
  Did you read the article? That's pretty much what he's saying. He also insinuates that deep down South Koreans may share some of these properties.
  - radu_floricica 17y ago
    I find this kind of comments dangerous. Yes, technically he is calling North Koreans and some South Koreans insane. But taking this from the article can be done only by ripping it out of context. It's not the people who are evil, but the regime, the ideology. The meme complex, if you will. The distinction may be small, but missing it implies the author is himself crazy.

mynameishere 17y ago

I just started reading this, but I want to add something immediately: It's my understanding that South Koreans are also very racist. So I'm not sure if the regime is at fault for that one. ... Yeah, I dunno. It's Hitchens and he seems to be writing a sideglance apologia for Communism. (As in, "See these shrunken slaves: It's nationalism that made them this way, not Marxism.") Nothing new really. China is doing something very similar actually, and they have been replacing Communist rhetoric in schools with nationalistic rhetoric, and for them it seems to be not a problem.

jbm 17y ago
South Koreans racist? They aren't worse than the Japanese, and Japanese aren't really extremely racist (they appear so to people who never had to experience "race consciousness" in their country of origin). My experience with South Koreans is that they are generally proud of their accomplishments (rightfully so) and there is a subgroup that is abysmally ignorant. You could compare the second group to "rednecks" (and whatever the equivalent is wherever you are), except for the fact that it is much more difficult for a South Korean to travel than for a westerner. Throwing the racist epithet around in this case seems overblown.
netcan 17y ago
Hitchens is a sort of dying breed, a disillusioned communist. He takes Orwell's position: Communism and opposition to totalitarianism. Adherence to the latter led to abandonment of the former. Most of his atheist stuff boils down to hatred of totalitarianism. He is definitely not immune to bias, but I would bet the bias is hatred of the North Korean regime.
- ahi 17y ago
  And yet he drank the neoconservative koolaid. Mostly I think he is a hell of writer that just wants to be read. I'm not sure the content matters much to him.
  - netcan 17y ago
    I think content content matters to him a lot. My theory on his axis of evil theory is that it comes from the same opposition to totalitarianism and internationalism. I think he wants to believe in internationalism also. The UN (which was never intended to be a guardian of democracy, human rights or such things) was failing. It would never 'liberate' Iraqi, Afghanis, Burmese, North Koreans or anyone else. So, he turns to the US for this job with, I think, the hope that this will eventually result in a paradigm shift empowering internationalism in general. Remember that he comes from a very internationalist socialist "heritage." Afganistan and Iraq were (and still are) oppressive totalitarian regimes where the individual's mind was being invaded. He supports liberation. Iraqis largely see the coalition as occupiers, not liberators (apart from the Kurds who never saw themselves as part of Saddam's Iraq) regardless of their views of the previous regime. Accepting that Iraq was not in fact liberated is accepting that liberation is not possible. His solidarity is delusional. That's got to be a bitter pill for someone like Hitchens. The thought of North Koreans rejecting liberation from their regime to Hitchens is like the thought of an American slave rejecting abolition to some lingering flag bearer of the Black Panthers, like Hatians begging for the return of the French.

kentosi 17y ago

This author holds an air of bias about him. Even in the title "...more despicable than you thought" suggests this is more of a tabloid than anything factual. I'm interested in knowing what's going on in North Korea, and he does have some facts in here, but on the whole I'd prefer something a little more informative.

tphyahoo 17y ago
Hitchens is a bit of a dweeb. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=site:antiwar.com+hitchens&aq=f&aqi=g10&oq= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=site:...
patio11 17y ago
Alright, here's some factual discussion for you. I'm about to make claims which you may not think I mean literally. I mean them literally. 1) North Korea runs concentration camps, in which inmates are worked to death in mines and factories to increase industrial production. 2) North Korea is a military dictatorship which has used democide via famine against its own people to make it impossible to resist its dictatorship. If you're on the winning side with the army, your family gets to eat better than grass. In the late 90s a famine killed about 3 million people. That's the regime's estimate, incidentally. (Communists tend to have rosy accounting about such things.) The population of North Korea is about 23 million. 3) North Koreans are some of the most desperately poor people on earth. They don't have much, and what they do have gets forcibly expropriated to maintain one of the largest standing armies in the world. Its number one enemy is its own people, though if you believe the propaganda it has crushed the imperialist Yankee under its boot and exacts tribute from him, which explains all the bags of rice bearing American flags without which the population would again starve. 4) The regime is supported by a personality cult of Kim Jong-Il and his father, Kim Il-sung, who has been essentially deified. That is not an exaggeration -- North Korean propaganda has attributed the creation of the world to him. Any educated person should know the above four facts already. If you know them, "Wait, hold on a second, let's not rush to judgement or use overly emotional language when discussing this country" sounds like you're so open-minded your brain has fallen out.
- 17y ago

hh 17y ago

Most countries that have limited interaction with outsiders are often very racist. We are very lucky to live in an open society and in addition we are a country of immigrants that is why we don't see too much of that. In fact, we are the exception and not the norm.

netcan 17y ago
I assume that by "we" you mean Americans. It sounds a lot like you are saying that America hasn't seen much demagogy, racism or xenophobia which sounds like a delusion of the type that might disprove your point.
- hh 17y ago
  Some part of the country, i.e. the red states are still having this problem but overall, we are much better then we were. The bottom line, we are a working progress.
  - patio11 17y ago
    Some part of the country, i.e. the red states are still having this problem but... ... the rest of us are paragons of tolerance!
    - aaronblohowiak 17y ago
      The japanese? Ha!
  - dantheman 17y ago
    I'd actually disagree, I think overall America is very tolerant of immigrants as long as they make some effort to integrate into society. Also, can we stop with this red/blue state madness -- it's very hard to generalize the views of a given state, especially large populous states.
    - chrischen 17y ago

cageface 17y ago

This seems kind of OT for hacker news.

gojomo 17y ago

Those curious about North Korea may also find the story of Joe Dresnok, the last American defector to-North-Korea still residing there, interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Dresnok http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Dresnok CBS's report, with video: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/60minutes/main2398580.shtml http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/60minutes/main2398... Some may also remember from the news a few years ago another Korean War defector, Charles Robert Jenkins, who was able to move to Japan with his wife in 2004 during a period of Japanese-North Korean rapprochement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Jenkins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Jenkins His wife had been shanghai'd from the shores of Japan by North Korean agents to help train their spies.

miked 17y ago

Hitchens' central claim thesis is that North Korea is really right-wing since it's racist and militaristic. In making that claim, his problem is that N.K. is a communist dictatorship, and he can't find any way to spin that as right-wing. The problem then reduces to showing that it's not really communist. He does this by saying that, since one recent government document doesn't mention the word communism, the country's not really communist at all. No mention about whether actions count more than words, or how that worked in years past, when there was plenty of racism and plenty of mentions of communism. A few notes: All dictatorships are militaristic in some important sense. That's because all dictatorships crush dissent, and sometimes you need a tank when all else fails. As for racism: Stalin launched numerous pogroms against the Jews (and, in a nice Stalinist touch, put a jew in charge of the operations). The Soviet Union had only one non-Russian on the Central Committee, despite a large number of ethnic minorities in the USSR. A guess on the Deeper Subtext behind this mess: "Yeah, I supported the war in Iraq, and I've lost readers like crazy. But I'm really a leftie. Here, watch me establish my bona fides."

elblanco 17y ago
> No mention about whether actions count more than words, or how that worked in years past, when there was plenty of racism and plenty of mentions of communism. Good then you agree that North Korea was never a proper communist state since it never really showed any of the classic characteristics of communism.

mahmud 17y ago

Christopher Hitchens: Even wierder and more despicable than you thought. This self-promoting buffoon should be exposed for the what he is. He went to Lebanon last year to film his one-man crusade to impose Liberal Democracy on the "unwashed Arab masses", he made a fuss about being attacked by Nazis in Lebanon! In reality, him and his photographer went to certain Beirut neighborhoods and provoked the locals until he was slapped around by teenagers. Let me say that again: Hitchens went to the Middle East to pick fist fights. Yeah, very intellectual. http://www.google.com/search?q=Hitchens+Lebanon+brawl http://www.google.com/search?q=Hitchens+Lebanon+brawl :-| I value his take on North Korea as much as I value Octomom's opinion on Cuba.

skulgnome 17y ago

But so is South Korea.

joeycfan 17y ago

The fact that we are suddenly upset with this Orwellian, warmongering murderocracy because they're also RACIST just shows how messed up our priorities are. We've been well trained, Pavlov-style, haven't we?