4 ms·

It is interesting to me that the "most insane" regime in the world seems to be North Korea. Yet the negative effects there seem to be limited to strictly within

It is interesting to me that the "most insane" regime in the world seems to be North Korea. Yet the negative effects there seem to be limited to strictly within their borders. Whereas the "much less insane, though still far from perfect" regimes (esp the Muslim/MidEast/Arab/etc/) ones seem to be the the ones which are exporting their evil and pain and stupidity out into everyone else's countries. most nuts? North Korea. but they keep it in-house. less nuts? pick random Muslim/MidEast/African nation, but they allow it to leak out. For whatever reasons/excuses.

woodman 10y ago
I've never seen someone accused of racism for expressing a negative opinion about the DPRK - or the behavior of its inhabitants, but I can't say the same about the rest of Asia or North Africa. There is a chilling effect, and it makes it difficult to have frank discussions on important matters like female genital mutilation and incitements to violence...
pluma 10y ago
Frankly, as a non-American it always strikes me as weird how much attention US media and politics seem to pay to NK considering how irrelevant they are internationally compared to other "evil" countries (as well as "friends" like Saudi Arabia). The only direct external threat NK poses is to South Korea and most of the posturing around nuclear weapons and such have for a long time simply been used as a bargaining chip (because NK has literally nothing else to offer than "not try to build nukes"). Obama has snubbed Putin by calling Russia a "regional power" but I think that label is far more adequate for NK than for anybody else. NK's only real ally is China and China would probably drop it the second NK tries to seriously do anything that would harm China's trade (like, say, launching an attack on the US). I guess NK is the only discernible obvious "bad guy" nation state we have left. China is a close trade partner, Russia is too well-spoken (though it's still good for the occasional Red Scare in the US) and nobody can really tell the desert countries apart anyway (plus "nations" like ISIS are making it hard to reason about individual countries and their political affiliations the way we like to).
- douche 10y ago
  We still haven't signed an armistice with them. Iran is still another "bad boy" state, as long as the US is aligned with Sunni states.
  - pluma 10y ago
    Yeah, Iran being a bad boy when Saudi Arabia isn't is one thing I never got. I guess US Middle East / Arab politics boils down to "we hate whoever is threatening Israel".

woodman 10y ago

I've never seen someone accused of racism for expressing a negative opinion about the DPRK - or the behavior of its inhabitants, but I can't say the same about the rest of Asia or North Africa. There is a chilling effect, and it makes it difficult to have frank discussions on important matters like female genital mutilation and incitements to violence...

pluma 10y ago

Frankly, as a non-American it always strikes me as weird how much attention US media and politics seem to pay to NK considering how irrelevant they are internationally compared to other "evil" countries (as well as "friends" like Saudi Arabia). The only direct external threat NK poses is to South Korea and most of the posturing around nuclear weapons and such have for a long time simply been used as a bargaining chip (because NK has literally nothing else to offer than "not try to build nukes"). Obama has snubbed Putin by calling Russia a "regional power" but I think that label is far more adequate for NK than for anybody else. NK's only real ally is China and China would probably drop it the second NK tries to seriously do anything that would harm China's trade (like, say, launching an attack on the US). I guess NK is the only discernible obvious "bad guy" nation state we have left. China is a close trade partner, Russia is too well-spoken (though it's still good for the occasional Red Scare in the US) and nobody can really tell the desert countries apart anyway (plus "nations" like ISIS are making it hard to reason about individual countries and their political affiliations the way we like to).

douche 10y ago
We still haven't signed an armistice with them. Iran is still another "bad boy" state, as long as the US is aligned with Sunni states.
- pluma 10y ago
  Yeah, Iran being a bad boy when Saudi Arabia isn't is one thing I never got. I guess US Middle East / Arab politics boils down to "we hate whoever is threatening Israel".