5 ms·

why do you think north koreans believe the state propaganda?

foobiekr 5y ago
Testimonies from escapees tend to show they sort of believed at least the negative propaganda about the south, western countries, and China. Not so much the godlike powers of the leadership.
- adventured 5y ago
  It's similarly true about Soviet propaganda. The people living in Soviet territory commonly believed the propaganda about the US and West as well. Even the highest tiers, including eg Yeltsin, believed some of the false propaganda (which is why Yeltsin couldn't believe his now famous 1989 visit to Randall's grocery store in Houston Texas wasn't wholly staged). Yeltsin was on record admitting that even the upper echelons of Soviet power believed a lot of the false propaganda they were fed. You can still see a river of false propaganda common among the Russian people in their beliefs about the US. It's all over YouTube in interviews-on-the-street type videos. The Russian people still live under a totalitarian regime that directly controls all media, all democratic actions and tries to control all information.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    The CIA term for planted stories which got picked up by Western media, and often intel, was blowback. (See the 1977 "CIA and the Media" hearings: https://archive.org/details/CIAMedia1978Hearings/page/n3/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/CIAMedia1978Hearings/page/n3/mod...) Makes one wonder how much of what's believed in the West isn't self-owned propaganda.
  - trompetenaccoun 5y ago
    Russians today have internet access and can travel abroad, it's nothing like back in those days anymore. Also not to defend Putin's regime, which is bad enough, but it's not totalitarian. Totalitarianism is the most extreme form of authoritarianism, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China were examples of that. And China seems to be heading in that direction yet again.
- razakel 5y ago
  But escapees also have an incentive to lie. Nobody will hire them, assuming they're spies. The only real employment they can get is giving interviews about how awful and insane North Korea is. That's not to say it isn't, of course.

Testimonies from escapees tend to show they sort of believed at least the negative propaganda about the south, western countries, and China. Not so much the godlike powers of the leadership.

adventured 5y ago
It's similarly true about Soviet propaganda. The people living in Soviet territory commonly believed the propaganda about the US and West as well. Even the highest tiers, including eg Yeltsin, believed some of the false propaganda (which is why Yeltsin couldn't believe his now famous 1989 visit to Randall's grocery store in Houston Texas wasn't wholly staged). Yeltsin was on record admitting that even the upper echelons of Soviet power believed a lot of the false propaganda they were fed. You can still see a river of false propaganda common among the Russian people in their beliefs about the US. It's all over YouTube in interviews-on-the-street type videos. The Russian people still live under a totalitarian regime that directly controls all media, all democratic actions and tries to control all information.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  The CIA term for planted stories which got picked up by Western media, and often intel, was blowback. (See the 1977 "CIA and the Media" hearings: https://archive.org/details/CIAMedia1978Hearings/page/n3/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/CIAMedia1978Hearings/page/n3/mod...) Makes one wonder how much of what's believed in the West isn't self-owned propaganda.
- trompetenaccoun 5y ago
  Russians today have internet access and can travel abroad, it's nothing like back in those days anymore. Also not to defend Putin's regime, which is bad enough, but it's not totalitarian. Totalitarianism is the most extreme form of authoritarianism, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China were examples of that. And China seems to be heading in that direction yet again.
razakel 5y ago
But escapees also have an incentive to lie. Nobody will hire them, assuming they're spies. The only real employment they can get is giving interviews about how awful and insane North Korea is. That's not to say it isn't, of course.