4 ms·

Ok serious question, what is it about North Korea that causes a subset of HN commenters to leap to it's defense? Russia, China, Iran, etc receive a similar trea

Ok serious question, what is it about North Korea that causes a subset of HN commenters to leap to it's defense? Russia, China, Iran, etc receive a similar treatment sometimes but never to nearly the degree NK does, what's with that?

mngdtt 3y ago
Practically everything you read on the western media about NK is completely made up. It's a country with a seemingly endless supply of fan fiction! My favourite kind of fan fiction about NK is... let me think... ah yes, when Kim Jong Un has had some family member executed... only for them to reappear a few months later.
- some_random 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - harpiaharpyja 3y ago
    I'd be interested in seeing a wider range of answers to the original question as well.
its_ethan 3y ago
I don't think my comment landed as intended - I was being sarcastic and trying to highlight how the original commentor was seemingly saying NK society is basically like every other country, when in fact it is incredibly different and not desirable at all Guess I should include a "/s" next time lol
- some_random 3y ago
  I kinda figured, I mainly commented here because it was the highest sorta-defending-NK comment on the post tbh.
RugnirViking 3y ago
Because it is so universally put down. There is a tendency to examine any totalistic claim more strongly, look for ways in which it is wrong similar to the "hipster" drive. I haven't defended NK here (although I have seriously looked into visiting it one day) but I'm sympathetic to the mindset that causes that reaction
Veraticus 3y ago
Basically one of these three things: 1. Extreme anti-Westernism, 2. Extreme anti-Americanism, 3. Extreme contrarianism. The usual result is you believe that all the sources that agree about how awful life in Russia, China, North Korea and so on are lying because the uniformity of their reporting is so consistent. (The obvious answer, that maybe it really does suck there for a lot of people, is dismissed as propaganda.) Surprisingly smart people can be paranoid enough to believe everyone is lying to them or there’s some hidden secret to the world or politics only they can parse out; it’s easy for such people to fall down this rabbit hole. That’s how most wind up being a tankie or Putin apologist or whatever.
- justworkout 3y ago
  You can hate the politics and foreign policy or various degrees of brutality in all of those countries, but implying Russia and China are as bad as North Korea is a little extreme. Doubly so when you imply any positive opinion is just contrarianism, when people on HN have freely traveled or even lived within the first two. You can honestly have a pretty comfy life in the first two countries, especially as an expat. And at least with China, the brutality is hyped up to a point that it's disappointing when you arrive there expecting to be some rebel in some 1984 dystopia and find out people are happy and living a quality of life no different from Europe or the US. In some ways better (cheap cost of living, world-class public transport), and some ways worse (internet and freedom of speech is clearly restricted, but nowhere near the murderous levels of North Korea or even Russia arresting people disapproving of war. Just posts being blocked in 99.9999% of cases, like a heavy-handed version censorship you'd find on reddit but applied almost everywhere). Like a more relaxed version of the UK which arrests people for offensive twitter posts or teaching a dog an offensive salute.
  - Veraticus 3y ago
    I’m gay, so I feel like my quality of life in any of those places would be quite a bit worse than in the US.
    - justworkout 3y ago

mngdtt 3y ago

Practically everything you read on the western media about NK is completely made up. It's a country with a seemingly endless supply of fan fiction! My favourite kind of fan fiction about NK is... let me think... ah yes, when Kim Jong Un has had some family member executed... only for them to reappear a few months later.

some_random 3y ago
[flagged]
- harpiaharpyja 3y ago
  I'd be interested in seeing a wider range of answers to the original question as well.

its_ethan 3y ago

I don't think my comment landed as intended - I was being sarcastic and trying to highlight how the original commentor was seemingly saying NK society is basically like every other country, when in fact it is incredibly different and not desirable at all Guess I should include a "/s" next time lol

some_random 3y ago
I kinda figured, I mainly commented here because it was the highest sorta-defending-NK comment on the post tbh.

RugnirViking 3y ago

Because it is so universally put down. There is a tendency to examine any totalistic claim more strongly, look for ways in which it is wrong similar to the "hipster" drive. I haven't defended NK here (although I have seriously looked into visiting it one day) but I'm sympathetic to the mindset that causes that reaction

Veraticus 3y ago

Basically one of these three things: 1. Extreme anti-Westernism, 2. Extreme anti-Americanism, 3. Extreme contrarianism. The usual result is you believe that all the sources that agree about how awful life in Russia, China, North Korea and so on are lying because the uniformity of their reporting is so consistent. (The obvious answer, that maybe it really does suck there for a lot of people, is dismissed as propaganda.) Surprisingly smart people can be paranoid enough to believe everyone is lying to them or there’s some hidden secret to the world or politics only they can parse out; it’s easy for such people to fall down this rabbit hole. That’s how most wind up being a tankie or Putin apologist or whatever.

justworkout 3y ago
You can hate the politics and foreign policy or various degrees of brutality in all of those countries, but implying Russia and China are as bad as North Korea is a little extreme. Doubly so when you imply any positive opinion is just contrarianism, when people on HN have freely traveled or even lived within the first two. You can honestly have a pretty comfy life in the first two countries, especially as an expat. And at least with China, the brutality is hyped up to a point that it's disappointing when you arrive there expecting to be some rebel in some 1984 dystopia and find out people are happy and living a quality of life no different from Europe or the US. In some ways better (cheap cost of living, world-class public transport), and some ways worse (internet and freedom of speech is clearly restricted, but nowhere near the murderous levels of North Korea or even Russia arresting people disapproving of war. Just posts being blocked in 99.9999% of cases, like a heavy-handed version censorship you'd find on reddit but applied almost everywhere). Like a more relaxed version of the UK which arrests people for offensive twitter posts or teaching a dog an offensive salute.
- Veraticus 3y ago
  I’m gay, so I feel like my quality of life in any of those places would be quite a bit worse than in the US.
  - justworkout 3y ago