whats really going on? wait, some people think there is some conspiracy theory and that north korea is only being portrayed as a hell hole by biased western media? what nonsense. these people just want a thrill by going to some place they shouldn’t be.
There is zero evidence that he actually did anything to any poster. It was likely entirely fabricated.
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From wikipedia:
A video purporting to show the theft was released by state-run Korean Central News Agency on March 18, 2016. In the 18-second low-resolution video, an unrecognizable figure removes the sign from the wall and places it on the floor, leaning it against the wall. This action is shown twice, followed by a higher-resolution picture of the sign on the wall. The face of the person removing the poster is not seen during the video clip.
You’re coming across as a victim blamer and a bit of an NK apologist in this thread. Not sure what your angle is.
It’s a dumb idea for any one to go to North Korea voluntarily, but the kid did not deserve this at all. He probably didn’t do a damn thing, they just wanted to make an example of an American.
Are you a communist? Serious question. You’re doing the “that’s not real communism” thing they always do. And you keep mentioning “privilege” - which is often a communist canard.
Not all the world is US or sees the conflicts under the SJW/white privilege banner. Out in the rest of the nations,there is the whole range from the ones that think North Korea is not as published by the Great Satan crowd down to the ones that benefit from perpetuating the lies. Or simply do not know. I wonder what kind of response would you get from different segments of Taiwanese society, for example.
then these people are simply uneducated. they should educate themselves before booking a little north korean getaway. they will find there’s nothing worth seeing. unless they enjoy fake propaganda tours and human suffering under dictatorships. i’ll stick by what i said, they are after a naughty thrill, thats it.
In which case the PRC is a cheaper and safer choice.
How, exactly, can we be 100% sure that he actually did what they claimed that he had done? This is North Korea we are talking about, like China, they are all too used to making up stories and then arrest people based on such. Remember Li Ming-Je? He went to China and got arrested for nothing, and hasn’t been released yet. Or some other Australian or Swedish guys who were disappeared out of nowhere not so long ago? This could very well be what happened to this kid. The only difference here is that China isn’t as sociopathic as North Korea is.
Just because he made a confession in front of the camera doesn’t mean he actually did it, and I know I’m not buying the North Korean sources.
Anyway what happened to him is absolutely abhorrent. He was a healthy, happy guy in my age then he lost a large chunk of his brain and now is dead. I can’t imagine what kind of treatment he received before he was killed…just horrifying.
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Yeah, at a certain point does a person not take responsibility for going to North Korea? I said it isn’t that he deserved it, but there’s consequences to your actions. And get the fuck out of here with am I a communist BS. I’d say you’d have to be pretty privileged to go on a tour in North Korea for no reason. He wasn’t there for humanitarian purposes. Don’t insult me, my family fought against the Kim regime and lost their lives.
It doesn’t matter if he did it or not. It would in a place held by the laws of common decency not to mention sense, but dictatorships do not work that way. He was just a walking target and they got him. Should have been just an embarrassment, a tool to be exchanged by NK for certain favors from te West. But something went terribly wrong. And he died horribly, needlessly and senselessly.
Some people say that banning US citizens from traveling to North Korea should be mandatory. Could be, but I bet someone will sneak through, quoting freedom or religion or whatever. Or someon ewill try teh Supreme Court. Anyways, unfortunately, the list of countries where certain sectors of the population may hold grievances against the US and hence may retaliate againts its citizens is quite large.
The discourse coming is more revealing of the internal cracks in US society and the clash of views. No need for outside enemies when the house is divided.
Just in case people still haven’t blocked all content from websites such as salon or the huffington trash.
Don’t you get why people are bringing up the left wing tendencies of American Universities, the left wings tendency for identity politics and the new language of white male privilege, even better if he was a frat boy. Of course anyone going to North Korea is daft, I would say that of anyone unless their job required it and even then.
But you are doubling down on describing him as privileged, while at the same time bristling at the obvious left leaning, communist snark coming your way. Are you really claiming to have innocently used the term (3 times now) without knowing the left wing identity politics connotations it carries?
I find when people say left right wing they’re usually one sided to the extreme. Why can’t I just say he’s privileged in that he thinks that he can just go have a little vacation in North Korea. I was a “frat boy” before. I went to Barcelona on spring break and spent more money than mostly people make in a couple months partying. But that’s like normal dumbass privledge waste of money. He decided it would be cool to go to a place where they grew up hating you from since they can breath. Leave politics out of it. Screw the republicans and democratics. Screw the left and the right. We’re taking about a dumb person being paraded as some sort of martry when he was there messing around for vacation.
I remember as a kid my mom talking to a neighbor and saying “what a gay day”, as kids we laughed and she sighed and turned to the neighbor and said “what a shame we can’t use that word anymore”.
Privilege is one of those words that has taken on more than it’s original meaning, like gay which could previously be used to describe the weather. Feel free to use it, just don’t be surprised if there are people who laugh and bring up left wing Universities, Communism and identity politics.
edit/ As for keeping politics out of it, hate to point out the obvious, but this is a politics forum.
What I meant is, I’m tired of having everyone post end up being about those leftist idiots or those libtards.
And I think it’s a bit unfair saying US university’s cram leftiest ideology down kids throats. My schools were very quite the opposite. Muatual at best, and depending on the professor. And if your kids can’t read Marx and form their own political opinion Critical of his writing, that’s on the kid.
The Republicans get called a bunch of names too, much worse than the liberals. But to the issue of are Universities fair and balanced in their representation of left and right ideology, I think you will find the answer is overwhelmingly no. I accept in your experience that it seems not the case, but it reminds me of someone once saying, to a pessimist a realist seems to be an optimist. Or to put it in context, someone who has a left wing ideology an Independent will look like a right winger.
I can dig out the numbers, like I say this is a hot button issue recently and people are posting in depth, on the reaction to right wing speakers, often violent protests.
However, the bias in higher education I think you will find is so lopsided it is not even a real debating point, the fact you see it as neutral, is not defining political leanings in Universities (like I say plenty of empirical data on this), with all due respect I would say it defines your political leanings.
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They eat their own.
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If they were going to make stuff up, surely they’d make up something better than pulling down a propaganda banner?
The kid was probably a bit of a douchebag, but his big problem was he was too damned sheltered. The privileged are out of touch. That can be dangerous when they wander off the estate grounds.
This kid aside, common sense tells a reasonable person not to go there. You have a country that literally hates America’s guts and some American kid goes and thinks, no problem… I’m different.
And while in the past, north Korea would use him for political currency for concessions, the USA these days won’t budge an inch in their policy , and why should they. It would just encourage more kids to go since uncle Sam is there to bail them out.
I think though that we can all agree what nk did was a disgusting act against a fellow human who did nothing to them or at the most stole a poster which didn’t deserve that level of treatment. In fact I think they blew a good pr op, returning him in good health would have won them much more brownie points in the global community, now they have USA planes overhead which is a massive escalation
And vice-versa, generally.
You’re expecting them to think like Americans.
[quote=“Andrew0409, post:1, topic:161242, full:true”]
Forget this kid.[/quote]
Impossible, with a name like that.
We don’t even have proof this kid tried to steal this poster. Just some grainy, state-produced CCTV footage that could be of anyone. It may be a foolish risk to visit NoKo, but I doubt this kid actually did anything illegal. I think he was framed, so he could be used as a political chess piece by the regime. And I also doubt he’s the only one here who has taken a “foolish risk” with his traveling plans. And yeah I agree with the other point that it’d obviously be retarded for the US to get into a war with NoKo over this, but I don’t think some hostile posturing after one of its detained citizens is returned in a Terri Schiavo state is out of line.