I was just perusing the modlog when I noticed something interesting. Apparently posting news about Gaza/Palestine is not allowed on !worldnews@sh.itjust.works. I decided to check the side bar and didn’t see anything. The only pinned post also does not indicate that this is not allowed
edit: the mod in question is @Eyekaytee@aussie.zone . sorry for not originally tagging. i hadn’t realized it was a rule that this must be done. i thought it seemed inappropriate since i was trying to initiate a conversation about a community’s rules and culture rather than start drama about an individual
Russia is not at war with Ukraine “to assert dominance,” it wants the oblasts with seperatists and it wants NATO neutrality. War is not inherently imperialism, nor is annexing land, imperialism involves financial domination and export of capital.
As for determining wreckers and opportunists, usually a combination of the party and the public proper.
As for the DPRK, yes, the public generally supports the government. The harshest time in the history of the DPRK (outside of when the US was commiting genocide against Koreans on both sides of the parallel) was the Arduous March in the 90s, and yet the Korean people didn’t rebel. The economy is doing much better now, 3 decades on, and increased trade with Russia and China has been immensely helpful for their economy.
You don’t have any points on anything.
Ah sorry i forgot we’re operating based on terms you create the definitions of. This is objectively a losing battle for anyone that doesn’t want to operate on your definitions.
Hold on now that’s disingenuous. There are no instances where the public had a say in who gets to be labelled a traitor to the party.
As for Turkmenistan, yes, the public generally supports the government.
I didn’t create the definition of imperialism. Most trace its modern analysis back to John A. Hobson, which is what I’m more adhering to. You don’t appear to have a coherent definition beyond a country getting involved with another along hostile lines, ie any millitary dispute is imperialist. It’s the kind of nonsense that leads people to say Hamas is imperialist, for example, or Ukraine for the Kursk attack that they held for a while.
Secondly, yes, there absolutely are instances where the public has had a say. The most extreme example is the cultural revolution, but it’s happened outside of that. You keep making declarative claims that have no support.
Your final point is a return to your favorite rhetorical fallacy of just replacing words with other words, which is even worse than the “whataboutism” you fail to identify.
I’m talking about MLs. Also funny how you mention Hobson even though many political scientists today no longer use Hobson’s definition as the standard which was what Lenin adopted to explain his own version of imperialism. Political scientists today use Michael Doyle’s definition of imperialism which goes:
I’m not gonna operate based on your definitions because your arguments concerning imperialism would then be irrefutable since they would be internally consistent.
YOU’RE the one making declarative claims that you can’t support. The cultural revolution is NOT what we’re talking about here. I’m concerned about situations within the current PRC where citizens had a direct say in who got to be lynched from the party. You’re shifting the goalposts and it’s blatantly obvious.
Go on and give some examples…
In this case it’s quite pertinent because both regimes subject their citizens to ideological entrampment. They don’t have a choice but to side with the regime. How can you claim you’re a Marxist but while staring blatant ideological brainwashing in the face mistake it for genuine support? This is ludicrous coming from you
The definition you supported means literally any antagonistic relationship between states constitutes imperialism. Your refusal to use the consistent and historically correct understanding of imperialism is just you cedeing the point.
Secondly, the PRC doesn’t lynch opportunists, they expel them from the party. Part of why Xi Jinping has high support is because he ran an anti-corruption campaign, which increased in the 90s and 2000s. Here’s examples of people being removed from the party. Keep moving those goalposts!
Brainwashing doesn’t exist. The US invented the term during the Korean war to attempt to explain the ideological commitment of Chinese communists, and then launched project MKUltra to try to replicate it, which they failed to do. You have nothing to back you up, you operate by a non-falsifable orthodoxy.
No, I’m refusing to use Lenin’s definition. Don’t try to paint it like I’m going against an institution or something. If anyone’s doing that it’s you. I just told you the definition that i would prefer we stuck to is the standard for political theory. You’re the contrarian here.
Mate you’ve moved the goalposts again🤣. Your claim was that both party officials AND the public proper get to determine who’s expelled from the party. You have failed to cite ONE example of where the non-party citizenry got to determine this. What you cited was only dissatisfaction from party officials. You have nothing here😂
Continue to cope about the DPRK buddy👍
You’re refusing the historically relevant definition used by most of the world for a western, flawed, liberal definition on the sole basis of being accepted in the west.
Secondly, I did answer you. Investigation and legal issues found them guilty. Keep moving the goal posts.
I’m not “coping” about the DPRK, your only point is that it “oppresses workers” because you say it does, and reject any evidence to the contrary by doing literal whataboutism and your “Mad Libs” defense. I honestly would wager that you don’t know how many parties the DPRK has, to be honest, you clearly aren’t actually interested in it and are just using it as a club in an argument without doing any investigation.
You’ve finally shown your true colours, about how this is all about WEST bad. That’s what all these conversations boil down to. You sound like a Christian that says, “because that’s what the Bible says”
Investigation by who though? We’ve come full circle. Remember when i asked who gets to determine who these “wreckers” “opportunists” are? Your response was, “usually a combination of the party and the public proper”. You cited a source showing how everything from the discovering of these individuals down to their prosecution was entirely carried out by the PRC. You have refuted your own claim because the public doesn’t and has never had a say in these matters.
Evidence to the contrary comes from the DPRK and other heavy pro-leftist sources. Try citing neutral sources like, Reuters or the UN.
No, this is not about “west bad.” I explained why the definition was bad, and you explained that you use it only because it’s standard in the west. This is chauvanism, you invalidate the majority of the world.
Secondly, you conflate the CPC with the entirety of the Chinese legal system.
Third, neither the UN not Reuters are neutral. A bit on information from the DPRK I wrote earlier:
The problem with reporting on the DPRK is that information is extremely limited on what is actually going on there. Most reports come from defectors, and said defectors are notoriously dubious in their accounts, something the WikiPedia page on Media Coverage of North Korea spells out quite clearly. These defectors are also held in confined cells for around 6 months before being released to the public in the ROK, in… unkind conditions, and pressured into divulging information. Additionally, defectors are paid for giving testemonials, and these testimonials are paid more the more severe they are. From the Wiki page:
Side note: there is a great documentary on the treatment of DPRK defectors titled Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul, which interviews DPRK defectors and laywers legally defending them, if you’re curious.
Because of these issues, there is a long history of what we consider legitimate news sources of reporting and then walking back stories. Even the famous “120 dogs” execution ended up to have been a fabrication originating in a Chinese satirical column, reported entirely seriously and later walked back by some news outlets. The famous “unicorn lair” story ended up being a misunderstanding:
These aren’t tabloids, these are mainstream news sources. NBC News reported the 120 dogs story. Same with USA Today. The frequently reported concept of “state-mandated haircut styles”, as an example, also ended up being bogus sensationalism. People have made entire videos going over this long-running sensationalist misinformation, why it exists, and debunking some of the more absurd articles. As for Radio Free Asia, it is US-government founded and funded. There is good reason to be skeptical of reports sourced entirely from RFA about geopolitical enemies of the US Empire.
Sadly, some people end up using outlandish media stories as an “acceptable outlet” for racism. By accepting uncritically narratives about “barbaric Koreans” pushing trains, eating rats, etc, it serves as a “get out of jail free” card for racists to freely agree with narratives devoid of real evidence.
It’s important to recognize that a large part of why the DPRK appears to be insular is because of UN-imposed sanctions, helmed by the US Empire. It is difficult to get accurate information on the DPRK, but not impossible; Russia, China, and Cuba all have frequent interactions and student exchanges, trade such as in the Rason special economic zone, etc, and there are videos released onto the broader internet from this.
In fact, many citizens who flee the DPRK actually seek to return, and are denied by the ROK. Even BBC is reporting on a high-profile case where a 95 year old veteran wishes to be buried in his homeland, sparking protests by pro-reunification activists in the ROK to help him go home in his final years.
Finally, it’s more unlikely than ever that the DPRK will collapse. The economy was estimated by the Bank of Korea (an ROK bank) to have grown by 3.7% in 2024, thanks to increased trade with Russia. The harshest period for the DPRK, the Arduous March, was in the 90s, and the government did not collapse then. That was the era of mass statvation thanks to the dissolution of the USSR and horrible weather disaster that made the already difficult agricultural climate of northern Korea even worse. Nowadays food is far more stable and the economy is growing, collapse is highly unlikely.
What I think is more likely is that these trends will continue. As the US Empire’s influence wanes, the DPRK will increase trade and interaction with the world, increasing accurate information and helping grow their economy, perhaps even enabling some form of reunification with the ROK. The US Empire leaving the peninsula is the number 1 most important task for reunification, so this is increasingly likely as the US Empire becomes untenable.