Dreams-Visions
Member
Ahaha Detroit is scarier than North Korea.
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I took a trip to North Korea. (Pic heavy)
- Thread starter SuperBanana
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stufte
Member
Fenderputty
Banned
Both, because your first paragraph is a massive false equivalency.
LucidMomentum
Member
No please, explain it to us.
Because we're referencing stories and data and reports from actual NK citizens and human rights investigations, that show us the things the NK sponsored, paid, Chinese run tourism industry didn't show you.
But yes, unless we ignore the journalism and reports of the people living there who managed to escape, and the death tolls and reports of those who didn't escape, and instead go on the guided tour of Pyongyang that NK takes your passport and requires you to stick to a "custom built" yet oddly specific and almost exactly the same as every other "custom built" itinerary, we won't understand and are just mimicking other people's opinions.
Of course, the opinions your mimicking that are very similar to NK propaganda aren't the arrogant and ignorant ones.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Wait, what the hell is this.
How could anyone be defensive about accusations of propaganda after saying stupid shit like this.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Why?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Yes.
This is sheer crazy talk. Sure, if you take two different NYC tourists you might see some overlap (Time Square pics, statue of Liberty, etc.) but you'll also see a wild array of different photos. Nothing like the almost mirror-identical ones from everyone else that took the same tour as you despite being taken in a huge city. Your comparison is absurd.
No, but you said "it's not as bad as I thought". Which is still propaganda, just a slightly more subtle form.
Even the NK government has to know that foreigners won't be 100% fooled by their propaganda. It's very likely they aim to fool at maybe 50%, and we can see that this works perfectly.
Like the guides you mentioned. One who was friendly and cool and made you all ease up and the other who was the obvious shill. Obviously the shill was a distraction and the friendly one was the spy.
Your ignorance and lack of self-awareness is far more astounding, I have to say. You think that because you are not a grand worshipper of the Great Leader, that you were not fooled by the propaganda. You remind me of the people who think advertisement doesn't work on them.
SuperBanana
Banned
Nothing I even mentioned was that outrageous or weird. I could recount any of that on any trip, especially in Asia.
Hot cool guide? Mongolia.
Excitable kids? China, Fiji, Africa
Similar store experience? China
Acting like we're a celebrity? China
Running into interesting people on the trip? Everywhere.
Seriously, how many of you have actually traveled outside your country? To act like this shit MUST be staged because "I've heard similar stuff" is...odd.
I pray that no defector has to hear this shit.
stan423321
Member
It's not exactly the kind of actor you hire for a regular movie if that's what you're asking about. But they are very strictly silent (and also progressively unaware) on situation out of the theme park. Think more of a trained politician negotiating a deal while hiding how desperately their country needs it.
Fenderputty
Banned
Scale for one. Unless 20+ million people are paid nothing (note that next to nothing is better than nothing) to make my cell phone. Need for another. I need a cell phone. I do not need to go on a trip to NK.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Hahahahaha fucking hell
SuperBanana
Banned
I never said the average person has a smart phone. Stop making up shit and throwing out insults. You keep coming up with total bullshit saying I claims to have said it.
"Oh but you think the camps aren't real"
"You said everyone has a smart phone"
"You said NK was totally ok:"
cartographer
Member
Actually, you found us out. None of us have ever even left the towns we grew up in, much less the country,
Thank you for educating us! RIP Dear Leader.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I was thinking less about Foxconn and more about conflict diamonds or the coltan mines in the Congo funding warlords and literal slave conditions. Not so much different than the money from a tour being used to fund the slave camps of NK.
But sure. I agree with your point that there is no necessity to go there. (there's no necessity for a diamond either but try telling that to your fiancee, am I right?)
OP, don't believe the things you saw. I'm sure the common citizen is genuine in their excitement to see you and show you their country but don't forget where you were. You enjoyed your stay, that's perfectly fine and some people here give you too hard of a time. Yes, NK is fascinating. Insanely twisted, dark and sad, but fascinating. But still, you are vital to their economy. Of course it "wasn't that bad".
Again, love the pictures. They feel like from another world.
Again, love the pictures. They feel like from another world.
Man, you just posted how we must all be ignorant people who never leave the country. The whole trip was a work, don't you see that?
Dreams-Visions
Member
Okay okay, this when you tell us that your last 15 posts have been a clever ruse, yes? The Aspirin I took partially because of this thread hasn't really set in yet so I'm having trouble deciphering if you're trying to be serious anymore.
SuperBanana
Banned
Saying it's weird kids from an isolated area would get excited to see a foreigner shows that person hasn't traveled far.
Sorry, I got you confused with another North Korean defender in this topic.
But speaking of bullshit:
quote me on this buddy.
davidwhangchoi
Member
Korea Best!
#1
#1
LookAtMeGo
Member
Payed actors was a poor choice of words but "fake" would have been more accurate. Im learning here. This shit is new to me. Im just takin back a bit by it is all. Almost in disbelief.
I posted last page I just watched this. It seems like a more appropriate perspective to see what NK stands for rather than the perspective of someone who is a tourist in that country.
I still dont think OP did anything wrong. If at least it opens up discussion and some learning can be had from both perspectives I think it is a good thing.
Da-Kid
Member
Dude, have you ever heard of a business that's actually a front for a drug lab or being used for human trafficking? Everything is made to look normal and some of it is even legitimately ran to futher sell the lie, but the ultimate truth is that it's made to look harmless and normal to cover up and conceal the criminal, diabolical, and terrifying things that is actually taking place inside it.
You see what's wanted to be seen. I know everyone is jumping down your throat but you're displaying a monumental amount of ignorance.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Yes, I've never left my country. That's the issue.
Dreams-Visions
Member
That's right you tell 'em.
Golden_Pigeon
Banned
Well i spent 3 months in the country, so i have many thing to say about it, what do you want to know specifically ?
It's the only dictatorship country i ever visited, and it was really a troubling experience. The country is beautiful though. You can easily spent 1 year there without getting bored, so much to see and visit.
People are very welcoming but a little cold for mediterranean standard. It's very safe and you don't have a lot of security forces around.
It's removed some prejudice i had about the life in iran, added many critics. It's kind of crazy to not being able to speak bad about the leader of your country. They divided the political system in two, you have a kind of controlled democracy on one hand, which people always criticize and there is a big political debate going on, and you have the Supreme Leader who is a kind of Monarch. His words are supreme but he let the political body rule most of the time, so the government got the backfire.
Fenderputty
Banned
Diamond mining is probably closer, especially with need. I was mostly thinking the foxcon angle. There are ways to procure ethically sourced Diamonds BTW.
SuperBanana
Banned
I don't mind people disagreeing but the smart arse attitude and rudeness isn't necessary. Saying I'm bizarre, disgusting, comparing me to nazi's, ect. Can you not accept a different opinion or view point? No you're right. Even though I was the one who went there and saw it and discussed it with people from all over the world and all aspects of life to get an understand I'm obviously a moron, you're 100% right. Good talk.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Someone should organize an ethically sourced NK tour. Should be easy, right?
Dreams-Visions
Member
Obligatory, "fuck De Beers" post.
Do you really think "I was there!" is a good defense for an argument predicated on you being tricked? Do you think it'd be impossible for you to be fooled in person?
Da-Kid
Member
I agree with you. Some people here are over reacting and being rude to be honest.
stufte
Member
Dude. You experienced a propaganda machine and now you're promulgating it. You don't see that you were being used?
You don't think the North Korean government made sure you went to the best model city and had the best time as a dual-purpose propaganda tool?
orthodoxy1095
Banned
What room for "opinions" on a human rights abusing nation do I need to allow for?
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
^ Also, no one compared you to an actual nazi. Good grief
SuperBanana
Banned
Could I have been fooled? Sure. But saying I'm 100% wrong and NOTHING I saw was real and it was all pretend because "I saw similar stuff another guy wrote" and stuff like "Those kids were planted there. They were waiting for you". How in the holy hell would anyone know that? Going from "You might be wrong" to "You're wrong and let me tell you the REAL answer since you're a propaganda tool" is a leap.
Golden_Pigeon
Banned
Have we read the same text? I really doubt that would be considered a praise of the regime by anybody pro-NK... Quite the contrary.
Not making it a super-villain hollywoodesque kind of country don't mean promulgating it.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
You were told your room was bugged...but they wouldn't turn it on.
You bought their presentation. Buying some of it is buying all of it.
cartographer
Member
OP only had 5 days under the propaganda. Imagine people that spend their whole lives under it.
Feel bad for them.
Feel bad for them.
OP , most of us are on you because of the fact, if I may borrow wrestling terminology, you thought parts of the trip were a shoot when they were actually a work. We have told you this and the only thing you have to say is "You weren't there ". That maybe true, but one does not have to physically be present to know a work from a shoot. I would trust gaf on this and understand that you got played a bit and use this as a learning experience for life.
But you're literally saying the opposite of people who have DPRK and barely escaped with their lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdxPCeWw75k
edit: fuck I'm tearing up.
guys this ted talk is nsfl
SuperBanana
Banned
An entire post dedicated to me taking a fun trip around Auschwitz and saying the Nazi's are pretty cool isn't comparing me to a nazi?
Because those "stuff another guy wrote" are known tactics expressed by intelligence and defectors. And because your "off rails" tour matches hundreds of other tours. People in this thread could have probably described your entire trip to you before you took it, down to "surprisingly" cool people leading your tour. It's frankly shocking that, with so much warning preceding, you still ask "but how do you know for sure?"
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