Fuck you too Robert.

Anyway I just love how he used that photo of Madeline Pendleton to make her look as unhinged as possible when she is incredibly intelligent and well read. She always has sources for her videos so I don’t know what his problem is, sorry that the DPRK isn’t the hell scape you want it to be. God forbid people share facts about the country instead of Western lies.

  • Yeah I bet an isolationist country targeted by probably the highest levels of atrocity propaganda in the world is spending lots of effort on tiktok videos to get a few disorganised supporters in the west which would materially amount to nothing even if it were true

    • Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      I went there as a grad student, had a relatively pleasant experience.

      When I came back, everyone tried to convince me that every person I met must have been a paid actor trying to convince me that the DPRK was great so that uh…profit? MAYBE I could see someone making that argument if I was a head of state or something, but I was just a no-name grad student. I was there for months, there is no chance that every person I interacted with was an actor. Can you imagine any country being so insecure as to bend over backwards like that?

      Westerners seem to think people REALLY care about their opinion of countries.

      Apparently we really should be sending students to Pyongyang to study drama because they must have the best program on the planet with the volume of actors they have.

      • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        I also like the implication that the DPRK isn’t using the limited resources they have to… run their country? But instead using those limited resources to try and fool a few thousand tourists a year in what would be the greatest Potemkins Villiage in history.

      • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        6 months ago

        Most people don’t seem to realize that the DPRK has a population of over 25 million people. That’s roughly The Netherlands + Belgium. Let them watch Dutch news for one night to see how possible it is to completely brainwash a country with that population. There’s riots every single week.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      6 months ago

      Robert cites Human Rights Watch as a source to “debunk” Madeline but he failed to realize that they are also linked to the CIA so even his “evidence” is tainted and propagandized to hell. When presented with criticism he blocked the person instead of engaging with humility, he has some weird superiority thing going on and its incredibly annoying.

      • millennialchaos@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        6 months ago

        Yea, I’m gonna do a full debunk of this video tomorrow, I only addressed the HRW thing and he already blocked me, so time to dismantle every one of his arguments

        • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          6 months ago

          I had no idea you had a lemmygrad, small world lol. You’re brief debunking was awesome so I look forward to the full one!

    • USSR Enjoyer@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      6 months ago

      Doesn’t the DPRK want normalized relations? I feel a lot more like the imperialists just sanction and media blockade places like the DPRK and Cuba into oblivion and accuse them of isolationism. Its the “Stop being the way we illegitimately portray you!” strategy.

      Apparently we all need to be very, very worried about the nearly 650 people in the US that have any level of sympathy toward the people of Korea.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      6 months ago

      It’s so annoying. This video made me unsubscribe from him, hate when this shit happens. At least I get to cleanse my subscriptions lol

  • I love the implication that the DPRK could even pay Western propagandists. It’s not like the most sanctioned country on earth can just Venmo you money. At most you could travel to the southern tip of China and perhaps Pyongyang could put some gold bars on a raft and float it over the Yalu River.

        • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          Nothing is stopping American citizens from visiting Pyongyang. It’s not forbidden or illegal by the US or DPRK. You just can’t travel directly to North Korea with an American passport, and have to travel from China. You also won’t receive any diplomatic help in the case of an emergency.

            • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              9
              ·
              edit-2
              6 months ago

              That’s the caveat I was referring to, it’s illegal to fly directly to the DPRK with an American passport, but that was done to make it unprofitable for airlines to operate DPRK routes. You can simply fly to China and then cross the border by land.

              It also gives the state department plausible deniability to refuse diplomatic support since you technically weren’t supposed to be there.

              However there is no concrete ban, and it’s not enforced at all, which is why the US doesn’t really care about the few thousand US tourists that take tours through the DPRK each year.

              • juchenecromancer@lemmygrad.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                6 months ago

                Could you give me a source on this? Tour guide operators like Young Pioneer Tours don’t offer tours to Americans because of the legal risk:

                Also, Korean advocacy groups like Nodutdol speak out widely against the travel ban because it completely bars native Koreans from visiting their homelands: https://nodutdol.org/end-travel-ban/

                If it really is true that US passport holders can visit the DPRK without repercussions, that that’s a game changer and in that case I do hope to visit one day. Everything I’ve seen suggests otherwise though.

  • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    6 months ago

    As soon as I read the title I knew it was going to be Pendleton, she’s clear, easy to understand, and pretty uncompromising about telling the truth on this and some other liberal red line political issues.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      6 months ago

      She is a breath of fresh air and it sucks to see her be attacked but she’s used to dealing with shit like this. People just can’t stand someone like her existing. Madeline is a great teacher on not only communism but also just life in general.

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      6 months ago

      I used to be subbed to him because his videos were fairly chill and for his trans-positive stuff but I saw this in my feed and instantly unsubscribed. He’s just mad that my girl Madeline is more informed than he could ever be!

    • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      6 months ago

      I honestly don’t think he’s an incel, I’m familiar with his content and it’s honestly why I was a little shocked he made this. He is not and was never a communist by any means but he is vaguely left, he has videos defending trans people and such; so I don’t think him using that picture of Madeline is due to incel attraction logic but more so just hatred for communists/“tankies.” Trying to make her look bad even though she’s correct.

      • SadArtemis🏳️‍⚧️@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        6 months ago

        He is not and was never a communist by any means but he is vaguely left, he has videos defending trans people and such

        Slightly progressive social policy =/= “left” (as someone who is trans myself). Someone who stands for imperialist slander and sides against the global south, against the actual anti-imperialists fighting the most horrific contradictions known to humanity, the most extreme crimes up to and including genocide- is not left, I certainly will never consider them “left.”

        They’re just patsocs at best, hell, the whole lot is no different than say, Nazbols or just plain outright neoliberal, slobbering imperialists. They certainly play the useful lackeys for them, intentional or not. They can’t claim to be “left” and then actively sabotage actual anti-imperialists. They can’t claim to be “left” and then act as a mouthpiece for US state propaganda.

        • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          6 months ago

          No, you’re completely correct, I was being too charitable. He’s just another one of those liberals who call themselves leftist to look better.

        • SpaceDogs@lemmygrad.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          6 months ago

          He has 118K subs and his previous videos have gotten a little less than 100K views, so I wouldn’t say his viewership is small. I know the screenshot makes it seem small but that’s because it was just uploaded but he has a prominent enough following.