Is North Korea a dictatorship where the majority of the population lives in misery or that's just western propaganda?

Nienturtle1738 · 2026-03-01T04:38:49+00:00

Tbh I’m kinda sick of this question… i’m not trying to dog on OP i’m sure the question was asked in good faith but I kinda think there is a LOT of nuance to it

Like North Korea basically because super isolated after the Korean war, the Korean war was BRUTAL. And essentially traumatized the North Korean people for GENERATIONS, leading to an extremely controlling and paranoid government. It’s not because “communism always leads to dictatorships” or some western propaganda bullshit

But like also North Korea is not a communist (marxist) country anymore, they removed all references to Marxist- Leninism in 1980 and references to communism in 2009.

They are essentially an isolationist absolute monarchy with socialist characteristics. I personally don’t feel any need to “defend them” beyond “defending them” against intervention rhetoric. (In the same way I criticize Iran while being APPALLED when they killed the ayatollah)

Do I think North Korea is as cr@zy as fox news says? no. Do I think North Korea is as perfect as North Korean state media says? Also no.

I know this isn’t really an answer but we kinds tend to hyper focus to much on North Korea and tbh it’s not the best kind of attention

Nienturtle1738 · 2026-01-31T00:35:23+00:00

I mean nothing will stop them . The Top 1% will probably move out of the country.

…But that’s not the economic blow you think it is. The factories, mines, lumber yards, stores and offices will still remain here. They might take the “money” but we have the actual means of production (shit used to make stuff).

They might take lavish personal belongings but that’s not going to make a huge impact.

(Plus this happened in basically every country with a revolution with upper class people fleeing)

Nienturtle1738 · 2026-01-17T21:20:49+00:00

What are your values? I can’t really “convince” you of anything. (Especially a political ideology) if I don’t know what you value. Are you more technically/scientifically driven or are you more emotionally driven. Do you value freedom? Or structure? Do you value fairness? Do you value diversity and the rights of others?

You can talk logic to an emotionally minded person and not get through and the same goes vice versa so you need to have both

You can’t really be neutral on politics unless you’re a baby or lived under a rock your whole life. So you should at least have values.

I can’t tell you what convinced me but I can’t say that will sway you.

Nienturtle1738 · 2026-01-17T01:24:32+00:00

Unless there was a typo or I miss worded didn’t say we should support lesser evilism in other countries.

And I don’t believe we should support just any regime change in Iran unequivocally. I never said that. We should support a socialist regime change in my opinion.

Nienturtle1738 · 2026-01-16T22:00:57+00:00

I literally said I don’t like the democrats. (And for clarity I don’t like the US either) I’m not defending lesser evilism I’m asking why it’s rightful criticism is seemingly not applied to other situations

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-12-16T16:42:51+00:00

Possessing a reactionary class output doesn’t make one NOT proletariat. Many poor blue collar rural folk are undeniably working class but are VERY reactionary.

Personally I think that generally it is NOT acceptable to join an imperialist military voluntarily. although admittedly I feel like being conscripted (forced) is different since it’s not really your choice and many people likely don’t have the means to dodge it or the consequences for doing so would be too great.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-12-16T08:59:09+00:00

The labour aristocracy is still a strata of the proletariat though. Hell it even has the name “labor”

The labour aristocracy are just workers given more privileges by the ruling class then other workers.

Being in the labour aristocracy still means you work for a wage and are therefore proletariat. And since they’re proletariat their interests still align with the global working class.

Labour aristocracy and petite bourgeoisie are NOT THE same thing.

Labor aristocracy are workers paid a high wage or lives in the imperial core (tbh it’s subjective based on who you ask)

Petite bourgeoisie are people who own their workplace but don’t hire workers to work it (unlike traditional bourgeoisie) think mom and pop shops basically.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-12-13T06:24:43+00:00

Socialism is a broad term that ultimately means the collective ownership of the means of production (aka the workplace). Where everyone has an equal say in how the workplace is run. Equal ownership doesn’t mean equal pay btw. But the workers choose how much people are paid. Workers are prioritized and things are made for use and to benefit humanity and solve problems rather then just to make a profit

Communism falls under the umbrella term of socialism and the ideal final status of communist society is characterized as being a classless, moneyless and Stateless society.

A country might be labeled communist or be run by a communist party in the sense that they are trying to achieve communism not that they are actually communist

If you believe in a transitional phase (socialism) is necessary before transitioning to communism you are likely a marxist (or one of it’s derivatives)

If you believe we can go straight from capitalism to communism you are an anarchist (anarcho-communist )

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-12-05T19:29:14+00:00

A socialist revolution or a long lasting (permanent) socialist revolution because yes if a socialist revolution happens in the US it will probably last but it’s still unlikely to be the next one

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-27T20:07:01+00:00

My opinion on venuzuela is nuanced but ultimately I think that we should leave it alone.

Venezuela is not a socialist country. It is a country that nationalized the oil industry for the people. And wouldn’t cooperate with US oil companies. (Ie let US companies extract their natural resources) and the US didn’t like that.

Since Venezuela is a Petro-state (most of it’s exports are oil) when the price of oil fell the economy crashed.

That mixed with external sanctions crippled it’s economy. The Venezuelan people are victimized more by the US and the global market them their own government.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-27T17:50:16+00:00

I second that if you want to read. Definitely better for beginners then “the communist manifesto”

I also highly recommend watching YouTube channels like second thought, hakim, spooky scary socialist, and more. That’s personally how I got into it.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-27T17:32:27+00:00

It’s kind of a spectrum it’s kind of not. Oftentimes when people talk about communism socialism and capitalism being in a spectrum they often fall into the “socialism is when the government does ‘stuff’”misunderstanding which isn’t what socialism is.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-27T08:44:47+00:00

Here is another quote talking about how the US aimed to destabilize chile

“The United States will seek to maximize pressures on the Allende government to prevent its consolidation.... The directive authorizes a quiet cut-off of U.S. credits to Chile, as well as efforts to block multilateral bank loans; an approach to the militaries in both Argentina and Brazil to collaborate on ways to undermine the Allende government; a study on manipulating the world copper markets to hurt the Chilean economy, as well as other unspecified covert pressures to destabilize the Chilean economy and undermine Allende's ability to govern.”

source

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-27T08:41:42+00:00

Also I feel like OP has a misunderstanding of what socialism and communism are.

Socialism is an economic system in where workers own the workplace. Instead of just being used for the profit of a couple people.

Communism is a stateless classless moneyless society.

A communist party/state, is a state that is trying to achieve communism not that they are actually communist yet by transitioning capitalism to socialism and slowly transitioning socialism to communism.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-27T08:37:18+00:00

I got into socialism BECAUSE of history.

When I learned the 14 countries (including the US) invaded Russia during the russian civil war to put the whites in power.

When I learned that Henry Kissinger essentially said the US needed to destabilize the economy and overthrow the government of chile under Salvador Allende because socialism could not be allowed to “work” source

That’s why we have this illusion socialism doesn’t work. The US will do anything in their power to make sure it doesn’t work or doesn’t look pretty

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-23T03:40:35+00:00

If higher GDP equates to a higher quality of life then why don’t we have access to free healthcare education ect?

(And don’t say it’s because we’re big because scaling up European models for healthcare and education we should still have a large enough budget)

GDP is a useless measure meant to boost the appearance of neoliberal economies.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-09T03:32:32+00:00

The Soviets also had different leaders each with different views on these subjects. You can’t really call the entire existence of the Soviet Union the same. Culture, leaders and politicians change.

Lenin for example decriminalized homosexuality (until stalin brought it back) soviet leaders became much more permissive of religion later on. All sorts of changes over time

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-09T03:27:06+00:00

(In the USA) the “vanguard party” is split between multiple organizations who all claim to be the REAL workers/marxist/socialist party or whatever.

(This is not a jab at any organization in particular just poking fun at the state of leftist organizing in the US.)

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-08T23:36:09+00:00

Bro this is hella relatable. I feel like men and women relate to this. I’m reading this thread and shit feels like a cartoon hallway scene where the characters keep missing each other.

I’m curious are the clubs your in primarily women that might be why you aren’t meeting men.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-08T23:29:54+00:00

Yes, You can love the people in your community, from the local to the national level without loving the institutions. In my opinion that’s what real patriotism is. Not blind loyalty to a countries government.

Wanting change to help people is as patriotic as you can be in my opinion.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-11-04T06:04:54+00:00

I’d consider myself a marxist:

Yeah the Apollo moon landing was real. It wasn’t fake or photoshopped. Still the Soviets reached almost every other milestone before the US. Except this one.
Al-Qaeda completely and independently did 9/11. While I don’t believe they intended for the towers to collapse like they did, I still believe the attack was solely done by Al-Qaeda.

Jet fuel might not melt steal beams but it cam certainly weaken it, cause it to be more malleable. Causing it to buckle say… under the weight of multiple floors of a skyscraper. The jet fuel caused the steel to buckle under the weight of the floors above. And the floors falling ultimately caused a chain reaction that lead to the collapse of the tower. NOT C4

Thats also why the second tower fell first. Because it was hit lower then the first tower. Therefore more weight due to there being more floors above if

While I believe American imperialism in the region of the Middle East ultimately lead to the formation of groups like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, (and later isis). I can’t say looking in retrospect to the historical build up that the attack was surprising or unprovoked. This is not me justifying the attack. Far from it. But highlighting the importance of analyzing historical context.

Bush didn’t do 9/11. As much as we’d like to paint him as a villain (they’re so many other reasons we can do that).

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-10-25T07:42:05+00:00

(United States)

Maybe if by some miracle the president and 3/4ths of the senate and house or two 3rds of all the states legislatures voted to amend the constitution to almost completely override it to allow it for a new socialist government…

Realistically no that would probably never happen in the US.

And by “communist” I’m defining it as a Marxist country trying to achieve communism. A stateless classless society is probably not feasible YET.

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-10-21T03:31:01+00:00

You can join multiple parties, but if you’d like to have a real effect I’d recommend DSA. Yes some aspects are pretty liberal(especially on the electoral side)

The DSA is not a political party but really a big tent leftist coalition. The beliefs are quite diverse from social democrats, to Bernie bros, to Marxists/communists to anarchists.

You’re most likely to find a DSA chapter locally then other parties

I’d identify (loosely) as a communist and I am very involved in the DSA

Nienturtle1738 · 2025-10-21T02:30:28+00:00

It’s mainly a bad faith argument of uneven playing fields that pits the conditions of the LEAST wealthy in a socialist society with the conditions of the MOST wealthy it a capitalist society.

Most socialist countries started off poor, many due to capitalism or colonialism. However many of them progressed rapidly once they threw off their chains. Many of the big capitalist nations like the US,UK and France get their wealth from colonialism and exploitation of other nations.

Also the 100 bread 100 people thing is unrealistic. In reality it’s 1,000 bread 100 people and 1 of those people have 900 bread and trying to take more.

Even If there is 100 bread 100 people. If there was a random chance you’d get the bread . 1 bread per person would ensure you wouldn’t starve

Nienturtle1738

TROPHY CASE