• Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    This was a man who had been manipulated since birth to not only be a slave, but to like it. I can only assume their whole country is much the same. It’s fucking disgusting and sad that this continues as long as it has.

    • Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      This person wrote all that, thinking we would cower at the resolve of north Korean soldiers. Instead, his words just sound sad and pathetic. An end to a life lived as a hostage to a madman.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      21 hours ago

      No way. You notice how he implies he broke the rules and is being punished for it? This was the diary for his commanders and/or military police to “secretly” read. Defectors pretty much give the same story - corruption and crime is ubiquitous, nobody follows the rules when they can’t be caught.

      Human nature is pretty unremarkable for the most part, but one thing we have going for us is that the majority of people never buy the propaganda, regardless of what it is and where they are. You can see that in history, in modern authoritarian states, and even in the West about propaganda I personally agree with (save the planet! vaccines don’t cause autism! covid is real!).

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        I read an account from a woman who escaped North Korea as a child with her mother, through China. She was so propagandized even at her young age that she thought Kim Jong-il could find her if she thought wrong things. She literally believed that he was as a god, omniscient.

        So she tried to suppress her own thoughts on the run, so god couldn’t catch her and her mom. They made it.

      • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        The last three aren’t examples of propaganda. They can, however, devolve into team sports and make people do dumb shit in the name of being right, but they aren’t more likely to than anything else, it’s an inherent risk with just about anything.