I guess its much better to have a couple of corporations control the media and censor anything that threatens their profits and control.

Where are you getting this from? Yeah they were hacked and the hackers posted things that were subsequently taken down, but was there any validity to those posts? Of course they were taken down; why wouldn't they have been. Why do you think what was posted by hackers was more accurate than what was posted by the actual organization?

Putin, you do realize that literally *no country* thinks North Korea is a nice place to live. The Chinese are barely putting up with them. it's not about Western bias, it's just obvious fact.

North Korean apologists (Putin isn't the only one, I know a few in real life) do not maintain that North Korea is a nice place to live, though they do try to paint a picture of relative freedom and happiness. (Things like the kidnapping of Japanese and ROK citizens, the gulags, the killings of political prisoners and the horrible elements of totalitarianism and the Juche ideology are conveniently ignored).

Rather, the apologist line is that the patently obvious malnutrition, economic desperation, and military exercises against neighbours do happen, but that they are entirely the cause of American aggression.

As with most persistent apologetic narratives for dictatorships, there is a grain of truth in this evaluation.

North Korea has indeed been subject to economic deprivation, demonization, and political isolation by the American government, both in the context of the geopolitical struggle of the cold war with the Soviet Union as well as the general recent security strategy of the US government in response to changed priorities in east Asia.

Still, I don not think this excuses the North Korean government for it's tendency to treat it's citizens so poorly, or its hypocritical and violent maintenance of a patently unfair and failing ideological and economic system. Blaming these all on America or turning a blind eye does nothing constructive in reducing the conflict, and quite honestly, attributes way too much agency to American policy, and not nearly enough to Chinese, Soviet, and North Korean decisions. The guilt weighs heavily on all actors involved.

it surely doesn't help that they'd rather spend their money building underground tunnels into South Korea than actually attempting to feed their own citizens.

Once again, Trotskyites take the side of imperialism over their victims. Everywhere they loudly criticize actually existing socialism, rather than display any sense of international solidarity. Yet they claim to be the true internationalists.

The real reason Trotskyites hate countries like North Korea because it belies their longstanding defeatism and their cockememie theory of permanent revolution.

"it surely doesn't help that they'd rather spend their money building underground tunnels into South Korea than actually attempting to feed their own citizens."

They've done plenty to help feed their own citizens. Stop regurgitating every lie you read. Objective IGO observers have *documented* DPRK steps to feed their population, which is why they aren't experiencing famine after the horrible days of the early-mid 90s during which they suffered from natural disasters, a food blockade, and the end of aid from the socialist bloc.

Friendly Sword - the real question is do you support any revolution anywhere, either presently or historically? If the answer is none, then your criticisms are worthless.

"Why do you think what was posted by hackers was more accurate than what was posted by the actual organization?"

Because people actually on the ground who have visited Syria on fact fighting missions have cited the atrocities committed by the Syrian rebels, and Amnesty ignores them. Because the Syrian rebels have been exposed elsewhere for lying about government atrocities, publishing pictures of Iraqi bodies and claiming they are Syrian, among other things. Because Amnesty is notorious for parrotting whatever line western governments want them to trumpet in the march toward war and intervention.

"North Korea is great, but I'd rather die than go there. Instead, I'll go to the Croatian coast, god knows why, since I hate the Croats."

Hey Putin, tell us again how North Korea is a great example of democracy, that's one of my favorites.

Fantastic, YJ the fat hating misogynist is back.

Also: here's Zmaj's omiljena knjiga.

http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bespu%C4%87a_povijesne_zbiljnosti

It's so nice watching these ridiculous inter-commie feuds without a dog in the fight.

Trotskyism is a rathole to Neoconnery. Almost every neocon was a Trot at one point. Almost none of them stay in movement.

Of course I support revolutions both historically and presently in justified contexts. State violence has often left no recourse for positive change and/or justice except by violent means. The concept of revolution, of course, is much easier to support than the real thing, the pressures of reality often bringing out hypocrisy and failure to the revolution.

Unlike you, I tend to think that it is entirely possible and reasonable to criticize the excesses, compromises, and betrayals of specific Bolshevists without being a fascist or a tsarist sympathizer in disguise.

Moreover, is was the policy of hackneyed autarky that more than anything else was the cause of North Korea's devastating economic collapse of the early nineties.

In any case, I don't think I'm a Trotskyist, except insofar as I do not believe that the principle of international solidarity ought to belay any criticism of any government that had a good relationship with the Soviet Union.

Really, which ones.

Then what are you. And do you know the difference between comradely criticism and repeating imperialist talking points.

What am I.... a democratic socialist I guess?

I think that the Russian Revolution was, for instance, quite justified, and though I bemoan the less-than-ideal shape the Soviet state would eventually take, I do think that the outcome was quite clearly a better one than the alternative of a Kolchak/Wrangel victory.

Ok, and do you think the anti-colonial struggles were necessary, proper, and justified? Or do they do lead to sub-optimal outcomes that you can't support? And do you believe in the 'principle' of criticizing anti-colonial struggles in the middle of a life and death struggle against their colonial oppressors? For example, would you have been on the frontlines attacking the Vietcong during the Vietnam war, or the Algerians during the French-Algerian war? Or do you think that such things can be done in an internal, friendly way without giving their enemies a weapon to use against them and hanging them out to dry? Do you think it's a good idea, and completely consistent with the principle of international solidarity, to join in with western criticisms of states on the chopping block for war & conquest by the western powers? Or do you expect every country to completely agree and accept every demand you make on it, regardless of time, place & conditions, before offering your solidarity?

And finally, has there ever been any government ever that more or less met your expectations and demands in terms of 'democratic socialism' (whatever that means) and actually survived longer than say, a handful of years in power?

Anti-colonial conflicts came in all shapes and sizes. By and large they should be celebrated for fighting racism and oppression on an unprecedented scale, but being on the right side of history should not excuse moral bankruptcy in all of its forms. Would it be arrogant and self-righteous to stand on the sidelines of the French-Algerian war and criticize the Algerians for being too mean? Yes, but that's not what I'm suggesting.

Your notion that fighting Imperialism is something that somehow justifies all other behaviour is absurd. Should we forgive Hitler because he stood up to the British and French Empires? Should we excuse the Cambodian genocide because it was committed by anti-Imperialist revolutionaries?

Why can't you guys understand? There are no shades of grey in this world when you're Bad Vlad. There's only black and.. well... red.

I guess I'm the only one excited for the North Korean isolationism. The Korean language is slowly becoming mutually unintelligible between North and South Korea. It is still mutually intelligible today, but in a few decades (hopefully) it won't be. That will be exciting, to live through such vast linguistic shifts. Of course, it will more likely take a couple of centuries, but I can hope!

You didn't really answer my question(s). What is the 'proper' attitude vis-a-vis something like the Algerian resistance? Or the Iraqi resistance? Or the Vietnamese resistance? Should they call you up and ask you how to tactically proceed while in a life-and-death struggle for their national existence? Should the Colombian peasants being massacred by paramilitaries apologize to you for not reflecting your 'democratic' socialist ethos? Do you have any outline of a way forward here, or just criticism for not living up to your standards? And you didn't bother to answer my question about what governments or even movements you actually support, if there is any socialism-in-practice that you can point to and say that this is the model we should follow.

And do you see a difference between constructively criticizing *friends*, and acting like an enemy, and engaging in talking points that our enemies use? It's not I who has the black & white view here. Your view is either we publicly excoriate anti-imperialist resistance forces or we do not criticize at all and absolve them of all sins. That's not my view. And if you've bothered to read my posts here you'd realize that.

But I, as a white leftist living away from the blood-soaked regions where imperialism is weighing down upon the third world, don't have the right to sit here and act sanctimonious when I have no idea about the practicalities of their operations. Time, place, and conditions matter. Events do not happen in a vacuum.

Also, a quibble here, but it's kind of hard to claim the Khmers were 'anti-imperialists' when they were fighting socialist Vietnam and taking money from the CIA. Let's stop trying to pin that one on the left.

"Should we forgive Hitler because he stood up to the British and French Empires?"

Last I checked Germany was also an Empire. You're conflating inter-imperialist struggles with anti-colonial ones, which is really obnoxious. Ask the Namibians or Tanzanians or Togolese if the Germans were anti-imperialists. The whole point of the NSDAP was to restore the territory of the Reich that was lost in WWI.

"But I, as a white leftist"

Huh? What does your skin pigmentation have to do with anything? Are you saying that if you had higher melanin levels, it would magically grant you some kind of special knowledge or moral authority to determine the right course of action for people on the other side of the planet?

The point is, I live in a rich country in the developed world. I'm not starving or living under slavery. I don't know the conditions people elsewhere face, and any utopian dreams I have of how socialists should behave when facing the brute force of capitalist murderers are irrelevant.

But leave it to you to get all worked up about this.

I figured you would agree, since you're all about the Palestinian resistance, right? Do you think we should condemn Hamas and Hizballah because they don't share your libertarian views? Or does solidarity trump that?