this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
0 points (NaN% liked)
Korea / 조선
550 readers
1 users here now
A community about anything related to Korea, such as news about the countries (DPRK and south), discussion, photos and videos, the language, etc.
See also: [email protected], which is intended for memes rather than serious discussion of these topics.
The picture of this Lemmy community is magnolia (목란), the national flower of the DPRK. The background picture is a scenery of Pyongyang.
Rules:
-
No imperialist apologia. The DPRK didn't start the war. US imperialist invasion was not justified. Neither are their army bases in south Korea. The sanctions were and are not justified.
-
Be respectful. The imperialist media likes to describe the DPRK people as completely brainwashed, and that it'd be fine to completely destroy that country in an invasion. Don't act like the imperialist media.
-
Be skeptical of your sources. Don't trust the media that has been known to report many falsehoods about Korea already. (You may still link to them if they write something interesting / worth reading, just be careful.)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
"Between a democracy and an authoritarian regime I would rather be in a democracy because 9 times out of 10, it’s better for the average citizen."
Cubans have a higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality rate and actual breakthroughs in medical science that make the average citizen's life better in that department compared to the private medical system that the average American citizen pays more for in just bureaucracy and insurance parasitism than any other country with a medical program. All of that under a near-total embargo.
China's millennials has a higher home-ownership rate than most American and Canadians. I can sense you're gonna argue about "duh state!!" owning everything though when your bank or landlord can evict you within a few months when most Chinese citizens don't have to deal with these issues after the near-total elimination of homelessness. But sure, it's propaganda. Don't believe your eyes and ears when you those traveling, what they say. Only the state when it repeats the Uighur genocide mythos and how China is evil and bad. Oh, they also eat more protein than the average American while rapidly catching up in PPP.
Oh..and they lead the world in multiple academic journals.
Wait, where is the part where democracy is somehow better? I'm supposed to appreciate the opportunity to work multiple jobs for a simple apartment I have to share with 2-3 other people despite having multiple trade-skills? Really? Man, at least I have more brands of cereal and toothpaste than I know what to do with! Hopefully, they aren't locked up behind anti-theft systems like the baby formula and toilet-paper.
I think you may be confusing and conflating Democracy witch is a strategy for choosing leadership with Capitalism which is a method to distribute goods and services. You can have one without the other.
Every successful socialist country has a central leadership of a workers' party. They are more successful than the United States in every metric besides for military spending and adults who believe in angels.
Great! Add voting and it becomes better!
They do vote. Actually, their options within the party are much more diverse and ranging than just two candidates serving the same interest as their ruling class. They represent multiple facets for multiple positions not only within the party but for the country itself and it's direction for the working class.
When is the last time America made a decision for the working class? Turns out voting doesn't fill my fridge, make better job opportunities or remove bigoted, mouth-frothing social murderers from power.
Why the fuck should I care about it, you smug dickhead?
Why does everyone think I am defending America, I am not. I.just like democracy. Glad there is voting in this system.
My apologies then, repeating that you love democracy, voting, etc in what could be construed as an antagonistic manner under a informative post about North Korea could be taken as a "baiting" tactic done by most libs common to the spectrum of the West.
I see that. My original post was just criticizing the memes conflation of leadership choice type with benefits that the civilians have. A democracy will not always be better for the people than a dictatorship, but most the time it will be better.
I mean this meme is basically pro-authoritarian. I don't know what they were trying to go for but I feel like that's not it.
What we're giving you is factual evidence that an authoritarian system to prevent an overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat is actually great as it prevents capitalist roaders and other subversive entities from betraying a revolution that hundreds of thousands died for.
China and Cuba were pieces of this evidence that you ignore when you say "more democracy is always better". In a global capitalist economy, it is not, because of an exploitative economic system that upsets and destroys the benefits of "liberal democracy".
The problem is corruption is a part of any political system. Democratic/Authoritarian. It doesn't matter. The reason why Authoritarian systems are not as good a Democracies for the people is that in Authoritarian systems there is one point of power, the leader. If that person stops caring about the people, then that becomes a big problem. Another revolution will need to happen.
In a Democracy the power is with the people (If done well. The US news got bought out by the bourgeoisie thus dooming us). It is harder and more expensive to corrupt that.
Given we don't find a way to ideologically stop capital, it will always be corrupting whatever government. Another revolution will always need to happen. It just takes longer for Democracies to decay.
You misread my point. Authoritarian systems with democratic checks n balances (One party, governed by the working class) is a concept that is fundamentally incompatible with liberal democracy as you view it since it operates under the basis of exploitative capitalism.
It is not the "authoritarian system" that deprives an individual of power but rather the economic system fostered and used by the state in acts of violence. In a democracy, power can easily be coopted by that economic system so one must be constructed to prevent a take-over. That requires authoritarianism. What form? Can vary and depend.
We have found a way. It's communism. China and Cuba are socialist. In the brief period of their existence they are more successful comparatively. Even the USSR had a similar caloric intake to the average American and had a higher home-ownership rate. What does that tell you?
I mean an authoritarian system does deprive people of power. By definition only a few people have power in authoritarian system.
You can have corruption in governments that aren't capitalist. It's just a matter of knowing what people want and how to manipulate them.
The DPRK has voting as well. 😉 The best part of the voting in the DPRK is that the results are very favorable for their citizens compared to the US.
Can they vote out their supreme leader? I'm not defending the US here, we are headed to a bad place. We may end up looking like the DPRK pretty soon.
Yes, they can and, if you need more information on how the DPRK governance works, you can open a post in c/asklemmygrad for books and sources. Also, if the US ended up like the DPRK, that will actually be the best thing for US citizens because they will no longer have to pay taxes, no longer have to protest for the amount of shenanigans that their rich capitalists constantly do, they will have free housing, cheap food, free healthcare and free education. In other words, they will have a gov't that is actually working for their people and not for their rich. So... ending like the DPRK is actually the goal for plenty of people and it is not a bad thing as you tried to suggest. A really bad place will be Nazi Germany and that's where the US is headed(or already is 🤔).