Real life "1984" style media editing

[Second Summer]

I'd be skeptical as to the legitimacy of some of these stories if they hadn't released a video last time they performed an execution via hungry dogs.

Ah yes, I too have just read that the Hong Kong based newspaper that first ran the story about the uncle being eaten alive by dogs was known to be quite unreliable, and didn't cite any source for the story. I didn't realize execution by way of hungry dogs is something they've done before though.

 

[Blobbenstein]

If China becomes powerful enough then they won't need NK as some sort of buffer, so maybe the fact that the story about the dogs was allowed by China, is a turning point.
I'm sure it would be easy for China to put pressure on NK so they agree to some sort of annexation or some sort of democracy. They just need to offer the people at the top a way out.

 

[Blobbenstein]

As for the story about the dogs itself, I would have thought it quite likely that the execution would have been videoed, however it happened, so if the uncle was simply shot, then that would make it possibly easy to refute the dog story....so unless NK release video footage then maybe the dog story is true, or something even worse.

 

[yakherder]

Previously the executions were meant to make a point and were highly publicized. This time they seem to be trying to make the guy disappear from history completely. Such an execution would thus be more of a personal power trip, not for the masses. It is, of course, hard to speculate with such limited information though.

Edit: autocorrect mistake

 

[Blobbenstein]

maybe an execution by dogs would only be a message to people high up in the power structure.

 

[Blobbenstein]

but kim jong un doesn't look like the sort of person who would enjoy watching that, so I think it probably was just a bullet. kim reminds me of someone I know; a bit of a twit but not that bad.

 

[yakherder]

maybe an execution by dogs would only be a message to people high up in the power structure.

I'd it was kept hidden from the rest of the world but viewed by 300 elites, I'd say that's a rational theory.

 

[yakherder]

but kim jong un doesn't look like the sort of person who would enjoy watching that, so I think it probably was just a bullet. kim reminds me of someone I know; a bit of a twit but not that bad.

I recall a story notlong after his father's death when an officer who had been drunk during the prescribed mourning period was not only executed for the show of disrespect, but was at Un's request executed in a manner where there would be nothing left. They put him at a pre ranged location and killed him via direct hit from an artillery shell.

Hard to know what's going on in his mind or what kind of person he is. Whether he does what he does because he's a sick ******* or because it's how he was taught to stay in power and doesn't know any better.

 

[FortyTwo]

but kim jong un doesn't look like the sort of person who would enjoy watching that, so I think it probably was just a bullet. kim reminds me of someone I know; a bit of a twit but not that bad.

Yes, the willing dictator of the last Stalinist state on Earth... isn't that bad?

 

[Blobbenstein]

well he was dragged into it wasn't he. If he hadn't gone along with it I suppose they would have cut his pocket money.

 

[Second Summer]

Yes, the willing dictator of the last Stalinist state on Earth... isn't that bad?

He went to school in Switzerland, and I remember reading about how his former classmates described him - "good for a laugh" and very much into basketball:
http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/20/9579199-ex-classmates-kim-jong-un-good-for-a-laugh

Though a more recent news story about how his former classmates felt about him paints a different picture:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...is-dangerous-unpredictable-prone-to-violence/

 

[Blobbenstein]

I'm sure the US media paint any picture that they are supposed to. There wasn't one quote from an ex-student in that Washingtonpost article.

 

[yakherder]

There's no black and white. Absolute good, absolute evil, and absolute normal are all things we see through an unrealistic set of lenses. Even the most psychotic of people have a warm and cuddly side, and even the best of us can be turned into monsters under the right circumstances. Un was "groomed" to be the new leader primarily after he returned from school, and there's a reason his father chose him over the alternatives. What that reason is, and exactly what type of person Un is, we can only speculate on. Based off of my limited perception, however, I can't say that I'm too impressed with him.

 

[yakherder]

I think I've mentioned before that I had some North Korean classmates at Zhejiang Unviersity when I was studying Chinese in Hangzhou. They weren't allowed to talk with anyone else in the class, especially not the South Koreans (which made up about 1/3 of the students) or the Americans (I was the only one in my class). They weren't even allowed to leave the campus. This was North Korean policy, not Chinese policy, if it isn't obvious. The rest of us pretty much lived like normal college students. Whether out of fear, despite clearly being part of the elite class, or out of having been genuinely brainwashed, I must say they pretty much fit the stereotype of keeping to themselves and remaining in complete ignorance of the world around them.

 

[Mischief]

but kim jong un doesn't look like the sort of person who would enjoy watching that, so I think it probably was just a bullet. kim reminds me of someone I know; a bit of a twit but not that bad.

Are you seriously suggesting that evil people always look evil?

 

[Blobbenstein]

I'm not sure I look at people as being on a spectrum of good and evil, but on a spectrum of how damaged they are.

 

[Mischief]

I'm not sure I look at people as being on a spectrum of good and evil, but on a spectrum of how damaged they are.

Then to put it in terms that we should be able to agree on: Are you suggesting that people who commit evil acts will always look as though they have committed evil acts? If you don't like/agree with the descriptor "evil", then substitute "cruel" or "bad".

 

[Blobbenstein]

I guess you can't always tell.

 

[Mischief]

I guess you can't always tell.

Yes. Even if there were something to the idea of physiognomy, it would still be subject to individual fallibility. Who among us has not misjudged the character of individuals whom we actually know and with whom we have a history?

 

[Blobbenstein]

I was going more by his expressions....but I suppose his general appearance as well....Kim Jong Un just seems like he inherited everything, including the whole way the country is run. I think that most leaders have much more limited power that people think. They are only one person after all, and not Superman either, so they have to kind of go along with things to a large extent.