(I am the same OP, just using my lemmy.ml account now that the site isn’t down for me) The person who responded to this before I was able gave some pretty general information regarding my thoughts on North Korea here. I used to eat up all of the American propaganda just like everyone else and fancied myself a leftist as well. But as a leftist, we should all know that we should be highly critical of most news media. I’m also living in the US so that’s the perspective I’m bringing here, btw. Anyway, I have done a bit of research and that small amount has changed my mind drastically on how I look at communist countries.

I am not here to say that I think there is nothing problematic about the place, but their position was largely foisted upon them by imperialism. I cannot fault them for the extreme stance, whether I agree with it or not. Also, I feel that the hysteria around these countries whipped up by the US serves to distract us from how truly fucked up our country is. 25 percent of people in the US are food insecure, 21 percent are illiterate, there are daily mass shootings and constant acts of terrorism, train derailments poisoning towns all in the name of money, we are more and more becoming a police state…We can’t say for sure that we definitely have it better here just because we can leave, or that we live with the illusion of choice.

In your response, you wrote “My impression is it’s basically a slave state with a God King”. I would implore you, when you can, when you have energy, to do a bit of research on things like this when your impression is so extreme. You don’t need to change your stance, you can still feel how you feel, but base that on some semblance of research. If you’re curious I’m happy to try and whip up some articles or youtube videos for you to check out that might be interesting.

Outside of that, relating back to comparing the ideology of Marxist Leninists to hate speech: hate speech is defined as “abusive or threatening speech or writing that expresses prejudice on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or similar grounds.” I have not seen any of this kind of speech on lemmygrad, or from anyone who identifies as ML. In fact a lot of ML’s are staunchly opposed to racism, sexism, homophobia/transphobia, etc. and are part of marginalized groups. Marxist Leninists are not pacifists and from what I gather do believe that war and violence are necessary for revolution but I’ve never seen anyone advocate for genocide, so I feel that the connection is heavy handed. That being said, that’s just my opinion, man, and the mods for beehaw can do what they wish

Editing to add: I also don’t know everything, and there may be some context with lemmygrad that I’m missing, so feel free to educate me if I’m being reductive over here

I don’t do mastodon anymore but I have seen that the megalodon app is supposed to be great

I created my first account on beehaw, but when i realized that they blocked this instance I created a lemmy.ml account. I engaged with someone on that post who was surprised that hate speech was being thrown around here. I said “it’s because theyre marxist leninist, go look for yourself” and they were so confused because there was no hate speech to be found. Essentially they were like “um I don’t agree with MLs on a lot of things, but they aren’t nazis. So what’s the issue?” So I’m positive that there are people being turned away who otherwise would want to interact with y’all.

It’s pretty fucked that they are equating discourse here to hate speech because of course people aren’t going to do their own investigating. They will just assume that yall are planning the next white uprising and flinging the F slur around.

I mean the first shitty transphobic/smug centrist/“you just wanna live in an echo chamber!!!” experiences I had were with people on those instances, but I guess it’s going to be pervasive since it’s tens of thousands of redditors hopping on any old instance. Curious to see more of the drams unfold

Protip that I learned not too long ago for mobile: as soon as you start to load the page for an article behind a pay wall, tap your airplane mode button, if you catch it at the right time. The paywall won’t load. Has been working well for me

I’m currently engaging someone who is skeptical but willing to learn a bit about North Korea. What would be a good beginner friendly video/read to pass on?

Ha, that was actually one that I ended up sending, it was one of the first videos I watched as well. I was hoping to find something else that comes off less tongue in cheek and it’s wild trying to sift through all of the potential misinformation

I…I don’t think you know of what you speak

Thank you for that! I think that would be a good one to add. I’m curious if you know of any sources that accurately try to depict what actual human rights abuses the DPRK engages in? A lot of sources defending North Korea seem to side step that stuff, but I think it’s important to get the full picture. I appreciate you helping with this!

It’s extremely difficult for me to cook regularly anymore, I just don’t have the energy. When I do choose to, though, I make it a fun event and it’s so satisfying. Put on some music, drink some beers and go to town.

I made Chinese noodles from scratch a while back and while they were SOOOOO GOOD, it was so labor intensive that I would only do it for fun and not to satiate myself lol. They were nice and bouncy noodles, cut a little smaller than chow fun.