Image is of the DPRK sending their trash over the border, in an equal exchange of value to Western capitalist propaganda.
The totalitarian capitalist dystopia which was created by the United States in the aftermath of the Korean War has increasingly experienced problems as the multipolar world is being gradually birthed.
Due to the widespread exploitation of the population, long work weeks, and high housing prices, the population growth of South Korea has plummeted, with the lowest fertility rate on the planet, and the highest suicide rate in the OECD. While a capitalist “success story” before the 2008 recession in terms of profit accumulation for the richest at the expense of most others, conditions have grown more dire in the Long Depression since the crash. GDP growth per year has averaged out at 2-3%. For more concrete figures, labour productivity has stagnated, particularly in the service sector. The rate of profit hit a peak when the dictatorship ended in the late 1980s, but has since massively tumbled. These dynamics are not unique to South Korea; they are happening throughout the West.
While South Korea is stagnating, perhaps even falling, its northern neighbour is rising. With Russia already persona non grata to much of the developed world and yet still maintaining fairly good economic growth and continuously albeit gradually moving towards victory in Ukraine, Putin sees no reason to be intimidated by the West’s shunning of the DPRK, and Russia is establishing ties as well as military and economic deals. This seems to portend an end to the post-Soviet period of forced isolation due to UN actions forbidding the people of the DPRK to leave the country (which many westerners believe is a policy originating from the Korean leadership due to their propagandized education).
Many in the West are still, regrettably, unable to properly analyze the geopolitical situation of Korea due to their government programming, leading to bizarre takes about imminent collapse, or desperation on the part of Russia or the DPRK, unable to recognize that the DPRK has a powerful military sector all its own, and decades of autarky has created a durable society where limited resources must be used efficiently and effectively. The position of the Korean Peninsula seems likely to be a critical part of the US-China conflict, whether this is an outright war or instead a series of proxy wars. Indeed, Korea’s position may soon become very important in global trade routes if the US tries to cut off the Strait of Malacca to Chinese-bound cargo ships, with vital resources like oil and food potentially transported both over land and via the Arctic Route over Russia and through the DPRK to China. Russia’s leadership clearly sees the importance of Korea in the future, hence their actions now; and, of course, South Korea siding with Ukraine has also forced Putin’s hand to oppose them more openly.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The “Country” of the Week is South Korea! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Two days ago, on the first day of the Islamic month of Muharram, my son was born. The little fucker busted out of my wife a few weeks too early, but he’s finally here. We left the hospital a few hours ago after two days of medical checks and both he and my wife are now peacefully sleeping while I’m writing. I won the naming battle and we settled on a traditional, but cool name in my very biased opinion. I’m now Abu Hassan, which sounds unreal, because how the hell am I a father lol. Now the real battle starts, I cannot do the same mistakes that Pete Buttigieg’s father did and accidentally make him a liberal. Maybe in 16 years or so, you’ll have Hassan LargePenis posting a VR interactive three dimensional chad n cuck ranking in the news mega about the slow Russian progress in the Central European front of WW3. Thank you all in advance for the well wishes!
I cannot do the same mistakes that Pete Buttigieg’s father did and accidentally make him a liberal.
A lot of those marxists were academics who likely spent more time writing papers and mingling with high society and being out of touch with both their families and the working class. As long as you stay grounded to people both in and out of your family, explain the discrepancies between approved capitalist framing, conditions, and history vs. reality, and encourage him to socialize with all facets of life, they will probably not end up like Mayo Pete
Welcome to parenthood, it absolutely rules
I feel like the lib children of commies got that way because their parents were too assured of the imminent success of communism. I think the path to not having a lib child is to never sugar coat the deteriorating material conditions of the working class. Doom, dread, and fear are key components of the communist pipeline. We are hopeful for the far future but dread the long hard work to get there. Millions more will die in the struggle.
And now I feel like a bit of a dick for doom-pilling what is probably one of the happiest days of your life. But its also kinda funny.
you’ll have Hassan LargePenis posting a VR interactive three dimensional chad n cuck ranking
Can’t wait for ai Zelensky to grovel for f35s in front of President Hunter Biden and be ranked a cringe ass cuck in 2048.
Also, congratulations.
Congratulations!
I can’t wait for him to break the margins on the news mega on my phone
@SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net Nominating little Hassan for COTW next week (Child of the Week).
Permanent seat of the UNSCPermanent seat in the Gigachad ranking
may he make you prouder than you can possibly imagineCentral European front of WW3
That’s one way to call Lviv
Also, مبروك على فوزك ضد زوجتك, ومبروك على ابنك حسن بفوزه على تفتيش مجاني في كل رحلة سفر
👍 All the best to your family
My newest flex on the libs is that the Democratic Party needs to drop out of the U.S. presidential race entirely, so that a candidate from e.g. the Green Party who actually has a chance of winning can take their place. Neither Genocide Joe nor some yutz the Democrats pick using a completely undemocratic appointment process is going to win.
Move over. Leftists are coming through. Your blue vote is just a protest/spoiler now. Sorry.
Absolutely terrifying. At a concert in Madrid, the band and crowd sing "Let’s Go Bomb Tel Aviv.”
LGBTA+
it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it
what’s the band, they sound cool
They’re called “Unite” and this is the song
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
idk
I support two LGBT movements
good post.
Literally amazing lmao
I was worried they might be nazi skinheads but a live video shows multiple bandmembers in skirts so I think that’s a good sign.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
Unite are edgy, ironic types who mix a bit of shock humour and imagery into otherwise loosely anarchist / anti-fascist politics.
They deleted their Instagram and put out a slightly weak but understandable statement after getting spammed there. It basically just says that they’re against killing innocents full stop, don’t support Hamas, but also point out that it only seems to be Hamas’ killings that are controversial and that if Israel doesn’t want to be treated as a monster it shouldn’t act like one.
For an example of their music here’s a few bangers…
PLOMO is a banger about needing both books and guns to fight the system, kill cops, and fight the state with violent insurrection. If you don’t recognise the album art it’s the famous photo of Francoist PM Luis Carrero Blanco getting carbombed by ETA, the incident often referred to as ‘Spains First Astronaut’ because the car was thrown more than 5 stories high.
Cayetano Al Arrancar is more of the same, taking aim at the the fascist aristorcracy throughout Spain’s history, with mentions of Opus Dei and right wing mafias, telling them they need to keep looking under their cars before they start them.
Calvo Bop or ‘Bald Bop’ is a silly Blitzkreig Bop Ramones rip off about being bald.
Sasuke Bin Laden is a shitposty track about Bin Laden being CIA but how his real crime is being an anime and hentai fan (as the findings at his compound suggested).
Rayadona is more shit-talking about cocaine, Maradona being great and loving cocaine, and English fans crying about the ‘hand of god’ goal.
MИP is kind of a short mission statement about old school, straight edge, anarchist hardcore fighting landlords, bosses, and goverment by playing and squatting where they want, fighting power, living the ‘illegal hardcore’ life etc. “Only a firing squad can correct me.”
Apoyo Mutuo is just a lovely anthem about support, solidarity, and mutual aid.
Cancion Seria is an 18 second song about Don Quixote being to long so refusing to read it.
good post,thanks
Unite mocked the anger of Israelis and Jews on Monday, saying in an Instagram story that the band had “done it again, making Zionists cry.”
By “terrifying,” he means “inspiring,” right?
That’s a weird way to spell Brandon
oh so now they’re able to condemn strikes on hospitals
smug piece of shit libs “Um akshually slaughtering everyone in hospitals in Gaza is justified because they were firing rockets and le human shields”
I need to
deleted by creator
i can excuse genocide, but draw the line at old age.
you can excuse genocide?Chinese Shinzo Abe meme
Since July 8, 2022,
Shinzo Abe has not uttered a bad word about China,
paid respects to war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine,
involved himself in Cross-Strait Affairs,
nor has he whitewashed WWII war crimes!
Chinese memes are high energy
I would once again like to thank the cpc for building the great firewall to protect us from china’s unrivalled posting power.
Tear down that wall and let me experience fucking euphoria once
靖国神厕
(Edit: they replaced the character for ‘shrine’ 社 she in Yasukuni Shrine with one of the characters for ‘toilet’ 厕 ce, after a dude pissed on it last(?) month)
No way that’s so great, hopefully it catches on
Yasukuni Shurine
Damn, did they just call Abe an it lol
they say chunks of this Moonie’s head are still flying through space towards our moon to this very day.
The new theorized death toll numbers (from Lancet) are too much to bear. If those numbers are true, then the genocide of Gaza - in terms of a percent of the population killed and wounded - is right up there with the worst crimes of the 20th century. The Nazi invasion of the USSR, the American genocides in Korea and Vietnam, the bombing of Cambodia, etc. And all of those took place over a matter of years, not months.
Death to America and Death to Israel. Libs in the US had better pray to whatever deity might be out there that this country never gets what it actually deserves. Because Jeremiah Wright was right. We absolutely deserve hell on earth.
This is the modern version of Jeremiah Wright saying America’s chickens have come home to roost on 9/12/01 lmao
The senator who brought a snowball into Congress to prove that climate change is a hoax is dead. They’re calling it a “sudden, unexpected illness” but I think we should decide it was heat stroke.
Vaxxed?
It was probably covid
Did he die of covid or with covid? - deeply serious public health professionals.
If this were a just world he would not have lived nearly so long.
cant believe the CIANASA got him for exposing their secret
I’ve posted this multiple times before, but I’m going to say it again as my mind is still blasted from knowing this:
- Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff took a “career break” in the 1980s to run a pub in South Armagh (which to the unfamiliar was an area of, shall we say, “active community involvement” in the fight for Irish freedom)
- Keir Starmer defended Berlusconi as part of his legal team during his appeal at the European Court of Human Rights
- Keir Starmer was part of the legal team that got the murder conviction of Sergeant Lee Clegg quashed
- Keir Starmer played with the Parachute Regiment in an 11-a-side football “grudge” match against the Royal Military Police
- Keir Starmer decided as Director of Public Prosecutions that an MI5 agent should not face torture charges for participating in interrogation at Guantanamo Bay. Starmer then attended the leaving party of the head of MI5 a year later
- Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions when the Criminal Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute Jimmy Savile in 2009
- Keir Starmer is advised by Peter Mandelson, who according to an internal report by JP Morgan had “a particularly close relationship” with Jeffrey Epstein
- Keir Starmer served on the Trilateral Commission
- Keir Starmer secretly assembled a leadership campaign team days after Mike Pompeo’s private comments were “leaked” to the press wherein Pompeo pledged to “do [his] level best” to prevent a Corbyn premiership
- Keir Starmer’s campaign instructed its candidate running against Nigel Farage to leave the constituency, banned from printing leaflets, blocked from using campaigning software and had access to the campaign’s social media overridden. This happened after the candidate started being a threat to Farage. Farage’s party’s vote share drove Labour’s victory, in a reversal of what happened in 2019.
But reassured, Keith is a normal, regular guy who doesn’t work after 6pm on a Friday.
Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff took a “career break” in the 1980s to run a pub in South Armagh (which to the unfamiliar was an area of, shall we say, “active community involvement” in the fight for Irish freedom)
same vibe as
“vacationing” in somalia or wherever the fuckDeath to America
a normal, regular guy who doesn’t work after 6pm on a Friday.
because he has to go stand in his charging closet. for real though what the fuck does he even do on the weekends, the man has no discernible inner life
Criminal Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
There’s a pretty good book about the South Armagh IRA cell called “bandit country”. If you want a primer on how to keep your cell secure and functional during an insurgenct it’s worth a read. Iirc it doesn’t even fuck with the “religious sectarian conflict” propaganda line and consistently investigates the war as a political struggle.
I’m Irish and I didn’t know about the first one that’s fucking insane lol thanks for sharing
I just read Biden’s egotistical letter saying that he won’t drop out. I honestly thought he was going to drop after reading donors were backing out and with Schiff calling him out. I’m not convinced that he won’t yet, but to me it looks like he’s really going to keep in it. Anyway I had a realization at this part:
“Watch. Watch. I’m getting so frustrated by the elites - I’m not talking about you guys,” he said, referring to hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, “but the elites in the party. ‘Oh, they know so much more.’ If any of these guys don’t think I should run, run against me. Go ahead - announce for president. Challenge me at the convention,” he said.
It occurred to me that Biden is probably one of those dweebs who lurks on front page reddit looking for confirmation bias, but who refuses to comment because they know they’d be rightfully ripped to shreds for anything they say. So they just huff huff huff up the copium and then unleash their confidence on the real world.
“Elites?” You mean the friends you’ve made in half a century of manipulating your country? I know he thinks it makes him sound cool but it’s jarring coming at it from a perspective where he is elite. And those big fighting words? As if he could say it to anyone’s face. We saw him debate. We all know we could walk right over him in an argument, whether over ice cream flavors or nuclear war.
Tangentially, on that last point, I’ve seen a number of redditors questioning who is really calling the shots in the WH since they’ve started to realize what a pushover he is (in relation to Ukraine in particular). Some of these people sound shook.
I swear the geniuses at the Biden campaign saw the debate and the only lesson they took from it is that Biden should behave more like Trump.
First they orangify Biden in TV appearance. Then they make him call in and say some elite nonsense as if he was some Trump-like anti-establishment figure lol.
It’s not that Biden browses Reddit, it’s his campaign staff who probably spent way too much time on Reddit and got all these brainwormed ideas from it.
Now THAT’S my kind of election!!!
The important and democratic thing is that it split the Tory vote enough to allow an incredibly unpopular right wing Labour Party with intelligence ties to win in a landslide!
Lol I remember this happening in some Florida House seats back in 2020. Fake candidates peeled off enough votes that it probably spoiled the democrat from winning. Really cool and democratic
Why would they use AI pictures when getting a random’s picture up there is much safer? They’ve already put a community note that the guy’s shown up supposedly. Looks like conjecture.
r/politics libs are responding to headlines of “why isn’t the media talking about Trump?” saying it’s whataboutism
Russian agents have infiltrated the mainstream media. They’re also starting to infiltrate the democratic party
Remember the dialectic when introducing new language it will be co-opted and used against you.
It’s over. We’re talking about one of the most ruthless US presidents out there. Dude just destroyed Europe, started wars that killed hundreds of thousands with Russia and in the Middle East. These people don’t know who they’re up against.
I am really starting to think that the liberal infighting and constant media coverage about Biden’s age is an attempt at hedging against any argument that his electoral failure is tied to his support for the genocide in Gaza. Biden was not going to win the election against trump before this debate, it was already assured that millions would refuse to hold their nose and vote for him regardless. But now the ruling class can ignore this sort of analysis and focus on, “Biden lost because he was too old, he couldn’t connect with young people” and they will hammer that home until they can completely erase the effect of the first anti-imperialist mass movement in the USA since the Vietnam war. The death toll coming out from the Lancet article had really driven this home for me. They have fully convinced themselves they can invent their own reality. The public hand-wringing the Biden admin has done, all while being primarily responsible for the genocide continuing as it has, is just so absurd for anyone paying close attention. This is probably the worst atrocity of the 21st century (so far
) and they will try their best to erase any electoral consequences, and thus erase anti-imperialist discourse from popular understanding of history. Seems even more important now to symbolically vote for an anti-imperialist candidate like Claudia de la Cruz, because even a relatively large, but still marginal vote in a battleground state would be hard to ignore, particularly if liberals decide to demonize and blame 3rd party voters for a Trump victory. “If everyone who had voted for de la cruz in Georgia voted for Biden, he would have won” etc. etc.
