America is North Korea too

[FluffyMcDeath]

There was something that metalman stated here and that I had somewhat alluded to. The phrase he used was

Insufficient anguish could result "reeducation"

i.e. the public display must be in line with the expectation of the regime.

This is similar to the environment that has been steadily building in the US (and the UK) and other places for the last decade in. During the lead-up to the Iraq war the media coordinated attacks against anyone who disagreed and talk radio personalities were able to issue death threats or call for people to kill certain people with contrary opinions with impunity.

During the Bush administration you had to agree with Bush. Now you have to agree with Obama. The reason is that they represent the same interests in many ways - and they are implementing the same plan.

As we get more and more social surveillance we get less and less freedoms to express contrary opinions - we all have to cry in the streets when Kim Jong Il dies (figuratively).

Jonathan Turley gives a great interview on C-SPAN about where things are going. (A little long but very interesting).

 

[Glaucus]

I think it's fair to say that some members of the media did go off the deep end during the build up to the Iraq war, but not all of them. But the media does profit from wars and disasters so they will be quick to jump on the bandwagon and "in-bed" themselves with anyone if it suits them. Do you really think there's a US news network that wouldn't have run an exclusive interview with Osama Bin Ladden after 9/11 if given the chance? The media are like whores, and like any good whore are not too concerned with the morality of their clients so long as they pay up in cold hard cash.

The fact is many people did not agree with Bush and those who did were merely jockeying for political favor. There is always incentive to agree with your leader. So much so there's even a special word for that. But that's nothing new. Still, Bush never got unanimous approval for the Iraq invasion. And even though many senators and congress men did give their approval for military force against Iraq, their intention was to use that as a leverage in negotiations - unfortunately Bush had no such intentions it turned out.

So I don't think you can really compare the US to North Korea, at least not based on the lead up to Iraq. I haven't watched your video which appears to be about surveillance. That's a whole different topic and I certainly have issues with where the US (and Canada) is heading on that front. In that sense, we might be more like North Korea than I would like to admit.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

So I don't think you can really compare the US to North Korea, at least not based on the lead up to Iraq. I haven't watched your video which appears to be about surveillance.

Iraq was a long time ago and things haven't improved since then. People are feeling that it is less and less safe to disagree with the mainstream position and are craving anonymity so that they can say what they think without fear. This is not the mark of a free society. While it is fashionable to criticize place like North Korea (or the former Soviet territories) the elites here are jealous and want the same thing. Freedom is for those with power, not for the little people.