Okay, guys. No. Just. No.
First of all, that opening strawman quote disregards the fact that there are two Koreas: North and South. North Korea is the one with Kim Jong-un and the nuclear missiles and the MASSIVE human rights violations. South Korea is the one with Samsung, LG, and the 2018 Winter Olympics. With that out of the way, let me move on.
You do not get to use whataboutism when it comes to DPRK vs. the United States as if the two countries are somehow equivalent.
I’m not saying this because I think the U.S. is the greatest country in the world. I mean, seriously. Everyday, the headlines are plastered with Trump’s newest dumbass tweet or comment that I can only assume is satire until I realize it is real and this is the world we live in now. We needed a single-payer healthcare system not run by insurance companies, oh, I don’t know, eleventy billion years ago (yes, even before the Big Bang). Racism, homophobia, and misogyny run rampant in our society. Why is Guantanamo Bay still open? Why do rich people run our lives? And yeah, it’s a little weird that we make little kids recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
But do you know how I know that the two countries aren’t the same?
Because I could write that mini-tirade about the broken-ness of the U.S. above and not worry about me and multiple generations of my family being sent to a prison labor camp. And even “labor camp” is a nice euphemism. “Death camp” is a more fitting moniker. Oh, yeah, and if you have kids in one of those prison camps, those kids are prisoners too. Here’s what Amnesty International has to say about it:
Systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations continued as up to 120,000 people remained in detention in the four known political prison camps, and were subjected to forced labour as well as torture and other ill-treatment.
In fact, every single one of you who wrote something disparaging about the United States enjoys the right to freedom of speech. You could write those edgy opinions about brainwashed Americans because you LIVE IN AMERICA (or some other free country) AND NOT NORTH KOREA.
And really?? The fact that Kim Jong-un didn’t force everyone to fashion their hairstyle after him is somehow indicative of… something?! That Americans are racist or that DPRK is harmless or… what? Are we now like “lol we were wrong about the haircut thing I guess we must be wrong about the prison camps and false imprisonment too”? I mean he had his own brother assassinated using a chemical agent. He continues work on a nuclear program. A nuclear program whose implications are not only scary as shit has also caused tunnels to collapse leading to the deaths of about 200 people,
So yes. Please protest the U.S. government and write op-eds and educate people about the state of our country. Because it’s not great. In fact, it downright sucks at times. (Plus the fact that Trump seems to begrudgingly admire Kim Jong-un is downright fucking scary.)
But don’t do whatever is happening here–downplaying the civil rights violations of an actual dictatorship by somehow alleging the U.S. is the same? Or worse? Because, I’m sorry. This false equivalency is ridiculous and shortsighted and outright ignores the situation in North Korea.
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