While generally true that people rarely argue from the position of being a freethinker as a vocal core of their argument. What is not rare, however, is the habit of many calling anyone who points out that English sphere narratives about the DPRK are manufactured nonsense brainwashed. To label someone brainwashed on a given issue rests on the presupposition that you yourself are not. It assumes you operate as a free thinker. This posture persists even while their views align almost entirely with propaganda generated and circulated by the imperialist hegemon against an ideological enemy they remain at war with. Claiming intellectual immunity while repeating hegemonic talking points with little to no evidence (The core of the joke.).