The Republic of Cuba page on Prolewiki is a pretty good starter. Usually people that claim such and such state is only adopting Marxism aesthetically to “fool” the population just fundamentally misunderstand how ideology works and how cultural hegemony works. For that, I recommend the essay Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of “Brainwashing.”

The importance is in equating what is equal, while showing that the term alone says nothing about how the power is spread or whose interests it upholds. Liberals often decry the “authoritarianism” of, say, Cuba, which wielded its authority in the favor of policies like comprehensive land reform for the good of the people.

It’s neither. As I said to the other person, communists don’t support, say, the Shining Path of Peru, or Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Communists support socialist states, as well as anti-imperialist states, based on their actual real merits.

That’s not true, though. You won’t find any support for thr Shining Path of Peru or Pol Pot and thr Khmer Rouge here, for example, even though they called themselves communists and voiced opposition to the US. The fact is, the groups communists support are more nuanced than that simple binary, and trying to forcd that nuance into a binary just dodges any need to look into why communists actually support socialist states.

Yes.

It’s how defections most often happened, though they happen rarely now.

I’m aware of how the security council works. I’m also aware of how the US Empire wields its financial and millitary domination of the world in favor of its imperialist ambitions, and how that impacts other organizations like the security council.

There are a number of seats, but the most important factor is the US Empire, which wields its financial and millitary domination of the world in favor of its imperialist ambitions.

Even Wikipedia shows that defectors usually go through China, and Wikipedia is very biased against the DPRK. I don’t know what you mean by “authoritarian communist” countries, all states are “authoritarian” in that they uphold one class over others, China is socialist and the Russian Federation is capitalist. It really isn’t hard to find any of this information, but if you want more:

A bit on information from the DPRK I wrote earlier:

The problem with reporting on the DPRK is that information is extremely limited on what is actually going on there. Most reports come from defectors, and said defectors are notoriously dubious in their accounts, something the WikiPedia page on Media Coverage of North Korea spells out quite clearly. These defectors are also held in confined cells for around 6 months before being released to the public in the ROK, in… unkind conditions, and pressured into divulging information. Additionally, defectors are paid for giving testemonials, and these testimonials are paid more the more severe they are. From the Wiki page:

Felix Abt, a Swiss businessman who lived in the DPRK, argues that defectors are inherently biased. He says that 70 percent of defectors in South Korea are unemployed, and selling sensationalist stories is a way for them to make a living.

Side note: there is a great documentary on the treatment of DPRK defectors titled Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul, which interviews DPRK defectors and laywers legally defending them, if you’re curious.

Because of these issues, there is a long history of what we consider legitimate news sources of reporting and then walking back stories. Even the famous “120 dogs” execution ended up to have been a fabrication originating in a Chinese satirical column, reported entirely seriously and later walked back by some news outlets. The famous “unicorn lair” story ended up being a misunderstanding:

In fact, the report is a propaganda piece likely geared at shoring up the rule of Kim Jong Eun, North Korea’s young and relatively new leader, said Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor of Korean studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Most likely, North Koreans don’t take the report literally, Lee told LiveScience.

“It’s more symbolic,” Lee said, adding, “My take is North Koreans don’t believe all of that, but they bring certain symbolic value to celebrating your own identify, maybe even notions of cultural exceptionalism and superiority. It boosts morale.”

These aren’t tabloids, these are mainstream news sources. NBC News reported the 120 dogs story. Same with USA Today. The frequently reported concept of “state-mandated haircut styles”, as an example, also ended up being bogus sensationalism. People have made entire videos going over this long-running sensationalist misinformation, why it exists, and debunking some of the more absurd articles. As for Radio Free Asia, it is US-government founded and funded. There is good reason to be skeptical of reports sourced entirely from RFA about geopolitical enemies of the US Empire.

Sadly, some people end up using outlandish media stories as an “acceptable outlet” for racism. By accepting uncritically narratives about “barbaric Koreans” pushing trains, eating rats, etc, it serves as a “get out of jail free” card for racists to freely agree with narratives devoid of real evidence.

It’s important to recognize that a large part of why the DPRK appears to be insular is because of UN-imposed sanctions, helmed by the US Empire. It is difficult to get accurate information on the DPRK, but not impossible; Russia, China, and Cuba all have frequent interactions and student exchanges, trade such as in the Rason special economic zone, etc, and there are videos released onto the broader internet from this.

In fact, many citizens who flee the DPRK actually seek to return, and are denied by the ROK. Even BBC is reporting on a high-profile case where a 95 year old veteran wishes to be buried in his homeland, sparking protests by pro-reunification activists in the ROK to help him go home in his final years.

Finally, it’s more unlikely than ever that the DPRK will collapse. The economy was estimated by the Bank of Korea (an ROK bank) to have grown by 3.7% in 2024, thanks to increased trade with Russia. The harshest period for the DPRK, the Arduous March, was in the 90s, and the government did not collapse then. That was the era of mass statvation thanks to the dissolution of the USSR and horrible weather disaster that made the already difficult agricultural climate of northern Korea even worse. Nowadays food is far more stable and the economy is growing, collapse is highly unlikely.

What I think is more likely is that these trends will continue. As the US Empire’s influence wanes, the DPRK will increase trade and interaction with the world, increasing accurate information and helping grow their economy, perhaps even enabling some form of reunification with the ROK. The US Empire leaving the peninsula is the number 1 most important task for reunification, so this is increasingly likely as the US Empire becomes untenable.

Nodutdol, an anti-imperialist group of Korean expats, released a toolkit on better understanding the situation in Korea. This is more like homework, though.

It’s more that I have yet to see good evidence or a goid argument to the contrary. Again, like I said, people from the DPRK do travel to Russia and China.

Marxists have always opposed liberalism, liberalism is pro-capitalism and anti-socialist and Marxism is anti-capitalist and pro-socialist. Liberalism is extreme though, as Edie pointed out, just in a horrible direction.

The council also tries to paint the DPRK as trying to develop nukes because they want to nuke the US Empire, and not as a defensive measure to prevent themselves from being victims of genocide like they were in the past. This is a clear-cut case of the west wielding the UN as a means to punish those that they deem “enemies” and prevent them from establishing mutually beneficial relationships internationally.

Liberals are generally those who support the capitalist status quo, or think it only needs tweaks.

All states influence other states. The point they brought up about “civil wars being imperialism” was said sarcastically.

Imperialism is where one nation financially dominates and plunders another. Conflict, bombing, coups, etc can all aid in this, but the fundemental baseline requires there to be plunder, not just influence.

Here’s a decent article explaining imperialism.

Also because they depend economically on trade with and work on the mainland.

But they do travel to friendly states, I showed you how. The most common way to defect is to go to China and defect there, because that’s pretty easy. Prior to this order, DPRK nationals actually did do work around the world as well. Part of what’s keeping DPRK nationals in is their government, yes, but because the western world is extremely hostile to them.

The former is the dev’s test instance, the latter is an ML instance.

That’s fair, thank you.

Or something like sopuli or other generalist instance. Lemmy.ml is where the admins are communist but it’s widely federated, so I do all of my “lead liberals to theory” talks here, with my Lemmy.ml account. If I want to chill or actually discuss theory, ask questions, keep up with the news, etc, then I use Grad or Hexbear. I have accounts on all 3 and scroll each locally (sometimes I peak out on Lemmy.ml but not frequently).

I explained my position more over on Grad.

Some comrades use Lemmygrad.ml for scrolling all. Not only can you see pretty much everything and comment everywhere, other instances that aren’t defederated can see you too, and you won’t get swarmed by lemmy.world accounts or sh.itjust.works accounts when you do so. It’ll be more lonely, I suppose, but it does mean you aren’t going to be getting into nearly as many fights.