• dead [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      NKNews is a website that mostly rehosts articles published by KCNA, DPRK’s own news agency, except NKNews is anti-DPRK. I’ve seen DPRK issue press statements accusing NKNews of violating international copyright law by rehosting DPRK’s articles.

      Here is an article about the Institute with the portraits hosted on DPRK’s website. Click the camera icon for photos. You can see the Marx/Lenin most clearly on photo 28 of the collage

      http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/349a3f1f2c57f1ccfc8a11db87854fb5.kcmsf

      https://archive.is/jt8tA

      Here is DPRK saying that NKNews is an illegal organization. https://archive.is/u37VK

    • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      Thanks for pointing this out. The paywall really hits different in this context. I was familiar with there being a presentation hosted by the WPK going over the history of socialism going all the way back to Fourier, which naturally put great emphasis on Marx and Lenin, but I missed there being public portraits even though I think it was probably reported in some of the same articles.

      Anyway, it’s better for them to have that than not have that, I guess, but do you see why I might not find it all that meaningful? I was mostly trying to express a question about trying to understand where Kim Il-Sung believed what he was saying regarding Marxism versus paying lip service. KJU putting up portraits but continuing with his not-even-revisionist ideological lines that he inherited from his grandfather (with various transformations, but I don’t think those are very relevant here). Like, this really strikes me as red-washing that is even more superficial than what I was already calling extremely suspect.

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        I’m not sure if it’s red washing either, it just seemed like relevant info. I haven’t yet read the entire Espresso Stalinist blog post to have an informed opinion (sorry). blob-no-thoughts

        archive.ph seems to be down, but you can probably open it in a private/incognito window.

        Edit: Private browsing isn’t working either. I was able to read the entire article just a few minutes ago, too. Apparently I don’t know how the web works.

        • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          4 months ago

          There’s no need to apologize, but I think you might find the article interesting. The worst part is the start where he’s occupied with his Hoxhaist ax-grinding; the rest is pretty succinct and helpful imo, even if I don’t agree with everything he asserts.

      • hello_hello [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        4 months ago

        I don’t see it as red washing at all. The idea of there being a national bourgeois class ruling the country under a false revolution doesn’t make sense if they’re just giving lectures on ML political theory to build party cadres this just seems undialectical.

        • purpleworm [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          4 months ago

          Legitimizing yourself by pointing to a heritage is very different from training cadres using a specific political theory that is part of but definitely not all of that heritage (again, it went back to Fourier), especially given we have no specific evidence of that presentation representing broader patterns of instruction, and that presentation itself is not especially Marxist. Meanwhile, we can see in the article that I linked in the first comment that they do give instructions that are completely opposed to the basic ideas of Marxism.