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"Pyongyang’s once-empty streets are now jammed with vehicles that aren’t supposed to be there" (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by to c/slop@hexbear.net
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https://xcancel.com/Reuters/status/2054098106136813829

Cars in North Korea??? That's not supposed to happen. It's ruining our narratives about them having dead rats for dinner. maddened

DPRK citizens now have access to superior Chinese EVs that amerikkkans can't have. juche-rose

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[–] 62 points 3 months ago (4 children)

20 years ago, a favorite trope of western media talking about the DPRK was how Pyongyang had all these big fancy clean boulevards and roadways with precise traffic control, but the streets were empty of cars. how silly!

it's like those old stories about China's ghost cities of infrastructure with no inhabitants being all fake and communism. now, of course, they're full of people and well integrated into a regional development plan.

and, the cherry on top has got to be, as you point out, the article talking about car ownership being elite only, but the roads are full anyway because the dang proletariat are too numerous. don't they realize they can't have so many elites?! the word "elite" has lost all meaning in these communist countries!

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  • [–] 39 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    no no, it makes sense. when the workers are in control, they are the elite. and they can all afford cars apparently. it's only the poor aristocrats of north korea who cant.

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  • [–] 40 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    my grandfather had an egg monopoly and a palace with many servants. and now i must walk the streets like a dust-covered peasant, where any one feels permitted by this authoritarian government to make eye contact with me.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 months ago*

    On the way, it struck me that at the foot of the trees some tin sheets completely eaten with rust had been set up which I had not seen there the day before.

    I asked why they did not move them out of the way; somebody might be injured by them.

    In reply I was given a most resentful look.

    "I would have you know," said Zemoeki, "that they are the Bigrusts which are displayed on solemn occasions." From this I understood only that I had made a blunder again, so, much more softly and with respect, I inquired after the nature of the Bigrusts, at which it came to light that that too, was an aneba.

    "I'm no boaster," Zeremble said, "but I can tell you that my sheet of iron became holed with rust no less than eighty years ago."

    And he looked around proudly.

    But Zemoeki remarked that on his sheet of iron the rust was already two inches thick.

    Now I was very curious and, to avoid any blunder, on the basis of my previous experiences, I flatteringly praised Zemoeki's Bigrust though I had no idea what that signified.

    This method did indeed open their hearts and while we proceeded they explained every rusty sheet of iron.

    from https://www.kevius.com/kazohinia/chapter15.html

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  • [–] 32 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    20 years ago, a favorite trope of western media talking about the DPRK was how Pyongyang had all these big fancy clean boulevards and roadways with precise traffic control, but the streets were empty of cars. how silly!

    Basically the same as chinese ghost city propaganda. They can't conceive of planning ahead.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 months ago*

    The big one that gets me is that they always talk about, "Oh don't you know that they have skyscrapers they put up ten years ago that are falling apart?" And I am like, "Ok how many? One, two? A thousand? Because China has built over 10,000 over five story buildings in the last two decades, and it doesn't fucking look like the majority of them are going anywhere." But the western brainpan cannot comprehend the statistics and numbers of buildings created. In the U.S. this number is less than 1000.

    Moreover, who cares if it is falling apart in 10 years, when you can just put up another one if you have the resources? Money is fucking fake.

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