edging closęr

no problem my dude!

the thing that bothers me the most about sony actually releasing the interview is that seth rogen and james franco had a HUGE opportunity at their disposal. that movie had a big name cast, and they could have done so many things with the concept of north korea. they could have made a drama or a comedy based in north korea or SOMETHING to use that platform to raise awareness about the horrors that go on in that country.

do you know that kim jong-un has brainwashed north koreans to make them think that he can read their minds (about 11 minutes into this video)? think about how terrifying that is: living under a dictator who you think can read every thought of yours, so thus any negative thoughts you may have about his regime need to be avoided immediately.

then there’s the fact that there is a massive food crisis in north korea. it’s so bad that people eat pieces of corn found in the shit of animals because they’re so hungry. one of the most visceral things i heard was that in severe cases of malnutrition, the anus actually doesn’t close and anything you eat or drink comes directly out of you. these accounts come from prison guards who witnessed it.

at any point for any reason, police in north korea can charge you with any crime they want, and take you AND your family - regardless of whether your family was even with you at the time - to political prison camps. these camps are obviously fucking terrible places to be, as demonstrated by the images drawn here by former prisoners.

there’s also the fact that people can’t leave north korea. their borders are tightly monitored with frequently rotating guards who are told to shoot anyone who tries to cross. china, who shares a border with north korea, sends back people who have fled to china from north korea. women who return to north korea pregnant are forced to carry heavy loads up and down hills until they miscarry.

so i was relieved that sony wasn’t going to release the interview because i knew it would be full of racist, frat-boy level humor (spoiler alert: it got terrible reviews and yes, it full of racist, frat-boy level humor) that makes fun of 25 million peoples’ suffering. they had an amazing opportunity to raise awareness about the devastation that exists in that country, and instead they used that platform to be racist, mimic accents and literally make butt jokes.

when north koreans are finally freed of their chains, they’re going to learn that the rest of the world thought it was hilarious how much they were tortured.