Yes, I understand the U.S. has a marine mammal program, but "satellite images" aren't evidence of the DPRK having one. What's more likely is that this is another case of a thing the U.S. does itself projected onto an enemy of the state.
NORTH KOREANS ARE TRAINING DOLPHINS FOR WAR IN SPECIALIZED NAVAL FACILITIES!!!*
*could also be a fish farm
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I shouldn't say "weirdest," more like really off-base, or misunderstood. From what I understand "social credit" as it exists is aimed at enterprises/businesses rather than individuals. It's not a tool of social control for the average person...
Its main targets are businesses/their executives engaging in misconduct. It's a policy implemented by the gov to decrease high levels of corruption. If a business/exec engages in misconduct this system doles out punishment thru restrictions on flying/highest tier on train travel
US media follows orientalist tradition of not defining China as it actually is, but rather in its perceived relation to the West, so that China never fully exists on its own terms, but is instead held up as a foil to Western civilizational superiority 1/
This orientalist representation operates on two axes, the political & the cultural:
political: as a gov’t, China is imagined as an authoritarian regime, a human rights disaster, lying/deceitful, a political crisis to be solved thru implementation of West. liberal democracy 2/
Cultural: as a people, China is imagined as morally inferior, a “backwards” civilization, barbaric, filthy, diseased, so cruel that they will eat anything that moves 3/
Best thing about this NYT article is the way it gives “global backlash” an agency of its own, as if this backlash happened organically rather than being spearheaded by the world’s most belligerent superpower, lmao
In March Daily Beast obtained a WH cable instructing State Dept officials when speaking to media to focus on CN orchestrating a cover up. Soon after, we got pieces like these from Marc Thiessen of AEI/Shadi Hamid of Brookings Inst. This is how the levers of power work
Republicans also recently released a 57 pp memo instructing GOP candidates to aggressively attack CN, stressing 3 talking pts:
1. CN covered it up 2. Dems are “soft on CN” 3. Repubs will push for sanctions (This is why you see states announcing they plan to sue for reparations)