Thread by @BonicMichael

Q: Does art imitate life or does life imitate art?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imit…
A: Both. Art is produced by artists. Artists are painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, poets, actors, dancers & writers. When we aspire to become artists we start in school where teachers & mentors

2/guide us in the pursuit of our aspirations thru University level & beyond, which may culminate in achieving rewarding careers as artists. Art is an entirely human creation. It inspires & informs us at a universal level w/ a power that transcends ideology, nationality, race &

3/& language. Wherever “life imitates art”, then, it’s doing so in emulation of the original ideas of artists who created the art. At the same time, photography captures life in moments of real time. Nothing "resembles" life more closely than a photograph.

4/When “life imitates art” (example: North Korea’s Wangjaesan Dance Troupe dancing to Irene Cara’s dance hit “Flashdance…What a Feeling”), it happens overtly. At the same time the arts of photorealism, creative travel/wilderness/sport documentary & nature photography/film are

5/rooted in concrete reality, nature or our real life experiences and seek to bring them to life accurately and creatively.

That said, I'll make the case that “life imitates art” when it comes to North Korean defectors. Think Jason Bourne.

6/Operation Treadstone, a CIA black ops program, turned David Webb into Jason Bourne 👇
The Bourne Identity (2002 film)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourn…
The Bourne Supremacy (film)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourn…

7/“The Bourne Identity is a 2002 action-thriller film based on Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, a man suffering from psychogenic amnesia and attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the CIA.”

8/Because “art imitates life”, we know that Operation Treadstone, a CIA black ops program, turned David Webb into Jason Bourne. And conversely, because “life imitates art”, we know that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service trains/coerces/conditions defectors like Operation

9/Treadstone did David Webb until they become Jason Bourne-like pawns in their political/ideological game of vilifying the DPRK to make it look as bad as possible.

Rudimentary fact: The U.S.'s CIA & ROK's NIS are like 2 peas in a capitalist democracy pod.

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1422029964648484868?s=20

10/Why do North Korean defector testimonies so often fall apart?

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1421996781995323400?s=20

11/DPRK’s claim that Ho Kang Il & his 12 staff members were kidnapped by ROK is true.

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1422019800973287427?s=20

12/But wait! Isn't North Korea the “hermit kingdom” “isolated from the world” run by "an oppressive regime” and "brutal dictator” who “starves his people” & has committed a long list of “human rights violations”?? 🤔
That’s narrative the entire Western world believes w/out

13/question. It is built on the testimony of North Korean defectors whose stories as we know👆are notoriously unreliable, distorted & often outright false. ROK "offers defectors $860,000 if they cross into the country $ provide intelligence that improves the country's security."

14/So the NIS & defectors have a cozy little gig going on thinking none will be the wiser. But au contraire. You can see thru their charade as clearly as you can see Jason Bourne struggling to find his real identity on the silver screen.
tenor.com/view/carotte-g…

15/When the money rolls in, defectors (ONLY THOSE WHO LIE & KNOW IT) know they've been bought by the South Korean government, which pimps them to the U.S. Congress where they earn the filthy lucre of capitalism they left the DPRK for.
makeagif.com/gif/money-rain…

16/Which is fact and which is fiction then? In a political world, to answer that question in truth would be neither expedient nor advantageous to South Korea's strategic national interest, whose predilection is to see DPRK collapse under sanctions.

17/In the material world TRUTH can be thrown under the bus for political expediency, just as Jesus Christ was betrayed and crucified on the cross. You give to God what belongs to God and to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. The TRUTH behind every defector's testimony belongs to God.

18/Because $$$ greases the wheels of NK defectors' testimony, we should heed Jiyoung Song's warning: "While there is no doubt the North Korean regime has committed serious human rights abuses, there are questions to be asked about how heavily outsiders should rely on defectors’

19/"testimonies as credible evidence...There are questions to be asked about how heavily outsiders should rely on defectors’ testimonies as credible evidence."

Will Washington wise up to reality? Time will tell. The real question is: Will the North-Korean-defector Jason Bournes

20/shake their psychogenic amnesia in the struggle in their souls to reconnect to being the David Webbs they once were?

Extreme Ways - Moby (The Bourne Identity)

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