Monday, August 14, 2017

The Final Solution: "Load of Nonsense"



North Korea responded to Trump’s threat of ‘fire and fury” by calling it a ‘a load of nonsense’ (“North Korea calls Trump’s threat a ‘load of nonsense"'Politico, 8/9/17). It’s a very odd American sounding locution for a country that speaks an entirely different language both literally and metaphorically. And it’s reminiscent of the female Japanese propagandists who fell under the rubric of Tokyo Rose and who attempted to seduce American troops with their down home language during World War II. It's folksy, familiar, clever and disarming to the extent that it puts the onus of the bombast on the US, and makes the North Koreans sound almost common sensical. The syntax portrays the Kim Jong-un regime as the one who's trying to be the calming influence, as the bullying imperialist power and its truculant leader push their defenseless victims around the schoolyard. Next thing you know the North Koreans will be churning out words like "jeepers." DPRK propaganda is also making an attempt to appeal to a more educated demographic("North Korea warns Trump to 'talk and act properly,' says conflict is 'tragicomedy.'" (ABC News, 8/12/17) If Trump's appeal is to the uneducated white voter, then the North Koreans are honing some of their rhetoric so as to appeal to the educated elite both here and abroad. One thing that ISIS and the DPRK and in common are brilliant propaganda machines. It's something they may have inherited from the Nazis, whose operation was famously run by Joseph Goebbels. Still look at the big picture; it's all a game of chess when you realize that North Korea remains China's client.

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