Video: North Korean propaganda exposes hellish Orwellian experience of American life; Update: Fake

Via Danger Room, a reminder that NorK propaganda is so over the top that it’s difficult to tell the real thing from a heavy-handed fake. Is this real or just someone’s idea of a goof? On the one hand, it makes sense as a crude way to keep up morale in a nation-sized prison camp where the people are so poor that they have to eat grass. Convince them that the rest of the world, including and especially their archenemy, lives the same way and suddenly life under the Kim dynasty doesn’t seem so bad. That explains the odd focus here on Americans drinking snow, I take it: By comparison, North Koreans’ foliage-based standard of living looks high. On the other hand, c’mon. What’s that goofy bit in the middle about a former Republican pol from Oregon doing here? Even North Koreans surely know that Bob Packwood’s doing better than that. And in fairness, the coffee at my local convenience store does taste like it’s made from snow.

I’ll give them one thing: Gun violence among the population there surely is lower, for very good authoritarian reasons.

Update (3/16): Nope, it’s a fake.

• Mother of Benghazi victim: Hillary and Susan Rice told me “nose to nose” that the Mohammed video was to blame
• U.S. rejects NorKs’ demand for recognition as a nuclear state
• North Korea demands apology, threatens retaliation after Seoul demonstration

Blowback