Sorry, mistook it originally for the Qatar figure, which has a similar system and 88% migrant population.

Also, except for the bit about permission to leave country (crazy, imo) that sounds like a normal work permit in many conventionally democratic countries, where employer also uses it’s power over migrant workers

When immigrant workers aren’t given access to basic rights like healthcare, it’s an apartheid state. You could read about it instead of speculating about the extreme levels of exploitation of those poor people.

The 80% figure I mistook for the one of Qatar originally, which has a similar system but 88% of their population are immigrants without rights.

Every service you pointed out leaves immigrants without access, 40% of Saudi population not having access to healthcare is exactly my point. Wikipedia explicitly says this healthcare is for citizens, and when 40% are non citizens, it’s a de-facto apartheid state with half the population being immensely exploited

Why are you running defense for authoritarian monarchies in the Middle East?

If not uncritically swallowing Radio Free Asia propaganda makes me stupid, I guess I am. Go on believing your fairytales of forbidden/mandatory haircuts, multigenerational prisons and belief in unicorns

About Saudi Arabia:

The kafala system or kefala system (Arabic: نظام الكفالة niẓām al-kafāla, lit. ‘sponsorship system’) is a system in the Middle East that involves binding the residency and employment status of a migrant worker to a specific employer throughout the period of their residence in a country. Under this arrangement, the employer holds substantial authority over the worker, including the ability to approve or deny job changes, and permission to leave the country. This dependency creates a significant power imbalance that heightens the risk of exploitation and abusive practices.

Demographics in Saudi Arabia:

However, 38.3% of the residents (or about 13.3 million people) are non-citizens,[8] and many of them are migrant workers.

When 40%ish of the population is without basic human rights, idk what you’re claiming false about my arguments

Regarding sources for North Korea, the YouTube channel “DPRK Explained” does a great job of showing the realities of North Korea. You should have a look if you’re interested.

What non-democratically-chosen capitalist owner would you have chosen then?

Ah yes, South Korean interviews of North Koreans that have managed to flee the country- classic western propaganda

Unironically yes. Russia literally does this with the right wing US émigrées that move to Russia because gay rights are shit there and “they have no woke”, these people literally get paid to do such propaganda.

Let me do one better: what is your evidence that say otherwise?

A society whose results don’t match those of a personal monarchic dictatorship. For example, Saudi Arabia, a widely known example of a monarchy with absolutist power, has 80% of the population composed of immigrants without rights who get stripped of their passports and get treated as slaves. There’s no public healthcare, no infrastructure for poor people (trains, public schools, people-centered urbanism…), etc.

In the DPRK, there’s widespread public transit infrastructure with trains and trams, public education for everyone, public healthcare, good workers’ rights relative to their level of development, people-centered urban planning, collectivized agriculture… You wouldn’t expect any of these things from an absolutist monarchy.

Your entire knowledge of the DPRK comes from western propaganda, I’m not the obtuse one here. Tell me how many times you’ve gone “actually, let’s see” and tried to read something about the country? You’re analyzing the political structure of a country based on 3 news shots from western sources.

What we have is he is the single most powerful person in North Korea

I don’t doubt this, but you could have said the same about Queen Elizabeth before she got in a box

that rule and guide the country

This requires more evidence. What’s your evidence for this? What material reasons do you have to believe that the decisions come from Kim personally and not from the communist party?

“Political power comes from televised claps”

-No serious political analysis ever

From your own article:

It is widely believed that Kim Jong-nam was murdered on the orders of Kim Jong Un.

So, it is not factually known who really killed him (rather on behalf of whom), but that’s enough to you to claim absolute power by the Kim family?

I could mention the current old king of Spain (Juan Carlos the First) murdering his brother, does that prove absolute power by the Spanish monarchy?

Also funny:

At the time of his death, Kim’s backpack contained approximately $100,000 in cash

I wonder where he would find that kind of American money

Ok, now, can you conceive that the Kim family’s role is more representative as in a constitutional monarchy (such as that of my homeland of Spain) than it is de-facto monarchical power? I’m not saying that the DPRK’s parliament is democratically elected, I’m questioning whether we can, with the information at our disposal in the west, affirm that the politics of the DPRK are controlled by one particular family and not by, say, the cadres of their communist party.

Any president can order the assassination of people on foreign soil, look at the US under Biden assassinating tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israel, or what happened to Lady Dee at the behest of the royal family of England.

But I’m not familiar with what you’re describing in particular, could you please gimme a source to read on?

And how much political power does the Kim family really have? How much do we really know about the DPRK?

Would you consider the Netherlands or Denmark a democracy? Both have literal monarchies.

Fascism? In my anti-communism?!

What part of “heavy investments in AI and military” seems like a winner to you? Why would you want a far-right government with a strong military in Japan? Did you see what happened last time?

“Why would the country spawned from the Japanese Empire without significant reeducation against fascism descend towards fascism…”

Wow, what a load of made-up shit!

996 (the 12 h workday 6 days a week), while a stark reality, is only commonplace in the tech sector among young professionals, and it’s actually illegal, just rarely reported and prosecuted.

People being “forced off family farms” is directly bullshit, there were never “family farms” in China, it was an empire with brutal landlords starving the peasants with a life expectancy of less than 30 years of age before Maoism, and by the time Mao died life expectancy had doubled to almost 60 years of age. Land was collectivized and belonged to the state and local communities afterwards. People moving to cities is mostly a consequence of better (while still not good) living conditions in China in early cities. That strategy turned out wonderfully too: 800 million Chinese people have been uplifted from poverty over the past 40 years in what’s become the greatest poverty alleviation exercise in human history, saving hundreds of millions of lives in the process.

Companies in China don’t “dump their waste in the ditch behind the factory” anymore than in any developed country. Environmental regulations in the 80s were bad because the country was underdeveloped, but in mid 2020s they’re comparable to most western countries, while China is the world pioneer in nuclear and solar energy, producing 95% of all solar photovoltaic modules that are produced on Earth every year, and pioneering also electric car development and high speed rail.

Your concern for western capitalist intellectual property reveals your true ideology: you want western capital to dominate, not progress for humanity. If western companies didn’t want to accept Chinese copyright laws, they could have simply chosen not to move their production to China. Otherwise, get fucked. Great job blaming the evil Chinese communists for the lack of union movement in the west, surely nothing to do with a century of anticommunist propaganda and unionbusting.

Hahaha I’m not Spanish, I’m not a communist, damn, I should reevaluate my life