The biggest problem with the gleeful initial reactions to reports that an American student, Otto Warmbier, had been imprisoned in North Korea is that it’s wrong to delight in the suffering of others.
The second-biggest problem is that there are a disturbing number of U.S. commentators who not only unquestioningly accept the Hermit Kingdom’s version of events, which is deeply shameful, but that they also think a 15-year prison sentence for petty theft is perfectly reasonable.
Are these people totally unfamiliar with the concept of show trials? Are they unfamiliar with the usual behavior of despot states? Read a book, people.
Warmbier was arrested on Jan. 2, 2016, and charged with attempting to steal a propaganda poster. He was put on trial. He read a confession and was immediately convicted of the alleged theft.
On Feb. 29, 2016, Warmbier was made to read a confession publicly. His statement had all the markings of the sort of thing one would expect from the old Soviet Union show trials: Over-the-top declarations of sorrow, excessive praise for the ruling regime, and an admission of guilt regarding acts with muddled and incomprehensible motivations.
Warmbier said in his public confession that he stole the poster because a friend’s mother promised him a used car worth $10,000 in exchange for the propaganda souvenir. This mother also supposedly offered to give Warmbier’s family, who he claimed were “suffering from very severe financial difficulties,” $200,000 if he was caught lifting the poster. The family has denied the claim about their finances. Warmbier also said he stole the poster because he wanted to join a “semi-secret ring society” at the University of Virginia.
“I entirely beg you, the people and government of the DPR Korea, for your forgiveness. Please! I have made the worst mistake of my life! Please! Think of my family,” he said.
If that sounds to you like a statement written by a modern 22-year-old American male, that embarrassment is on you.
Amazingly enough, and despite that the trial was obviously a sham, some members of U.S. media not only delighted in Warmbier’s arrest, but they also turned it into a punchline.
On March 1, for instance, former comedy show host Larry Wilmore shrugged at the fact that a totalitarian despot state had taken an American prisoner, and instead joked and scolded Warmbier for supposedly stealing a poster.
“Tonight’s story is about the North Korean government, which recently captured one of America’s most annoying exports, a frat bro,” Wilmore said to laughs. “Okay. Listen up, frat boy, this isn’t like the time you stole Sig Ep’s goat.”
Good Lord. It’s a real mystery why Comedy Central cancelled this show.
Wilmore concluded with this, “Look frat bro dudes, if your hazing includes international crimes, you’ve got to read the fine print on your American frat bro warranty. It’s all the way at the bottom so it’s easy to miss, but it says: ‘Frat bro privilege not valid in totalitarian dystopias.'”
This is actually mild compared to some of the other scalding hot takes published in response to news of the Warmbier trial.
On March 2, for instance, the left-wing blog Salon published an article titled, “This might be America’s biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea.”
Salon has since removed the story.
On March 23, the Huffington Post published a blog post titled, “North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal.”
Ebony magazine published an opinion article on March 22 titled, “You Gon’ Learn Today: On the Revocation of White Privilege in North Korea.”
Bustle published a piece on April 1 titled, “Why Do People Blame Otto Warmbier For His North Korea Sentence? Privilege Can Sometimes Come At A Price.”
It’s important to remember that these articles were published after Warmbier read that extraordinarily dubious “confession” on Feb. 29.
It’s disturbing that even a handful of commentators in the U.S. would unblinkingly accept the charges and the verdict. It’s even worse that these American opinion-mongers seem to have no problem with a sentence of 15 years hard labor for the alleged crime of stealing a poster.
Warmbier, who was returned in a comatose state to the U.S. on June 13, 2017, died Monday, his family said in a statement. He spent a little more than 17 months in captivity in the Hermit Kingdom, all for supposedly stealing a poster.
Affinity magazine, which ignored all of this Tuesday, said after Warmbier was pronounced dead, “Watch whiteness work. He wasn’t a ‘kid’ or innocent’ you can’t go to another country and try to steal from them. Respect their laws.”
Way to speak truth to power, fellas.
