The North Korea crazy train keeps on a-rolling
So the views of Arturo Pierre Martinez that interest me aren’t his views on Iraq, Ferguson, or even North Korea, but the views that explain him best, which were buried at the bottom of CNN’s report:
He also talked about unidentified flying objects, CIA involvement in the cocaine trade, “ultrasonic” devices that cause people to hear voices and experience bodily discomfort and how the Western news media unfairly portrayed North Korea. [CNN]
You can see a video clip here, if you care to. Martinez’s mother relates his sad history:
Martinez’s mother, Patricia Eugenia Martinez of El Paso, said their son was bipolar and earlier tried to enter North Korea by swimming across a river, only to be stopped and shipped back to the United States, where he was placed in a California psychiatric hospital.
“Then he got out,” she said. “He is very smart and he got the court to let him out and instead of coming home to us he bought a ticket and left for China. He took out a payday loan online and left for China.”
There’s nothing crazy about believing that American police, intelligence officers, or contractors who kill detainees or arrestees should face prosecution for it, that there should be strict limits on the power of government to harm even the world’s worst people to protect innocent life, or that we should be debating all of these things openly and vigorously. Which is why we are.
You don’t even have to be crazy to sympathize with North Korea, although, as one astute long-time reader wrote to me a few weeks ago, “I’ve sort of suspected for a while … that the pro-Pyongyang lobby is full of people who could really benefit from talking to someone.” Agreed.
What marks you as crazy is believing that Pyongyang is a suitable place to discuss those things. What is it about North Korea that attracts the irrational, the unstable, the dangerously naive, those who lack good judgment (see also, Item 4) … and whatever the hell you call this?
At this point, I wouldn’t blame the North Koreans for concluding that this entire country is one big free-range artisanal freak show. There are times when I wonder myself.