Leftist Library

Media recommendations for learning about Leftism

North Koreans in Japan – Channel 4 (2023)

This video is a great place to start to gain some nuance on the situation in North Korea. After all, the underdevelopment and repressive state North Korea has today are a result of the Korean War, waged by the US.

The Korean war killed almost 1 in 5 North Koreans and destroyed every building more than 1 story tall. The indiscriminate bombing was truly horrific, and the war that split Korea gave both sides a horrible place to start from.

And for 35 years before that, Korea was badly exploited and brutalized as a Japanese colony. That’s what makes this video so insightful. It looks beyond the west’s perspective to show the everyday effects of the US intervention in Korea.

George Lucas Admiring Soviet Filmmakers’ Freedom in the USSR (2017)

George Lucas, the renown creator of Star Wars, explains so cogently how filmmakers with something to say have to mask their work under a premise that appears highly profitable. The big studios won’t green light a film for artistic merit or to tell an important story. They became big because they sell a product. All that money is tangled up in the capitalistic entertainment industry, and most true artistic visionaries never get to see it.

This reminds me of how many children’s movies make more off toy sales than ticket sales. So many major movies are merely commercials for secondary products these days. Marketing has been rapidly merging with the movie industry, and you see that more than ever these days when studios figure they can save on marketing by remaking something people are already familiar with.

And what we the public are left with is derivative and praises capital.

“In China there is freedom from violence. In the US there is freedom FOR violence.” – Because I’m Lizzy (2024)

Travel vlogs are some of the best way to get international political education and practice your media literacy. For me, it’s an amazing way to hear different perspectives directly and see the countries we are brainwashed about with our own eyes.

This YouTuber makes some fantastic points about the west’s narrative of “safety” in China. I encourage everyone to watch travel vlogs about the countries the US hates 🙂

China’s Caribbean Ties: Dominica FM Speaks (2023)

Time and time again, we hear leadership from developing countries praise China for their hands-off approach to development. Countries who work with China get competitive interest rates, no political intervention, and new vital infrastructure.

It’s important to lift the voices of developing nations US global leadership has neglected and even stifled for so many years. A new pathway has emerged that doesn’t require a leader. China is showing how it’s possible to lead with win-win deals that honor both parties’ interests and autonomy, and they’re leading with action not ideology.

Also, this interview in particular struck me as wholesome and enjoyable! These two had so much success and national friendship to celebrate!

Why We Fight – China (1944)

This documentary on China is a propaganda film produced by the US for WWII and is a part of a series of films meant to show soldiers and the public why the war was important.

However, a decade after this film was released, the CIA was training terrorist Tibetan separatists at Camp Hale in Colorado to fight China in what would be a failed armed rebellion.

Tibet – The Truth (2013)

This documentary really opened my eyes to the complex history of Tibet. I really appreciated learning how serious the threat of imperialism was to the region leading up to its reunification with China. Also, the part beginning at 37:39 clearly explains the conflict that occurred during reunification. However, I encourage readers to watch from the beginning to see the context for why reunification was so important.

Democracy in China (2022)

My latest TikTok video on China’s economy got an outpouring of critical comments about “worker ownership” in China. People are very concerned that state owned enterprises are not a form of socialism but rather something called “state capitalism.”

But I think we can all agree that if the state is actually representative of the workers, then state ownership is worker ownership.

Here is a video describing the recent history of China’s emerging “consultative democracy,” showing ways the central leadership is embracing the power of democracy.

Please keep an open mind as I tell you now that China has the best “Democracy Perception Index” of all countries surveyed. This index is found by polling citizens of how democratic they feel their society is and subtracting that from how important they feel democracy is to their future.

Their 2022 report can be downloaded here.