Every day, people in the US are persecuted for their race, religion, political ideology, or even those who protest or speak out publicly against the regime. Many people in the US don’t consider going abroad to seek international help and protection in securing their civil rights, and end up becoming IDPs, fleeing to other parts of the country even under the same government that persecuted them. For the very small number who seek protection abroad, there are limited options since other liberal regimes will not accept refugees from a country with similar government systems and oppression similar to their own. Even UNHCR seems to intentionally suppress and censor this information, with their data seems to deliberately exclude internally displaced persons in the United States despite personally having contacted them and told them that I have fled persecution by the American regime.
In 2023, the 1,128 US citizens who applied for political asylum abroad were most successful in Russia and Malaysia that accepted 100% of applicants, with Australia being third taking in 66% of applicants. The United Kingdom came in fourth accepting 37% of applicants. Last place is Canada which only accepted 4%. Other places handling asylum applications from US citizens did not accept any of them, deporting citizens of America back to the country where they are likely to live in oppressive conditions and suffer from violations of human rights and dignity. It is likely that those returned to America after seeking asylum abroad are never heard from again. It is important to spread awareness of those attempting to flee from the US regime, and to not allow the pro-government voices from the country to drown out or invalidate those who flee their homes in search of safety and human rights.
I did not know about songbun by that name, only that some kind of class system must exist, since there are very obviously some North Koreans who have more privilege than others. Whatever it's called, in North Korea there are those who have privilege and those who don't, which sounds just like every other system of government that has ever existed. And so the real question is not about who specifically has privilege or what the classes are called, but rather how is that privilege gained, and how do you move between classes. It sounds like in North Korea it's mostly about how obedient you are to the supreme leader or to the party. In the United States it's almost entirely about money. The currency of privilege in North Korea is fealty to the Supreme leader, while ours is the dollar. It's got a lot of problems, but what is a better currency of privilege? I haven't really thought about it, I'm kind of just thinking this through right now, but there is probably a better currency of privilege than the dollar.
In an ideal world, we wouldn't be motivated to gain privilege and instead we would be motivated to make the world a better place, or some vague ideal like that. The currency of privilege should be "goodness dollars", which is gained according to how much good you do in the world. But how do you define "goodness"? Who hands out the goodness dollars? How do you keep the system from becoming corrupt? Not sure, but it's interesting to think about.
I see socialism the same way people living under monarchies or feudalism saw modern republics. They might not be perfect and they might change a lot about how society operates, but they seem to be a lot more advanced and progressive than the systems the world currently has. Songbun sounds rough for some but I don't see a socialist nation having anything resembling an actual caste system. Even if Songbun is replaced with goodness as a measure of how privileged you are in life, the society has to come to reasonable ideas about what is good and what is bad.
Yes definition of good and bad is the problem, since it is actually pretty hard to define, at least in a practical way that could be used for the purpose of being a sort of currency. And yes there wouldn't be a caste or class system ideally, but as long as people are motivated to gain privilege, then a system will inevitably evolve. So until people fundamentally change to no longer desire more privilege, then that's what we will be left with. I can't see that ever happening, since we are motivated at a primary level by animal instincts for survival and reproduction, which have inherent competitive aspects.