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The Double Murder of Otto Warmbier
Townhall.com ^ | June 21, 2017 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 06/21/2017 5:54:56 AM PDT by Kaslin

We may never know what brutal torture and malign neglect American student Otto Warmbier suffered at the hands of North Korea's dictatorship before losing his life this week at the age of 22.

But it wasn't the first time the free-spirited Ohio native died.

More than a year before succumbing to the unknown illness or injury that left him in a coma thousands of miles away from home, Otto Warmbier's own countrymen murdered his reputation. His character. His humanity.

Click-hungry media ghouls knew nothing about Warmbier's small-town upbringing, his family life, politics, personality, disappointments or dreams. But they gleefully savaged a young man who made a mistake on a doomed trip to a totalitarian hell.

Warmbier's thoughtless taunters instantly transformed him into a bigger, badder villain than the barbaric DPRK goons who beat, starve, rape and kill enemies of the state for such offenses as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, possessing Bibles and disrespecting Dear Leader -- in Warmbier's case, by attempting to steal a propaganda sign that read "Let's arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il's patriotism!" as a souvenir.

The Huffington Post published an acid rant by "Blogging While Black" writer La Sha titled "North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal." She rejoiced at Warmbier's sentence because, she gloated, it taught him that "the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad."

Instead of faulting a repressive socialist regime, La Sha blamed Warmbier for "being socialized first as a white boy, and then as a white man in this country." The HuffPo's megalomaniac millennial had the gall to compare her daily plight of living and breathing freely in America to Warmbier's captivity:

"The hopeless fear Warmbier is now experiencing is my daily reality living in a country where white men like him are willfully oblivious to my suffering even as they are complicit in maintaining the power structures which ensure their supremacy at my expense."

But it wasn't just babbling diversity bloggers who exploited Warmbier's imprisonment.

For a few cheap yuks, liberal black comedian Larry Wilmore plowed ahead with smug disregard to how Warmbier's parents, family and friends must have suffered as photos and videos of their son and loved one were plastered all over media. To canned laughter, Wilmore mocked Warmbier on his Comedy Central show with a graphic labeling him an "ASS," which spelled out a fake frat name, "Alpha Sigma Sigma."

"It's just tough for me to have much sympathy for this guy and his crocodile tears," Wilmore snarked as he roasted the "Frat Boy."

Left-wing website Salon added another layer to the white male-bashing echo chamber:

"This might be America's biggest idiot frat boy: Meet the UVa student who thought he could pull a prank in North Korea."

Not to be outdone, Affinity Magazine (a "social justice" online magazine for teens) stomped on Warmbier's grave after his death was announced:

"Watch whiteness work," the publication tweeted. "He wasn't a 'kid' or 'innocent' you can't go to another country and try to steal from them. Respect their laws."

This from a rag that had deified Black Lives Matter icons Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin as downtrodden youth whose extensive rap sheets must remain unmentioned at all costs.

Otto's saboteurs engaged in the very same bigotry and stereotyping they recklessly accuse everyone else of at every turn. The far left learned nothing from leaping to conclusions about the Duke lacrosse players or the wrongfully accused members of Phi Kappa Psi at University of Virginia -- where Warmbier was a junior double-majoring in commerce and economics.

By all accounts, Warmbier was a charismatic and caring human being whom one high-school classmate called "Everyone's friend." He was a lover of cultures and intellectually open-minded -- "a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds," according to his family.

Utterly consumed by malignant identity politics, the left-wing intelligentsia have become the intolerantsia. They are bent on dehumanizing individuals, fomenting racial, ethnic and class division in the name of "progressivism," and never taking responsibility for the damage done.

Contrast the no-regrets policy of these "Frat Boy"-bashers, with a former North Korean prison guard, Lim Hye-jin, who escaped recently and recounted the horrors of life in the camps.

"We were manipulated not to feel any sympathy for prisoners," she said. The guards of the totalitarian state "do not see them as human beings, just as animals." After realizing she had been brainwashed by ideological monsters, she spoke out.

"Now I know they were normal people, so I feel very guilty."

Will the short, slandered life and double death of Otto Warmbier prompt the American left's cruel character assassins to admit the same?

Soul-searching, alas, requires a soul.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
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To: Kaslin
I know some liberals are filled with hate but the comments by La Sha surprised me.

She spoke of her mother saying, “That’s what the hell he gets. Good for him!. He earned that.” in her reaction to an American being caned in Singapore.

La Sha agrees with her mother's comments, "... my mother’s callous reaction to Micahel Fay’s sentence is my reaction to another young white man who went to an Asian country and violated their laws"

So La Sha thinks the young white man deserved what he got. What a miserable hateful person she is.

21 posted on 06/21/2017 7:42:29 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: Kaslin

You believe that dog and pony show?


22 posted on 06/21/2017 7:45:49 AM PDT by glenduh
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To: donozark

I think we have to assume the family was threatened, by norks and their friends, maybe even some Gentle Giants knocked on their door and “advised” them against an autopsy.

I still have never forgiven the Kopechne family for buckling under and taking the payment, a payment probably also laced with very direct threats.


23 posted on 06/21/2017 7:46:39 AM PDT by samtheman (Trump++)
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To: Humal

In the case of death row inmate executions we perform autopsies, even though the cause of death is obvious. Perhaps tests done while Mr. Warmbier was alive clearly determined cause. But we don’t know and will we ever?


24 posted on 06/21/2017 7:47:31 AM PDT by donozark (JAMES COMEY: Democrat Presidential candidate 2020.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

So “they” say.


25 posted on 06/21/2017 7:52:15 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory.)
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To: Kaslin

Maybe we can make them care. The defensive sinking of a threatening Nork sub in international waters would be fair retaliation.


26 posted on 06/21/2017 7:55:00 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory.)
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To: Kaslin

Raise your hand if you think stealing a propaganda poster in the most repressive country in the world is a good idea. I’m sorry that kid died but there is a reason for the term natural selection.


27 posted on 06/21/2017 8:38:29 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

The short, grainy clip, published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, shows a tall man... But the person’s face is not clear and the video does not show what happened after he put the sign of the floor. Also, somewhat unusually, the corridor is well-lit. A reporter who has visited a staff-only floor of the Yanggakdo hotel during the daytime found it completely dark, as is often the case in North Korea, where electricity is in short supply.


28 posted on 06/21/2017 8:47:47 AM PDT by glenduh
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To: glenduh

I see the main problem being that if you go to NK you are playing with death just being there.


29 posted on 06/21/2017 9:02:33 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Kaslin

The left openly promotes bigotry, hate, and closed-minded intolerance—just so long as it’s the “right” sort of bigotry, hate, and closed-minded intolerance. The left is only tolerant and accepting when it promotes radical leftwing political goals. Racism against whites, oppression of Christians, loathing of conservative minorities and women, condescension towards average patriotic Americans, resentfulness of straights, stereotyping Southerners, slandering Israelis, shutting down (sometimes violently) political speech they disagree with are all proudly promoted within the “tolerant” left.


30 posted on 06/21/2017 9:28:13 AM PDT by FenwickBabbitt
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To: Vaquero

Yeah, anyone who chooses to visit NK is gambling with their lives. Maybe this story will make some others think twice and stay away.


31 posted on 06/21/2017 9:52:31 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: donozark

Most people don’t seem to be aware that the Warmbiers are Jewish, although clearly not religious. It is against Jewish law to have an autopsy done. I’m not at all sure that that is a factor in the family’s decision not to allow an autopsy, but I’m throwing it out there. Also, it may be that the family decided their son had been subjected to enough indignity and insult, and sought to spare him being carved up and then rudely stitched back together. I just hope that we plant a major hurt on North Korea and particularly the maniac Kim in retaliation. Probably first time the fat brat would ever have been told “NO”.


32 posted on 06/21/2017 10:31:26 AM PDT by EinNYC
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To: EinNYC

I don’t disagree with what you say, however, a criminal investigation or court order would have preference over individual or religious objections.


33 posted on 06/21/2017 11:00:23 AM PDT by donozark (JAMES COMEY: Democrat Presidential candidate 2020.)
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To: Kaslin; NFHale; GOPsterinMA; stephenjohnbanker; fieldmarshaldj; KC_Lion; BillyBoy; sickoflibs
The Huffington Post published an acid rant by "Blogging While Black" writer La Sha titled "North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal." She rejoiced at Warmbier's sentence because, she gloated, it taught him that "the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon abroad."

FR posting guildlines states one should "refrain from posting....profanity, vulgarity, threats...or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience"

Therefore I have no public comment about Ms Blogging while Black.

34 posted on 06/21/2017 2:53:18 PM PDT by Impy (End the kritarchy!)
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To: Impy; Kaslin; GOPsterinMA; stephenjohnbanker; fieldmarshaldj; KC_Lion; BillyBoy; sickoflibs

“...the shield his cis white male identity provides here in America is not teflon...”

Aww,,, ain’t she just the CUTEST thing? She stayed up ALLLLL night long looking up those big, big words.

Quick... someone give her a Participation Trophy!!! Or a cookie... or better yet, a plunger, so she can suck her head out of her ass.


35 posted on 06/21/2017 3:26:32 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: Impy

This is a very soul-sick individual. All leftism is, is hate.


36 posted on 06/21/2017 4:32:39 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Je Suis Pepe)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
I’m sorry that kid died but there is a reason for the term natural selection.

At what point will we stop accepting propaganda from our enemies?

37 posted on 06/21/2017 4:43:14 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: donozark

“But we don’t know and will we ever?”

My thoughts are probably not. How can the federal government respond correctly to North Korea without knowing? Another thing that has confused me is the young man’s behavior while in the courtroom and when being removed. He seemed cognizant while in the room (in control of his head movements; watching them put the cuffs on him), yet when they removed him from the courtroom, his head was lolling, but his feet seemed to be working O.K. Whether this was footage from different times, we aren’t told. As an expert said on Fox yesterday, a strong reprisal is needed or NK will think they can kidnap, torture, and kill Americans at will.


38 posted on 06/21/2017 8:25:06 PM PDT by Humal
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