What Government Oppression Really Looks Like: An Interview with Michael Malice

On how Americans talk about their political opponents: “I am delighted by our continued polarization and the fact that each side is unable to communicate with the other.”

On March 6th, writer and political commentator Michael Malice joined Alex Baltzegar of Merion West to discuss the nuances of existing in a dictatorship. Malice is the author of “Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il” and runs a comedy blog “Overheard in New York.” Born in the Soviet Union and one of very few American visitors to North Korea in recent years, Malice is more familiar with what living as a citizen under a dictatorship is actually like than the average person. He describes what it’s like to journey to a country that rarely allows foreigners and to grow up hearing how governments can control their people with fear.

Although you were born in the Soviet Union, you mostly grew up in the United States. Your parents, however, lived under communism for most of their lives. Could you tell us about the kind of oppressive government tactics your family experienced?

There is a lot of stuff that carries over when you leave. For example,  when you are on the phone with someone in the Soviet Union, you know someone else is listening in, so you have to know how to talk in code. You are always in a state of paranoia, wondering who you are talking to and thinking, “What if this person turns on me?” You have to keep that in mind whenever you are having a conversation. I think this kind of mentality was the most germane thing they talked about.

Specific stories would be more humorous, but it was still very much about this kind of mindset. Especially this idea, which Americans are starting to realize: when people have power over you, they will often use that power in arbitrary ways. It’s important to expect and anticipate it.