During an unrelated discussion about something or the other (sports or something), I brought up a list of Asian countries, and instinctively accidentally said "DPRK" instead of "North Korea" during an actual conversation irl with a liberal that I often talk to. And after a little bit he produced the quote in the title. Referencing Voltaire's "Not Roman, not holy nor an empire" quip.
In this context our liberal here was clearly taking a jab at the DPRK and how it supposedly doesn't live up to it's name.
At the time it annoyed me but I said nothing of it and laughed it off and got back on topic.
But thinking back I'm wondering if it could have been an opportunity to perhaps break some of the conditioning and maybe have him reflect on his preconceived notions. What would have been the best way to actually explain how the name is actually rather fitting, without risking triggering a liberal brain malfunction that defaults to spouting propaganda?
The Problem starts with Voltaires quote, he made it in reference to the state of the HRE close to its end. For much of its existence it fulfilled all criteria that made up its name. As many people have no concept of time and the changes that happen during it, they think the quote refers to the entire millenium of the HRE existing. We can see the same with the people who always yell "state capitalism" because Lenin called it that at the time, ignoring that Stalin later attested the transitioning to socialism a few years later.
The Problem continues with the fact that liberals can not imagine a democracy different from a bourgoise one. So when confronted with a proletarian democracy like the DPRK, they short circuit. Furthermore, libs are raised to be chauvinistic as fuck. They expect everything to be culturally homogenous like in the anglo empire. So they short circuit when confronted with a culture that is strongly influenced by confucianism and cry "monarchy!!!!1"