The Other North Korea 

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Those two guys in the beginning were up to some radical stunts.

Instructions unclear, built a house for the proletariat.

"Reality has no place in ideology", id quote that. "Nobody believes their system could collapse until it did", thats a good one.

"The canaries are dead..." . Well, don't just stand there! Someone go get more canaries, damnit!

You though this was going to be about Albania? SIKE! it's about the US!

The drone camera work is getting really really good

Watching this a year later in the middle of blm protests, covid, and all that 2020 is for America and it's crazy that the writing has been on the wall so long

I just found this channel, and it's beautiful. Thank you!

Chris, you should talk more about politics.

“Are you still living your dream?” That last piece of graffiti art, it sent goosebumps down my arms. Heavy stuff, a really good video.

"The Canaries are dead, time to stop mining." Powerful.

Please tell me you have footage of those guys riding the bike down that ramp. You have to upload it!

"He who would trade liberty for some temporary security deserves neither." It was true back then and it's true today.

It's almost election time here in Brazil. I've watched the death of all the "canaries" along the years. The population is completely divided and the general who is vice to the candidate that'll probably win already talks about the possibility of military intervention, should "a state of anarchy rises". It's not a matter of right and left, I feel that whenever people are too blinded by hate that they can't see valid points in the other side of the table we all lose. And we just got democracy back here in 1989. These are scary times.

While I don't agree with all of what is expressed, I can respect the message, and I can respect the argument. We need more people that can express their opinions with a level head. Thank you for sharing yours.

Is hard to look inside when you're told at every time to look outside, that's our current goverment's policy (I'm from Mexico), someone else always is to blame, is an intermational conspiracy, is the media, the conservatives, the drug cartels. But the goverment still says we're on the rigth way, our future is bright and we've never been better. The walls have crumbled but they are still arguing for the color of the paint . Excellent script, left me thinking.

An interesting and thought provoking message there at the end. And surprisingly I'm not seeing a flamewar in the comments. WTF interned I was expecting to be entertained :D And yeah, a thing that people often miss, especially if they come from the west, is not only that these totalitarian/dictatorial systems kept the trains running (somewhat) but that they offered a rather drastic improvement of life in the war ravaged and often underdeveloped Eastern and SE. Europe. It's easy for someone from the West to scoff at "low" standard of living in communist countries. But people living it weren't comparing it to what was available at the West, they were comparing it to what they had before the system. And in many cases, they had nothing before. Countries were 90% agricultural with almost little to no mechanization. Basically the land was worked as it was centuries ago. Next to no roads, no electricity, little to basic (and when I say basic I mean 4 years of education IF the family can spare you to go to school) education, the works. And then in couple decades, basically in the blink of an eye, you go from that, to having roads reaching even the sparsely populated regions. The government really pushing electrification so every village had what used to be reserved for cities. Plus mechanization is being introduced, along with education allowing the people from villages to move to cities and get jobs there. Industry is blooming with jobs opening left right and centre and the government is GUARANTEEING you a place to stay, work and enough to sustain yourself, and even maybe eventually buy that Radio/TV thing. Now this might not look like much, and is probably being built on bad ground, but this is the difference from going from middle ages to mid XXth century. People in general wouldn't know what else to ask for. Freedom? This region was commonly under the thumb of local strong men and dictators anyway, so for many that's just how the whole country thing was run. It provides some basic services, expects recompense in form of duties and jails those who go against it. Same old same old. I'm from the Albanian north-western neighbor country, and am wondering if you'll head northwest into the "region" (as we call it here, ex-Yugoslavia for those outside of it).

" Are you still living your dream? " Written on the depreciated walls of a crumbling building by the hands of one in a majority, echoing the words of the minority. A beautiful apple can still be rotten inside, eaten away piece by piece, too late we notice it until that bite sinks in when we finally dare to try and taste it. It's September 9th 2019, a year after this was posted, and never has it been more relevant, and sadly... it's relevance will continue to increase. I wonder if in 2029 most of us will look back at this, and ask ourselves " Have we lived our dreams? " or.... will it continue with the minority telling the majority " Continue to live -my- dreams ". I fear the latter, will always be present.

"the more we cry wolf the more emboldened wolves feel in joining our herd". WORD.

>"People always ask me to talk about politics more" >*talks about politics* >same people "You're doin it wrong!"

I'm from Albania and I can't agree more with you thank you for sharing your history for the rest of the world

15:45 "We have to stop mining [...] This is Rare Earth." I see what you did there :D

You mean "fanaticism", not "extremism". There is a clear and important semantic difference between fanaticism, extremism, fundamentalism and radicalism; they are _not_ synonyms. The problem with misusing the concept of extremism is that we then tend to settle into a view that sees the middle-ground or the halfway point as instinctively the best option, or the point of moderation. But in reality there are many situations in which there really isn't a middle-ground, and where the rational and ethical option is actually at an extremity of a spectrum of worse possibilities. You wouldn't see people saying "we need a moderate amount of genocide", for example. Or "we should strike the middle-ground between colonialism and cooperation". Many options in politics are not things that you should do "in moderation", many are things that you should absolutely never do, and many others are things that you should always opt to do if possible. In reality, extremities are a thing.

Eritrea: Am I a joke to you?

“There’s more to life than being “not dead.” What a brilliant line! If there isn’t a self-help book with that title, there should be 🙂.

"Ideology alone can't hold up a roof" Yet another great quote. You are an amazing writer

That sudden jump of 1000 dislikes looks very suspicious... someone is salty.

The trouble with "extremism" as a thing to avoid is that every position seems extreme to someone. Once you define extremism as something more specific than something that you (or anybody else) considers extreme, the word "extremism" no longer accurately applies. It feels good to say you oppose extremism of all sorts, but that does not mean anything.

that's uh....quite a title

America is the perfect example of the house being on fire but people not caring until it reaches them

I wish this would go viral...it needs to be heard.

"I'm not sure that shoe was communist"

Sober and logical perspectives. Beautiful cinematography. Excellent story telling. This is easily one of the best channels on RU-vid. Thank You.

This is undoubtedly the most important RU-vid video I've ever watched. I'm impressed by the quality and thankful for the content. I only wish there were more people as levelheaded as you with your communication skills.

My family suffered under Hoxha's regime, thank you for making this video!

This is a truly amazing and eye-opening video, and yet it saddens me to know that some will not care to listen and treat this piece of information as a lie solely because they aren’t brave enough to accept failure and move on, and would rather take buckets of water out of the sinking ship than reach solid land and start over with the knowledge they have acquired me from past mistakes, in order to build an even stronger boat able to withstand increasingly challenging storms.

I don't understand any of your videos but i still love em

Unfortunately almost all Americans are too preoccupied in debt or being angry to care about this. It's easy for people to blame Trump for the perceived problems in America, but its more likely the fault of ignorance. Nobody cares to care, and those that do care about the effect and not the cause.

When building a house for a long period of time, the foundation will eventually start to crumble. There are two ways to fix it. Either slowly and carefully fix the cracks in it, or demolish the whole house and start anew.

absolute mad lads on a bike at the start

Im older now. Was spouting this in younger years and no one gave a fck 20/30 yrs ago. Im tired and dont care anymore.

This video was brought to me by YT six ears later of when it was made, and yet it is so up to date that gives me chills. We all, not just the people in real power, expect to keep having some crumbs of the pie until there's no more pie for anybody. And that's exactly what is happening in front of our own eyes, everyday. We change our ways or we'll all perish, it is that terrifyingly simple. Greetings from Toronto.

Albania, Albania You border on the Adriatic Your land is mostly mountainous And your chief export is chrome.

We live in a strange world. As someone neither left or right wing, it's scary. Our militarism has run rampant. A few years ago, democrats were holding mass protests against war. They cried for an end to violence, a stop to interfering in the middle east, for peace and a restoration of our lost rights. And then Obama was elected. Despite running on a platform of peace, he left a legacy of extending existing conflicts and expanding our involvement in the middle east. The worst part is the effect it had on his party. Being placated by their victory in the white house, democrats turned a blind eye. They essentially forgot that we're still at war. When Trump won, I thought democrats would start holding mass protests against war, if only to spite him, but they haven't. A sign of the times, the proudly left-wing Vox called Tulsi Gabbard's anti-war stances "conservative". Republicans are no better. Donald Trump has made unprecedented strides in favor of gun control which would have caused conservatives to riot under Obama. Many of Trump's policies are really not conservative so much as authoritarian, and republicans would stand against it if they weren't so blinded by their partisan goggles. As both sides descend into extremism, I pray we'll find our way out of this mess.

Rare Earth is the first channel I've ever supported through Patreon. Love your insightful, interesting videos!

Wow. This video, and You, are so incredibly *BASED* It's so refreshing and reassuring to hear such logic and reason. Please stay strong my good man, and keep passionately sharing your wisdom. Our world desperately needs it (as you clearly know all too well)!

Outstanding piece - easily the best I have heard for years.. but I suspect that only those that are capable of self-honesty will really be able to understand the message.

Very well filmed, documented and narrated. Thank you for all the research

My grandparents fled Albania long ago. So glad that their adventure through 3 different continents got us to Canada.

The funny thing is that even if we vote as the people, we don't have full control anyways.

This video is going to haunt me for a long time

EVAN WHAT WERE YOU DOING CLIMBING UP THAT BALCONY???? YOU ALMOST GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!!!!!

Very well presented - I applaud your rational balanced approach

Holy shit this aged infuriatingly well

This is more accurate than ever now. 👍💯👍

I’ve likely left similar comments elsewhere in the Albania series, yet here we are again thanks to auto play. I have a very complex tangle of feelings about Albania. All overwhelmingly positive as far as the people and culture are concerned. The complexity arises from the role I played in attempting to influence that culture as a young missionary. In truth, the first year I went I wasn’t particularly devout myself, which stings the most. In my “past life” as a young colonizer.. or maybe crusader-lite.. I went into that beautiful, if battered, country and used the clout that came from being an American to bolster the efforts of missionary organizations. We were primarily a dog and pony show to help get the locals in the door. We would show up to villages unannounced, speak with the leaders and gain permission to show the “jesus film” that night, and go door to door campaigning for the showing. The people of Albania were so overwhelmingly generous, hospitable, and gracious to us. A shot of raki, maybe some “pa chip” (not sure of my spelling), even once someone slaughtered their last chicken to give us a meal other than potatoes. Each night, after the showing, one of us or the locals would share our “testimony,” start to pack up, and ‘pray’ for a place to sleep. Inevitably, multiple people would come to invite us into their homes. Once, a host apologized for only having space for three of the 5 of us. They fed us with the family, and we all shared a room. Arriving at night, I hadn’t realized the room the three of us shared was one of the only two rooms in the structure. The other three generations that lived in the home bunked up together in the second room to accommodate us. I wouldn’t trade those three summers for anything. It was the only experience I had of anything outside of western opulence. It opened my eyes to the privileges and abundance I took for granted in a way that changed my life forever in deep and meaningful ways. In many ways, ironically, it was the first step to breaking the veil of mega-church evangelical prosperity gospel I was espousing. These were not a people who’s lives would benefit from gods abundance providing them with a new car or other such frivolity. For the most part, the people we were speaking to were well established micro-dynasties of multi-generational subsistence farmers happily living their lives as that had for generations. [I should note that not all those we visited lived in as cramp conditions as those described above, though even those had land to sow to provide for their families. Who am I to pass value judgements on its ‘meagerness.’] Yes, the younger generations often strove for, or we’re already, “breaking out” into the wider world in search of a suckle at the proverbial teat of capitalism, zoti bekofte to them. The education available to them in these rural villages were mostly propped up by decades old and tattered remnants of communist era text books and learning materials. Which brings me to the most painful prick of shame I was reminded of while watching this video. A shame a step beyond the abstract “cringe” of the audacity of traveling across the globe to so arrogantly attempt to change something as fundamental as the religious belief of a family - if not a town or a nation if we “did our job right.” Deeper still, as I have grown and evolved into the socialist, humanist, anti-capitalist trans woman I find myself today, it pains me to think of the one village in which the “only” shelter we had been provided was access to the school house to sleep in. We marveled at the “kitsch” of the aforementioned communist learning materials. Rummaging through the store closet with a exoticism-fueled curiosity. And I’m ashamed to admit that many of us took some of those items as mementos. Harmless and justified in our eyes due to their seemingly inherent “worthlessness.” Those materials were all those children had. I imagine the teacher arriving for the next school year and searching for that book, that picture, that pamphlet, that they relied on for their job. And I am ashamed. I owe a great debt to the people of Albania. Not only for the above transgression, but for the grace, hospitality, perspective, and personal-growth afforded me by my time among them. I hope someday to revisit Sarandë. Not just for its beauty, a decent sufllaqe.. or some warm petula, but also to find my way up to Fier and some of the small villages between them with some way of repaying the theft of culture and education I and my cohorts committed in our ignorant colonialism. Thank you so much for not only this series, but for everything you do with this channel. I learn so much each time I watch your content. And if there are any Albanians reading this, thank you for your kindness and for changing my life. My sincerest apologies for any harm of any magnitude I may have left in my wake. I strive every day to be better, and I hope to see you again someday.

Me, at 2 minute mark: "Ok this is going to be a both-sides are at fault, stop calling the American right fascists" thing. Me at 16 minute mark: "I may have misjudged this."

This was made one year ago, but recommended to me today.

Your approach and tone is beautiful, fair and just.

"Left and Right are Fake Categories" -- MY Braddah: I LOVE YOU FOREVER. FINALLY someone else says it!

The far-right and the far-left finally agree on something. Their dislike of this video :^)

First 10 min Me: This guy has no balls to ACTUALLY get political Last 7 min Me: Holy shit

How do you not have millions of viewers. I am now a new addict of these videos.

"Plus, I'm not sure that shoe was Communist." lololololololol Yep, sharing that....

You know for the longest time I focused on what side I stood on. The left or right and switching back and forth through the years, but this video has completely changed the way I view the US and gave me a brand new perspective. It's not only informative, but true. We all need to stand together.

Out of all the countries Albania has the best flag. Except maybe Nepal

i am eternally thankful for rare earth i want more channels like you but i dont because i feel this unique style of video is unique to rare earth and to no one else they dont tell stories like you do

"You understand that, right?" Uhhh that voice was so genuine

wow, nice video. thanks.

Thanks for shaking up my world dude, ive been blind for a while, time to change

Your content is really good and pragmatic. We need more of it in this super crowded, shallow and empty world of youtube travel vlogging.

I think this was an interesting videos, but you presented a lot more metaphors and imagery than actual arguments and facts.

"Current president" claims are even more valid atm lol

The sad thing is you have predicted the future bang on welcome to 2020

WOW! Thank you for sharing that. It is getting me to rethink all you mentioned.

Where do you get your statistics and info from? #curious

"It's Enver Hoxha. It's a tape." Anyone? Inside Man? Great movie.

And yet, centrism has completely, utterly, and catastrophically failed.

I've always said "ideology is for idiots". This gets some people mad at me, but what I mean is that for those that prefer not to do any thinking at all, ideology is very attractive. All of your beliefs, all of your responses are neatly packaged. Something bad (and provable) is revealed about your leader? "FAKE NEWS!" Facts don't fit the ideology? Make up new ones and claim your "alternative facts" are the right ones. Caught on tape lying like the proverbial sidewalk? Claim the tape was "fudged". It just goes on and on. As Evan says at the end of every video "Don't Let Anyone Think For You". If we're going to claim to be an intelligent species, it might be a good idea to prove it every once in a while, n'est pas?

This might be the single most important channels on RU-vid. And probably one of the most interesting. Keep up the great work!

This is one of the most important videos on youtube.

This was also true of your previous President, the one before that, and the one before that.

You say that when the "natural" limits of a centrally planed economy was reached, the era of lies began, but in Capitalism, when the natural limits of a market grow were reached, Imperialism started. Countries depend on others doing what they want, and if not: sanctions and war.

To be honest, I feel like the title was a long shot this time. Please consider atleast putting Albania in there somewhere. (or extremism)

4 years later and we're still mining because the house was built with no exit doors for us to leave through. Western civilization didn't build a house on its foundation, it built a tomb, and there's no way out.

You need to cite references to your claims.

what the h*ll are those 2 doing with that bike my GOD that is crazy

Well thought out and very well narated.

Thank you for discussing & relating the number of people incarcerated in the US to this topic. Bravo!

One of the best of Rare Earth

Yes. I do. No one else seems to care. They live in a bubble. Filled with distractions.

To those of you now who are only just watching this, this isn't a left versus right thing, or socialism versus capitalism. It's the government's role in running a country, and their responsibility in providing the basic necessities for human beings to live, and I do mean live. If association the term "socialism" is enough of an argument against any reasonable idea (such as single-payer healthcare) to be considered a slippery slope to full-on-authoritarianism, then perhaps you should look at examples and find a better argument. Complex issues require complex solutions, and to a lot of people, the simpler explanation is usually the one that is easier to digest.

Despite sharing many of the same concerns, I would point out that the single most convincing piece of evidence that the hour is not nearly as late as you present it is the fact that you produced this video.

I come from a former Communist country, and that country was Albanias neigbour country Yugoslavia. But the difference between us and Albania was huge, we often joked about them being locked away and not given any rights and being poor. One of the best jokes I can remember was : Why does the Albanian evening news start with the sentince : "Good evening dear president" ? The answer is because he is the only one owning a TV

I agree with almost all of this but you dramatitize or look over parts to make your point better your not being entirely honest to

Imagine making a video about political extremism, and only talking about authoritarian ideologies This post was made by ancom gang

Dude the intro speech you give in this should be blasted over every possible medium. This country (US) needs to hear your take on the idealism and essential tribalism we have in this country when it comes to any sort of discussion. Thank you thank you thank you.

China’s “house” is bigger and more beautiful than the United States’s decayed house. We need to stop being so hardheaded and learn from China and the other East Asian nations on how to create economic growth. We should stop thrashing around like a diseased animal, striking at any country that challenges our dominance, we should be flexible and learn from our rivals. Japan certainly learned from the US’s policies during the Great Depression, ie, how our economy doubled in just six years between 1938-1944. Then, South Korea, Taiwan, and finally China learned from Japan. In other words, if we bothered to learn from the Chinese, we would simply be rediscovering what we ourselves invented beforehand

I agree with most of what you said, but I wouldn't call it extremism. Extremism is hard to define and somethimes I feel like it is used to discredit every Idea wich dosn't fit into the range of "acceptable Ideas". In a fascist state social democracy would be extremist for example. However what you describe as extremism in the Video, sounds like authoritarianism to me, wich I would completely agree, is the enemy! By the way would you like to make a Video about anarchism during the spanish civil war?