Debate:'Free Democratic People's Republic of Liberty That Happens To Be an Autocratic Dictatorship' and other such nonsense

The name game
Question: Why do authoritarian/totalitarian regimes always seem to adopt such ridiculous and blatantly wrong names for themselves? I understand wishing to appear better than they actually are, but honestly, the 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea' (to give an example) sure as shit isn't fooling anyone, probably least of all its own citizens. And by this point, some of the people who decide on country names must have started to realize that the only reason a nation would ever go with a name like that is because it has something to prove - 'See? See? We're a free country, it says so in our name!' sort of thing.


 * You underestimate the power of having complete control over the entire informational structure of your country with severe penalties for transgressing the proverbial "iron curtain." These things are less easy now that we live in the wireless digital age which has led to attempts by leftists and rightests to clamp down on technology which freely exchanges information.  But for the vast history of humanity, it wasn't extraordinarily hard to control all informational inputs for the populace.  In even free countries it's still quite common to find extremely brainwashed people on both sides of the proverbial political aisle - part of the opportunity cost of information acquiring - it doesn't matter that everyone be completely "brainwashed," just a significant enough majority to drown out any of the naysayers - and - if you can back up your control of information by state violence, those who are knowledgeable are knowledgeable enough to keep their mouth's shut or fact the consequences.  Descartes' "evil daemon" thought exercise is quite literally true under many regimes - moreso in the past - but still quite frequently in the present. Incredulous (talk) 05:59, 3 December 2015 (UTC)


 * From TVTropes: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_venn_7958.jpg "For those interested, inside the intersection of the circles lies the People's Republic of Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka—and the last one's right on the edge." Dolphinjamez (talk) 05:34, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Additionally, what's with the tendency of political parties to name themselves according to the inverse of their stated philosophy? I've lost count of how many liberal parties calling themselves 'Conservative' and conservative parties calling themselves 'Liberal' there are in the world. I Eat Glue (talk) 21:13, 29 March 2010 (UTC)


 * What about the Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrorfying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society? 14:01, 13 May 2010 (UTC)