askchapo

Turning a little bit of that casual smugness back around is always an option, and if you couch it in a chuckle and a very casual tone of "we're joking about silly shit together" you can turn it into a situation where they're hoisted by their own joking tone and can't really press further without seeming like the weird one. Something like "Ha, yeah. Like (Saddam's nukes or the satanic panic or something), right?"

If you're any good at wielding "normality" in social situations, that's what works best for me. Basically the internet thing of poking and prodding the other person into the position of "one who cares too much and seems to be getting heated, you ok man? It's all just jokes, you know?"

Basically if you know anything at all about the dprk, you're at an advantage in an open argument. So I join in their jokes, but redirect it in a way that makes western ignorance the punchline. "Haha yeah, can you believe some people think that stuff is real?" (Implication: Fools think this is real. You're not a fool, are you?). Then their options are to pivot to making fun of fools with you, get openly defensive and start an argument they're not equipped for, or just kind of let the topic fizzle out. I realize I'm basically describing joke brinksmanship: first one to drop the easy smile loses.