White dude checking in, lived in SK for six years, but I speak Korean and married into a Korean family. As far as I can tell, SK is full of libs. Being a commie is basically illegal there. But North Korea is way more popular than you would think, particularly in the southwest. A few years ago one of the presidential candidates (Yi Jung-hee I believe, who was polling at like 3%) got on the debate stage with Park Geun-hye (who was later impeached and imprisoned for basically taking orders from a shaman) entirely to yell at her. Apparently Yi slipped up and used some North Korean language while describing ROK—like she called it the "southern government" or something. Really really funny. Imagine an American presidential candidate referring to the United States as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie or the great satan in front of millions of people.
I think America retreating basically means China advancing. SK already does a shitload of business with China, but American business is also all over the fucking place in SK. (McDonald's and Starbucks are basically packed 24/7 nationwide.) But again, in my experience Koreans talk shit about the Chinese all the fucking time, even though China has a massive influence on their culture. All the different countries in East Asia fucking hate each other as far as I can tell. The only country Koreans hate more than China is Japan. Korean college students I worked with would complain about Japan constantly and, in my opinion, justifiably, especially like when the fucking Japanese prime minister visited the Yasakuni Shrine to honor all the fascist war criminals buried there. I think older folks maybe hate China more though. I remember overhearing a Korean boomer in a restaurant talking about 중국놈—choong-goog-nom, basically an impolite term for a "Chinese guy"—pretty casually with his friends. The Koreans I met also basically blame their pretty serious air pollution problems entirely on China. Again, this is my experience, I don't mean to generalize. As a white dude my experience is limited. I lived in a conservative part of the country (although to be conservative in Korea means, among many things, supporting universal health care) and might not have run into any South Korean communists. Or they just never felt comfortable enough to tell me.
The situation is complicated. Koreans (generalizing, in my experience) disdain China, support but don't really think about North Korea, despise Japan, and have a love-hate relationship with the USA. If you check out a great book called Ghost Flames, about the Korean war, you can learn about how there used to be shitloads of communists and leftists in South Korea, although sadly most were either executed during the war or fled to the North. There was another wave of repression (thousands of people imprisoned or disappeared) during the long reign of the dictator who developed the country, Park Chung-hee.
My conservative, Bernie-supporting wife tells me that the liberals are probably not going to win the next presidential election in South Korea. A conservative president will lead to more pro-American, anti-North Korean policies and probably more military confrontations in the DMZ. Things have been pretty quiet there for some time because Moon Jae-in, the liberal president (but way cooler than any liberals in the USA), has been sending money to North Korea for years (I believe). Coronavirus is also getting out of control in SK again, which fucking sucks, although of course on a per capita basis it's still nothing compared to the USA.
Do Koreans compared to Americans have a greater understanding of what left politics look like or is it much more warped? My gut says even worse due to decades of propaganda about the DPRK.
Not in my experience but having stronger unions, an excellent public health care and transportation system, and suffering under generations of imperialism goes a long way to putting people’s heads in the right place. Generally however they think communism = NK = bad.
She’s conservative in Korea but a democratic socialist in the USA. The overton window is a bit more to the left in SK in some ways. She supports universal health care and housing and unionizing and trans people and anti-racism and anti-imperialism and doesn’t give a fuck about Biden or the Democrats but doesn’t want to call herself a socialist. I got in a little trouble with her mom the other day for using the Korean word for “comrade” in reference to my wife.
Isn’t the current prime minister currently softening SK’s stance toward China and he favors a peaceful reunification with NK. It seems SK will eventually be more open with China out of pragmatic reasons.
White dude checking in, lived in SK for six years, but I speak Korean and married into a Korean family. As far as I can tell, SK is full of libs. Being a commie is basically illegal there. But North Korea is way more popular than you would think, particularly in the southwest. A few years ago one of the presidential candidates (Yi Jung-hee I believe, who was polling at like 3%) got on the debate stage with Park Geun-hye (who was later impeached and imprisoned for basically taking orders from a shaman) entirely to yell at her. Apparently Yi slipped up and used some North Korean language while describing ROK—like she called it the "southern government" or something. Really really funny. Imagine an American presidential candidate referring to the United States as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie or the great satan in front of millions of people.
I think America retreating basically means China advancing. SK already does a shitload of business with China, but American business is also all over the fucking place in SK. (McDonald's and Starbucks are basically packed 24/7 nationwide.) But again, in my experience Koreans talk shit about the Chinese all the fucking time, even though China has a massive influence on their culture. All the different countries in East Asia fucking hate each other as far as I can tell. The only country Koreans hate more than China is Japan. Korean college students I worked with would complain about Japan constantly and, in my opinion, justifiably, especially like when the fucking Japanese prime minister visited the Yasakuni Shrine to honor all the fascist war criminals buried there. I think older folks maybe hate China more though. I remember overhearing a Korean boomer in a restaurant talking about 중국놈—choong-goog-nom, basically an impolite term for a "Chinese guy"—pretty casually with his friends. The Koreans I met also basically blame their pretty serious air pollution problems entirely on China. Again, this is my experience, I don't mean to generalize. As a white dude my experience is limited. I lived in a conservative part of the country (although to be conservative in Korea means, among many things, supporting universal health care) and might not have run into any South Korean communists. Or they just never felt comfortable enough to tell me.
The situation is complicated. Koreans (generalizing, in my experience) disdain China, support but don't really think about North Korea, despise Japan, and have a love-hate relationship with the USA. If you check out a great book called Ghost Flames, about the Korean war, you can learn about how there used to be shitloads of communists and leftists in South Korea, although sadly most were either executed during the war or fled to the North. There was another wave of repression (thousands of people imprisoned or disappeared) during the long reign of the dictator who developed the country, Park Chung-hee.
My conservative, Bernie-supporting wife tells me that the liberals are probably not going to win the next presidential election in South Korea. A conservative president will lead to more pro-American, anti-North Korean policies and probably more military confrontations in the DMZ. Things have been pretty quiet there for some time because Moon Jae-in, the liberal president (but way cooler than any liberals in the USA), has been sending money to North Korea for years (I believe). Coronavirus is also getting out of control in SK again, which fucking sucks, although of course on a per capita basis it's still nothing compared to the USA.
Do Koreans compared to Americans have a greater understanding of what left politics look like or is it much more warped? My gut says even worse due to decades of propaganda about the DPRK.
Not in my experience but having stronger unions, an excellent public health care and transportation system, and suffering under generations of imperialism goes a long way to putting people’s heads in the right place. Generally however they think communism = NK = bad.
Shit next time I'm in Korea visiting family we should hang out!
Definitely except I’m not there anymore. I’m in 미국.
I'm crying that I don't have a new friend to drink beer with now.
Bruh we can hike a mountain and eat pajeon and chug rice wine at the top someday.
Fuck yes give me that fucking makgeolli
Are you korean too? I felt like I was alone on this site lol
I swear there's at least 3-4 of us around.
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She’s conservative in Korea but a democratic socialist in the USA. The overton window is a bit more to the left in SK in some ways. She supports universal health care and housing and unionizing and trans people and anti-racism and anti-imperialism and doesn’t give a fuck about Biden or the Democrats but doesn’t want to call herself a socialist. I got in a little trouble with her mom the other day for using the Korean word for “comrade” in reference to my wife.
Isn’t the current prime minister currently softening SK’s stance toward China and he favors a peaceful reunification with NK. It seems SK will eventually be more open with China out of pragmatic reasons.