• SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    9 hours ago

    Talks about "cults of personality" among the scary unscrutable non-westerners becomes extra absurd when you live in a monarchy. You have this one family that everybody is expected to form a parasocial relationship with, they're always presented in a positive framing, their faces are on the money, stuff is named after them, TV shows are being made about how good they are, children put up plays about them being amazing in school. When they show up somewhere crowds gather to cheer them. If one of them were to fart in public, people would talk about what a brave fart it was and how it demonstrated their deep and real connection to the common folk.

    But if you tell people that they're doing the exact same thing they're accusing Koreans of doing they look at you as if it is the most absurd thing they've ever heard.