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When I first saw your un-edited comment, I tried to calm down myself. I didn’t write angry comments. Sorry, after seeing your edited one, I couldn’t resist mys

When I first saw your un-edited comment, I tried to calm down myself. I didn’t write angry comments. Sorry, after seeing your edited one, I couldn’t resist myself writing this comment. Your comment implies that South Koreans are e.g. pigs that don’t care about democracy but just care about their own lives. That’s very ignorant (at the very least). Your comment basically just plainly ignores so much South Korea citizens that protested to get democracy. You know what? The presidents that ran the country in a dictationship, used force to remove any protesting people got their righteousness from the US. Spanning as early as 1960 (when president Lee Seung Man tried to dictate the country with illegal elections) to 1987 (when South Korea finally got to elect our own presidents after 1960), people protested a lot. A LOT. Please search about the 1960 4.3 incident, 1979’s Bu-Ma protests, 1980’s Kwangju Democratic Uprising, 1987’s June protests, on and on... Your comment also shows your view about China. People in China care about democracy they aren’t pigs either. Have you ever heard about the incidents in Tiananmen Square? People care about democracy. Please don’t think that people only care about themselves.

acollins1331 7y ago
My old boss was Korean and he told me about those protests. He was a college student at the time and often waxes poetically about how easy college was back then and he'd just skip it all the time to go in the street and protest. Then he got super rich from the new government. It's probably a little bit of both, maybe don't get so irrationally upset over HN comments. He's not calling the south koreans pigs. Americans are the same way, we ignore government abuses because our lives in general are comfortable enough we simply don't care much more than to comment about it on the internet.
oblio 7y ago
You're putting words into my mouth. People (taken as an overall population) care about democracy after they care about their general well-being. That doesn't make them pigs, it makes them rational.
barry-cotter 7y ago
He didn’t imply people were pigs anywhere. Living in China I can tell you that while large parts of the urban population are relatively sympathetic to the idea of democracy in principle the peasantry really don’t care. The CPC brought them out of poverty as far as they’re concerned and they’re competent. That’s enough for them while things are going well. In 1980 most of China was dirt poor peasants so the people who despise the Communists are a minority of the long term urban population, a minority of a minority. The important difference between China and Korea is that China killed everyone involved quite publicly as soon as protests started. If protestors in Korea had known they’d die after the first large protest there would have been few volunteers for a second.
Barrin92 7y ago
The notion that people are bad people (i.e "pigs") because they care predominantly about themselves, or don't care about democracy seems to come from you. Have you considered the idea that other cultures and nations have different ideas about how much authority they delegate to their government, and that not everyone is troubled by the fact that the government runs cameras if it means a higher degree of safety? I've spent a lot of time in China and other Asian countries for work related reasons primarily and it is absolutely true that there's a lot of personal drive, lower trust in civic society, and much more trust in the state to organise personal life. What's truly a narrow-minded caricature of the world is the idea that every Chinese person is secretly striving for Anglo-protestant values of freedom and charity oppressed by their government or something.

acollins1331 7y ago

My old boss was Korean and he told me about those protests. He was a college student at the time and often waxes poetically about how easy college was back then and he'd just skip it all the time to go in the street and protest. Then he got super rich from the new government. It's probably a little bit of both, maybe don't get so irrationally upset over HN comments. He's not calling the south koreans pigs. Americans are the same way, we ignore government abuses because our lives in general are comfortable enough we simply don't care much more than to comment about it on the internet.

oblio 7y ago

You're putting words into my mouth. People (taken as an overall population) care about democracy after they care about their general well-being. That doesn't make them pigs, it makes them rational.

barry-cotter 7y ago

He didn’t imply people were pigs anywhere. Living in China I can tell you that while large parts of the urban population are relatively sympathetic to the idea of democracy in principle the peasantry really don’t care. The CPC brought them out of poverty as far as they’re concerned and they’re competent. That’s enough for them while things are going well. In 1980 most of China was dirt poor peasants so the people who despise the Communists are a minority of the long term urban population, a minority of a minority. The important difference between China and Korea is that China killed everyone involved quite publicly as soon as protests started. If protestors in Korea had known they’d die after the first large protest there would have been few volunteers for a second.

Barrin92 7y ago

The notion that people are bad people (i.e "pigs") because they care predominantly about themselves, or don't care about democracy seems to come from you. Have you considered the idea that other cultures and nations have different ideas about how much authority they delegate to their government, and that not everyone is troubled by the fact that the government runs cameras if it means a higher degree of safety? I've spent a lot of time in China and other Asian countries for work related reasons primarily and it is absolutely true that there's a lot of personal drive, lower trust in civic society, and much more trust in the state to organise personal life. What's truly a narrow-minded caricature of the world is the idea that every Chinese person is secretly striving for Anglo-protestant values of freedom and charity oppressed by their government or something.