Ah, just a coincidence nobody fucks and everyone hates their life lol
algebroni on
More like a Coupang mechanism amirite?
WAGRAMWAGRAM on
First beat Spain in productivity
yesguacisstillextra on
The western dystopia is a western coping mechanism
Unironically
CaptainApathy419 on
Not one mention of fertility rates?
Ambitious_Arm852 on
Just come visit and see for yourself. Those that believe doomer youtubers have never set foot on Korean soil.
DependentAd235 on
“Southeast Asian online spaces are also using it because it is an incredibly effective stick with which to beat a regional heavyweight. It allows for a kind of reputational leveling”
Perhaps, Korea is certainly seen as aspirational. Products in SEA frequently advertise a Korean background. Hell, I have seen seen ads and out right heard people says shit like “oh that place Uses Korean Botox so you know its good.”
Finding flaws is obviously a coping mechanism but I will say Korea politics and society do seem to move at a faster speed. Coups, protests, new presidents seem to occur and be resolved quickly. Maybe people are even jealous of the Negatives just because something actually happened and changed. They aren’t stuck with flavors of the Status quo.
“And everyone drinks ice americano.”
Lol, I suppose it is pure sugar free caffeine. Also Ice.
Grilled_egs on
“Oh that sounds interesting”
>Korea Times
“Nevermind”
Freewhale98 on
1. Summary
When the East Asian economies began pulling off these rapid leaps from postwar devastation to global tech-dominance, it shook the West hard. None predicted it. Few wanted it. For a region that had long operated under the unexamined assumption that it possessed a monopoly on modern human flourishing, the tigers/dragons led to cognitive dissonance. The resulting intellectual workaround was as brilliant as it was defensive: “Sure, they can build the semiconductors and the hyper-efficient public transit, but look at the human cost.”
Thus, the “Western Society is Still Better” preservation project was born. To keep that conclusion comfortably intact, the very real and very standard structural hiccups of East Asian modernization such as labor stresses, demographic challenges, and urban isolation must be aggressively upscaled, distorted, and marinated in an oddly Victorian tone that you almost never see applied to, say, the rust belt of Ohio or the banlieues of Paris.
2. Summary
(1) Orientalist analysis of western media outlets: When western media outlets cover China, Japan and Korea have distorted views, projecting the universal hiccups of modernization into something unique to that region.
3. My opinion
When analyzing East Asian society, western observers have tendency to abandon universal institutional analysis and lean into cultural aspects leading to fetishization and exoticization. This led to the over-exaggeration of social issue (chaebol, gender inequality) in Korea, many weird China controversies and over generalization of Japan. I would argue that universal institutional analysis needs to be applied to understand East Asian nations.
For example, Chaebol issue should be understood as similar lenses to the robber barons of 19th century America and anti-trust struggle. It should give analysis on how organized labor and civil society struggled against chaebol dominance of economy and how the government enacting labor protection laws and anti-monopoly measures and high inheritance taxes to contain Chaebols. But, western analysis just lean into circlejerking on the aesthetics of chaebols in K-drama.
9 Comments
Ah, just a coincidence nobody fucks and everyone hates their life lol
More like a Coupang mechanism amirite?
First beat Spain in productivity
The western dystopia is a western coping mechanism
Unironically
Not one mention of fertility rates?
Just come visit and see for yourself. Those that believe doomer youtubers have never set foot on Korean soil.
“Southeast Asian online spaces are also using it because it is an incredibly effective stick with which to beat a regional heavyweight. It allows for a kind of reputational leveling”
Perhaps, Korea is certainly seen as aspirational. Products in SEA frequently advertise a Korean background. Hell, I have seen seen ads and out right heard people says shit like “oh that place Uses Korean Botox so you know its good.”
Finding flaws is obviously a coping mechanism but I will say Korea politics and society do seem to move at a faster speed. Coups, protests, new presidents seem to occur and be resolved quickly. Maybe people are even jealous of the Negatives just because something actually happened and changed. They aren’t stuck with flavors of the Status quo.
“And everyone drinks ice americano.”
Lol, I suppose it is pure sugar free caffeine. Also Ice.
“Oh that sounds interesting”
>Korea Times
“Nevermind”
1. Summary
When the East Asian economies began pulling off these rapid leaps from postwar devastation to global tech-dominance, it shook the West hard. None predicted it. Few wanted it. For a region that had long operated under the unexamined assumption that it possessed a monopoly on modern human flourishing, the tigers/dragons led to cognitive dissonance. The resulting intellectual workaround was as brilliant as it was defensive: “Sure, they can build the semiconductors and the hyper-efficient public transit, but look at the human cost.”
Thus, the “Western Society is Still Better” preservation project was born. To keep that conclusion comfortably intact, the very real and very standard structural hiccups of East Asian modernization such as labor stresses, demographic challenges, and urban isolation must be aggressively upscaled, distorted, and marinated in an oddly Victorian tone that you almost never see applied to, say, the rust belt of Ohio or the banlieues of Paris.
2. Summary
(1) Orientalist analysis of western media outlets: When western media outlets cover China, Japan and Korea have distorted views, projecting the universal hiccups of modernization into something unique to that region.
3. My opinion
When analyzing East Asian society, western observers have tendency to abandon universal institutional analysis and lean into cultural aspects leading to fetishization and exoticization. This led to the over-exaggeration of social issue (chaebol, gender inequality) in Korea, many weird China controversies and over generalization of Japan. I would argue that universal institutional analysis needs to be applied to understand East Asian nations.
For example, Chaebol issue should be understood as similar lenses to the robber barons of 19th century America and anti-trust struggle. It should give analysis on how organized labor and civil society struggled against chaebol dominance of economy and how the government enacting labor protection laws and anti-monopoly measures and high inheritance taxes to contain Chaebols. But, western analysis just lean into circlejerking on the aesthetics of chaebols in K-drama.