[KS] South Korea's Rollback of Democratic Rights

[J.Scott Burgeson]

"The kind of political actions, the ways of communicating politics that Scott was criticizing, seems rather 'normal' for most Europeans (and probably to South Americans as well)."
 -- Frank Hoffmann


Look, I'm from the People's Republic of Berkeley, CA. I was arrested in San Francisco protesting the first Gulf War back in 1991. My father was an anti-Vietnam War activist/organizer who was on an FBI watch list. I think violence can be a legitimate tool for revolutionary change under the right circumstances.

My main critique with the protesters and their supporters in the liberal/progressive media here is their sheer hypocrisy, and the fact that many cannot even acknowledge that they are/were using violence for their own ends, while at the same time perpetually playing the "victim" card. I did a survey of The Hankyoreh last summer and their coverage of the anti-beef protests did not condemn protester violence at all, while routinely condemning the police for their alleged "violence" against the protesters. Amnesty International and many others were equally one-sided. This is pure hypocrisy and pure deception, but if you want to suggest that it is pseudo-colonial political correctness to call attention to this fact, that's your prerogative.

I suppose beating up ajummas and harabojis and other innocent bystanders who are not even part of the police forces must also seem rather "normal" to "sophisticated Europeans" viewing this all from afar. No doubt the blows they sustained were mitigated by the fact that it was mere "playacting" in the "classic Korean mode."

--J. Scott Burgeson, Chongno