South Korea & Online Anti-Natalism

The 4B movement, in general, is saying " we will not breed our oppressors nor shall we give them our company". There is splash damage on non- misogynistic men however, in that culture, it's probably hard not too see most men as a happy and willful cog in the systems of patriarchy. Personally, if I had not already decided to not have children, every man in power or with access to a microphone harping on the low birth rate and for women to hurry up and get to having babies would have dried up my desire for kids right quick. Men, in general, tend to not think about the added labour just being pregnant is, let alone the added levels of care and domestic work required for a baby.

North Korea Stay Winning

Might be a good time to involve that quote from the great sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko: "Fascists. Not men." (Words reordered)

I spent a while in Korea in 2023 and it was definitely insane vibes. The women were all feminist and super eager for a totally absent revolution (on the cultural/gender level, not the political), but at the same time its the only place I've ever witnessed a random homophobic street hate crime happen. There were also 2 public attacks by incels within like a week when I was there, a ramming & stabbing in the suburbs and another guy stabbing people by a subway entrance. I had multiple women excitedly tell me the story of Sung Jae-gi, a MRA guy who tried to do a fake suicide PR stunt then actually drowned in the Han river after jumping off a bridge. It was crazy how gleeful they were, in hindsight I guess it kinda reminds me of how people here reacted to Brian Thompson, but dividing across gender lines rather than class. Didn't really get to interact with the conservative young Korean men though because all the men I met were gay liberal Korean men and American soldiers. Though even the liberal Koreans say the most insane shit about Japanese people I've ever heard. Their social politics don't really map onto American sensibilities, and likewise I don't think we can expect their society to respond to the 4B movement meaningfully, because it's much more aggressively stratified there, and the marginalized people really are marginalized and separate from mainstream society in a way that I don't think is really reflected in the US. Maybe I'm just bsing but thats my impression. & the school culture is insane as well, I met a woman who graduated from Korea university who told me she studied 12 hours every day until she passed her entrance exams. She got a job at a big company and she still lived in a shoebox, like probably 150ft², met another woman who was a programmer and lived with her parents in her mid 20s.. like where the fuck is the money, where's the payoff for all the work you put in early Idk what my point is except that it's really fucked over there, and definitely felt like the most grim vibe of a country I've ever been to, in some ways, despite being a super lively and rich city. I feel the dynamic is hard to really get from the outside looking in, but I wish them all the best, everyone there deserves better.

Re: intro. I am always confused why people assume "male loneliness crisis" to be so related to gender politics. Like the assumption is that it's a dating issue, rather than dating issues being a symptom of a more essential estrangement of people from one another, and the decompositiob of a highly socialized and institutional culture into a more atomized one mediated by technology and market activity.

One of my hobbies is cooking and a few years ago, my brother bought me a Korean cookbook (by YouTube creator Maangchi if anyone is interested, https://youtube.com/@maangchi ). In it, she mentions that at a formal Korean banquet, the oldest man at the table must start eating before it is proper for anyone else to take a bite. Which, fair enough if it’s your beloved grandfather, but it shows how deep the deference to men, and old men in particular, goes in Korean culture. Also, there is another YouTube creator I watch, Patrick Boyle, who makes finance videos (with much deadpan snark), who made a recent video about how a recent round of investing in the Korean stock market has gone badly wrong and wiped out a lot of people, particularly young men who bought into the idea of the only way to get married is to be rich, https://youtu.be/nJtL9MBVj48

I always assumed the 83-FOR-TRUTH billboards would connect you to some underpaid call center worker who would recite some gospel or something. Last time I drove cross country, I was bored out of my mind going through Wyoming or whatever, and decided to call the number. But to my vast disappointment, it just gave me some prerecorded message about... something biblical, don't recall. I hung up and called back. Another prerecorded message. Five times, all just different prerecorded scripture readings. Incredibly disappointing. And strong agree that this is just to make the people who bought the billboards feel better. So that's what actually happens if you call -- you don't even get someone to argue with.

Cue the Blowback song. The Korea season caused me great psychological harm.

Wiki: "Handy described the incident as traumatic and said it put her "in a very dark period" of her life.[2]" Yeah stealing fetal corpses would do

I keep wondering ever since south Korea managed to wrench power away from US backed dictatorship, how much of this specific kind of problems they experience is down to yet more CIA meddling, not just cos of how much it mirrors the western version that was also tied to Steve Bannon and Epstein we've started to find out hinted in redacted files, but also cos of how spiteful the US (and other colonial western governments) have always treated other nations who dared to rise up against their attempts at colonisation: see Cuba, Haiti, Iran and plenty others am forgetting of. They already have the Moonies cult being a known CIA backed group to where even Clinton and other leaders/war hawk politicians have been seen attending their mass wedding ceremonies despite their official recognition as an actual cult. I would be highly surprised if there wasn't any outside Infleunce keeping this conflict enflamed. Just awaiting a future declassification or FOI drop for now.

Never hand it to the UK Take it from me, I'm trapped here

I know you were semi joking about "hanging out with the homies" will solve everything, but I do genuinely believe friendship is the best thing about the human condition

'Female Dating Strategy' is fascinating in that they're trying to leverage conservative gender norms to benefit women somehow, and no one seems to be having a good time. 'If Books Could Kill' has a bonus episode called "Are the Straights Ok?" that talks about them

On the recent worsening of the US's diplomatic relationship with South Korea, so much of it seems to come back to Trump's strange crush on Kim Jong Un

Dear Jarmok & Jalad at Jamaica On the Republican Ersatz National Con showing of the... Turkish Kipferl... it has an air of revenge porn to me? It is a sort of humiliation of Hassan by going "we have this photo of you & we can use it however we want"

The golden pig needs to be admin: IllConceived-Podcastigation Into Generational Growth Oligarchy, Loonies , Dorks.

"YES, BURN CORPSES."