Post Title explained at the end.
Soundtrack: “I’m An Asshole” by Dennis Leary (uhh… warning: some bad words in this song)
so then, to balance out that unrestrained joy-down from my previous post…
Other bloggers have already documented how conservative Critic Ji Man-Won, and a bunch of netizens, actually attacked Moon Geun-Young for anonymously donating to various charities.
Add another item to the list of things to call “Korea’s X” — things in Korea that are like more famous things elsewhere. Korea’s Ann Coulter. (picture stolen from The Korean’s site, but altered at Roboseyo)
This goes to prove that many pundits, and (not all, but certainly enough) netizens are dicks. I’ve written before about how too many netizens are dicks, and bring the dialogue down to the level of the lowest common denominator, instead of trying to raise their own level. Here in Korea, where netizens have to use their actual ID numbers, and so the things they say can be traced back to their real identities, even that isn’t enough to dissuade them from being duh-hicks (read it out loud) online, and pundits will always be jerks if it can make them more famous. (photo stolen from Brian’s write-up on the topic, but altered at Roboseyo.)
Matt from Popular Gusts has a really great write-up about Moon Geun-Young’s grandfather (one of the reasons she’s being attacked is because he was affiliated with the communist party), and Ji Man-Won, the obnoxious conservative pundit who led the attack on her. He also directs our attention to Mike Hurt’s article, “My Stomach Hurts” where the Metropolitician talks about how envy at others’ success brings out the worst in Koreans.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Moon Geun-Young, like Tiger Woods before her, when somebody said something stupid and ignorant about him, has responded in the only appropriate way: by remaining silent about the whole fustercluck. Now she has doubly impressed me as a class act, rising above a whole bunch of ugly with grace. I might even start liking her TV spots, and forgive her voice for being so. darned. cute..
Post title explained: this is a line from the lovely Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah, as sung by John Cale:
“Maybe there’s a God above, all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya”
Which is exactly what these petty parasites are doing, for fame, or for release of the frustration at their own unhappy lives, or for the sheer lulz of being a dick anonymously. They’re taking aim at someone who outdrew them, who accomplished more in life, lashing out in spite, rather than taking aim at the kinds of accomplishments that Ms. Moon has been achieving with her success.
To all such netizens, and the pundits who sic them on classy people trying to make their way as best they can:
Go fester.
Now here’s something beautiful, to put you (and me) back in a good mood.
21/11/2008 at 12:27 am Permalink
I have delt with Koreans for over 15 years. When I was 12 I started training Taekwondo which eventually led me to Korea. I have heard of this thing called “saving face.” I really don’t understand it. It seems that here a person can’t make them self “loose face.” How can this moron, and his host of zombie intellectual vagrants expect….well what the hell is there to gain by doing this? Do they want to teach people that you can get punished for generosity? Now, when I see people shamelessly urinating on the sidewalk and I bear in mind that in Korea it is taboo to make someone loose face, I think to my self, “what can I do to make this person loose face.” It boggles the mind. Similarly, this guy, Mr. Ji, goes on television, makes an ass of himself and maintains face. I JUST DON’T GET IT.
I hope that Miss Moon contiues her philanthropic work. I hope she sets up a special institution for the rehabilitation of jealous retard netizen zombies. I suppose that it is fair to be jealous of another person for being goodlooking or rich. But how can one justify jealous rage over another’s good heart? If venting one’s disappointments via the internet is a type of therapy then the Korean government can make a special institute/colony for these people to publish their own newspaper. They can build a hub of irrational rants and a room of nonsensical foriegn curse words. And well if this doesn’t work, then the authreties at this colony can administer the most common therapy for zombies, and that is chainsaw free for all. Then they can save eachother’s faces, in pickeling salt and fromeldahyde.
21/11/2008 at 5:01 pm Permalink
This has nothing to do with face. As mentioned in passing above, it all comes down to Koreans’ tendency to be unhappy about/unsupportive of other people’s successes (ie. “their success gives me a stomachache”). There are many cases of people trying to “take down a peg or two” people who have had more success than them. These are people I call “pathetic losers with no lives”. Ji Man-won is their poster boy.
21/11/2008 at 5:50 pm Permalink
I know it doesn’t have anything to do with face, I just want to know why someone like Ji Man-won can’t make himself loose face when he displays to the world that he is a “pathetic loser with no life.” As I said above I don’t understand this whole “face” thing.
27/01/2009 at 7:33 am Permalink
Woul you permit me to see Dr. Ji Man Won web pages.
Thanks.
27/01/2009 at 11:48 am Permalink
just search 지 만원 and 문 근영 on Naver and you can find it. Ask A Korean! also has an article about this topic which links to the Korean articles he wrote.
http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2008/11/ask-korean-news-charity-angel-and.html
Have a good day, Mr. Park.
28/01/2009 at 2:23 am Permalink
I read this post so many times and I just don’t see the connection between Ji Man-Won and Ann Coulter. Is he a New York Times best seller?
No 
Or a woman who will speak her mind even if lots of men hate to hear that? 
No 
I googled “Korea’s Ann Coulter” and only got one person on the internet making that connection. Ann Coulter is a political commentator and pundit, writer, a wonderful wonderful woman who is breaking the glass of sexism in America. GOD bless her and her work.
Roboseyo, if you think of yourself as a superman, why would you mix up truth and non truth?It seems that this post has a lot of negative comments about Korea. I really hope more postings are about the great things about Korea.