Althouse: "GangnamStyleHatesAmerica."

December 8, 2012

"GangnamStyleHatesAmerica."

Oh, no, the fun is over, and just when Obama was having a Christmas party.

52 comments:

kentuckyliz said...: That's the fun dance craze that got Obama elected (like the Macarena and Clinton).

Subliminal message: anti-American screed in a sung, mumbled, foreign language, and we find it easy to dance to and give it a 78.

And the programming works.

OK I am making fun of the conspiracy minded people. LOL; 12/8/12, 10:32 AM
Tim said...: Anti-Americanism (or as the Obama-voting liberal left called it, "dissent") was so totally in vogue all poseurs, including Democrat candidates like Dean, Kerry, et al, and their voters, adopted it like fish in water.

Now that PSY is makin' money in the USA, and he's rockin' popular, he distances himself from his past, and Obama welcomes him to the mutual lie.

No surprise.

I just can't wait for the photo from the White House of the two of them, arms crossed, smirking at the blank space formerly occupied by Churchill's bust.; 12/8/12, 10:35 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Mocking America and Americans - isn't that what liberals are all about?

Cheers; 12/8/12, 10:39 AM
fivewheels said...: Yeah, wake me up when some talentless idiot doesn't hate America.; 12/8/12, 10:41 AM
Oso Negro said...: My father was a Korean war infantryman and fought in the Battle of Outpost Harry. There is an Outpost Harry Survivors Association and if anyone is feeling excessively cheerful you can read all about it at http://www.ophsa.org/. It is startling to contrast the sacrifice of the American G.I.s for Korea with the doughy ingratitude of the Gangnam Gansta.; 12/8/12, 10:46 AM
Wince said...: Too bad for Gangnam Style, there's no Susan Rice to trot out or election day that the press can help him get past after which it's too late to do anything about it.

Still, there's plenty of reason for these two to share a backslappin' good time together.

They have a lot to share.; 12/8/12, 10:48 AM
Aridog said...: Psy has been quite successful RE-popularizing and updating "Pony Time" by Chubby Checker circa 1961.

He's an "entertainer" so I expect idiotic trash talk in his past and present, to boot...I mean look at Kanye West, eh?

Yawn.; 12/8/12, 10:52 AM
Anonymous said...: What's new? Obama enjoys pimping around with rappers and radicals whose lyrics/writings glorify violence against Americans and their values...; 12/8/12, 11:15 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I have few ambitions in life, even fewer I consider at all obtainable.

But I'm pretty sure I can make it to the end of my days without knowing anything at all about "gangnam style."

Fuck, I don't even know how to pronounce it.

Good for me.; 12/8/12, 11:28 AM
Big Mike said...: I thought "dead" was how Democrats prefer American soldiers.; 12/8/12, 11:29 AM
Renee said...: Whoa!

I didn't realize the extent of his words.; 12/8/12, 11:41 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: Where's the embedded video?; 12/8/12, 11:59 AM
David said...: He needs a shorter statement of apology.

And more sincere.

People living in South Korea only have to look a few miles north to see what American troops saved them from.

And are still saving them from.

Fuck you, Psy. Fuck you Gangnam Style.; 12/8/12, 12:01 PM
edutcher said...: Note Barry hasn't uninvited him.

Maybe he'll bow, too.; 12/8/12, 12:02 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: Don't worry, PSY, you can hate America and still profit wildly from it. Just look at Michael Moore.; 12/8/12, 12:11 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: People living in South Korea only have to look a few miles north to see what American troops saved them from.

And South Koreans don't know that already?

You wouldn't be falling into the "all South Koreans are one South Korean, and that South Korean is PSY" trap, are you?; 12/8/12, 12:13 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: He just needs to change his screed a little to focus on the three R's of successful entertainment that appeals to progressive Democrat types: rich people, Republicans, and religious folk.; 12/8/12, 12:13 PM
Kelly said...: I was stationed in S. Korea at the beginning of its 'sunshine policy' toward the North. Students were protesting and rioting against the American military presence during that time. My first day there, a bus driver was taking a group of us to a hotel in Seoul and drove us right into a middle of a protest. We had to hide on the floor until he got us out of there.

We were treated pretty badly until somewhere around the time the Olympics began. Then the Koreans became friendly because you might be a tourist there for the Games.

So yeah, considering Psy's age, he would have been one of the student protestors during that time. I mean really, isn't it obvious that dirty Americans were the ONLY thing preventing the South from having peace with the North?; 12/8/12, 12:24 PM
ricpic said...: Gooks hate Whitey.; 12/8/12, 12:31 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: Racial slur alert!; 12/8/12, 12:33 PM
Ipso Fatso said...: For the Obama's and their ilk, I would think Psy's anti-amerikanism would be a feature not a bug.; 12/8/12, 12:45 PM
Ipso Fatso said...: For the Obama's and their ilk, I would think Psy's anti-amerikanism would be a feature not a bug.; 12/8/12, 12:46 PM
Alex said...: Is it possible to hate a land mass? You have to understand the context of which 2 American soldiers brutally murdered a Korean girl.; 12/8/12, 12:53 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Pretty typical of South Korean attitudes towards the US.

Riot against the evil imperialist Yankees on Monday, go down and apply for a US student visa on Tuesday.; 12/8/12, 1:04 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: Because all South Koreans are one South Korean. Got it.

Care to tell us what the one American is?; 12/8/12, 1:11 PM
ken in tx said...: Gook is not a racial slur when applied to Koreans,unless you are too ignorant to know that Gook is the Korean word for people. They call themselves Hangook, meaning People of the Han River. They call Americans Migook. I'm not sure what that means.; 12/8/12, 1:30 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: Actually, "guk" is Korean for "country." "Han-guk" (or "Hankuk") is Korean for "Korea," and a "Hankuk-saram" is a "Korean-person," or Korean.

"Miguk" is Korean for "America." It's not hard to imagine some less than enlightened G.I. who heard some Korean say "Miguk" and replied, "You gook, all right."

Besides, aren't racial and ethnic slurs in the mind of the beholder?; 12/8/12, 1:38 PM
Unknown said...: The South truly sees the North Koreans as Rousseauen noble savages unsullied by "gangnam" style luxury that 50 years of capitalism on steroids has brought to the South. Gangnam style is very much a Korean version of that Weezer song Beverly Hills. So this all fits together quite well. The south blames the US for the DMZ which seperates the South from their more pure brothers in the North. Interesting that this phenomenon didn't emerge in Germany but that is likely only because anti Americanism in Geramany lacked the racial component it has in Korea.; 12/8/12, 2:03 PM
Ironclad said...: I lived in Korea, Gangnam too! (and man is it expensive there). Most Koreans are frankly very cool to foreigners, the educated ones are better but in the general population, you feel the coolness when you are out walking. I had people get up and move on the subway and even got nasty when I sat down on the same bench.

But the PSY video captures a lot of Korean spirit in it - especially the parking garage guy dancer in yellow. So typical.; 12/8/12, 2:06 PM
Balfegor said...: Most Koreans are frankly very cool to foreigners, the educated ones are better but in the general population, you feel the coolness when you are out walking.

When I started reading this sentence I thought "WHAT? Cool?" Then I realised you meant they dislike foreigners. And that's definitely true. I would caveat what you're saying by noting that Koreans educated abroad may be more polite to foreigners (have less of an ick reaction to seeing them), but that doesn't necessarily mean they're any less prejudiced about foreigners than the average Korean.

Anyhow, some Koreans have a particular hatred for the US, up there with their hatred of the Japanese and the Chinese, because of our robust support for the dictatorship, including (under Carter) complicity in the 1980 Kwangju massacre for which one ex-President was sentenced to death, and another to life imprisonment (both were pardoned). Even dissidents whose lives we saved hated us (e.g. Kim Dae Jung, who credits Jesus for saving his life when in fact it was the U.S. Navy). After the end of the dictatorship, news about US involvement/complicity in massacres before and during the war also came out, and that encouraged further anti-American feeling. When the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit, many people blamed the US for that too.; 12/8/12, 2:28 PM
Balfegor said...: RE: Derek Brown:

The South truly sees the North Koreans as Rousseauen noble savages unsullied by "gangnam" style luxury that 50 years of capitalism on steroids has brought to the South.

I don't think the South quite sees the North that way. If they did, their popular probably wouldn't make fun of North Korean accents quite as much.; 12/8/12, 2:30 PM
Balfegor said...: Sorry, "their popular media" I meant.; 12/8/12, 2:30 PM
Balfegor said...: Miguk = 美國 = Beautiful-Country. Same in Chinese, albeit with Chinese pronunciation.

A note on "Korea" in Korean -- Hanguk is only used for South Korea (formally, it is the Dae-Han Minguk, or the "Republic of Great Korea"). North Korea still calls itself Chosun, which is what Korea was called from the 14th century until the end of World War II. In Japan (and probably China) the choice of whether to call Koreans by the local cognate of Hanguk or Chosun has some political overtones. There are some situations (e.g. restaurants) where Japanese may also use the Japanese cognate of Goryeo, which is the source of Western "Korea" (Goryeo was the dynasty before Chosun).; 12/8/12, 2:39 PM
Unknown said...: I was not aware of the accent thing, but how does that compare with the riots and hatred American soldiers face. Compare the reaction to the US APC hitting that kid with North Korea sinking a South Korean frigate. Also of course noble savages talk funny they are after all savages.; 12/8/12, 2:51 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: They must think our dynasties are really short.; 12/8/12, 2:52 PM
Unknown said...: You are looking at it too much through the American template where making fun of an accent was part and parcel to cultural and ultimately military campaign of one region against another. All things equal mocking someone's accent is pretty small potatoes.; 12/8/12, 2:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Sigh. Now another cheesy, meaningless pop song I can't listen to without being bombarded with Anti-American drivel.

This guy went to Berklee (in Boston), what did you expect?

And a classic non-apology: "I'm sorry for the way these lyrics could have been interpreted." Yeah, asshole, it's all my fault for reading your crap wrong. You're perfect, we're all wrong.

Fuck you shit head.

This is for you, and every lefty out there. How does parody taste now?:

"Killing that f***ing Psy who called for American deaths.

'Kill his children, mother, daughters-in-law and fathers.

'Kill them all slowly and painfully."

----

It's art! It;s Parody!; 12/8/12, 3:08 PM
Anonymous said...: P.S. Is anyone surprised President Stepin Fetchit is going? He's probably got the "kill those fucking Yankees" song on permanent repeat over the White House inside speakers.; 12/8/12, 3:10 PM
Roberto said...: Poor babies.

Still smarting from that good ol' ass thumping you got last month?

Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!; 12/8/12, 3:17 PM
Fr Martin Fox said...: If all that folks were complaining about was "anti-American" sentiment or "U.S. get out," I wouldn't care much. Yes, the U.S. sure did save half of Korea from communism, but we did it for our own reasons--for very good reasons--but it wasn't mere altruism.

Also, I wonder if how various "what if" scenarios sit with Koreans? Was it mixed signals that tempted the communists to invade? What if McArthur had stayed back just a bit from the Chinese frontier? (On the other hand, what if Truman had let the communists have Korea? What if they hadn't tried the Inchon landing--or if it hadn't worked. It goes both ways.)

Korea has been a pawn between warring powers for centuries, most recently between the Cold War rivals. The DMZ is the frontier of freedom, but it's also a terrible slash through the center of Korea. I don't blame the Korean people for not liking this reality. And they still can anticipate the end of the Cold War on their peninsula--what then?

And I wouldn't have minded if he'd just protested torture. I'd be with him on that one.

But he went beyond that.; 12/8/12, 3:19 PM
Anonymous said...: @Roberto:

Hey, I realize you positively jerked yourself to Utopia when Obama deliberately let the Americans at Benghazi get killed.

Don't worry, I'm sure he'll line up the firing squads for U.S. troops soon enough.; 12/8/12, 3:21 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: Derek Brown

You are looking at it too much through the American template where making fun of an accent was part and parcel to cultural and ultimately military campaign of one region against another. All things equal mocking someone's accent is pretty small potatoes.

First, I don't think that's an accurate summary of the American approach to making fun of accents -- we probably ridicule Southern accents more now, 150 years after crushing the Rebel Alliance, than we did before the Civil War.

Second, I'm pretty sure I'm not looking at it through a particularly American lens, since in many respects, my viewpoint is as much Korean as it is American. Anyhow, North Korean refugees face pretty extensive discrimination in South Korea, and mockery of their funny accents is just the tip of the iceberg. I won't say there are no South Koreans who admire the North Koreans (although I don't think anyone views them as "noble savages"). Just that in general, people don't look to North Korea and think that's what they want for themselves. I think it's more common to look at companies like Samsung and Hyundai and LG and feel a sense of pride that Korean companies can beat those dirty foreign companies, especially the Japanese, and that South Korean pop stars are admired across the globe (Hallyu), etc. etc.

On the other hand, I come from a somewhat right-wing background. Maybe if you asked someone on the other side, you'd get a very different answer. I forget her name, but there was some crazy woman at a recent Presidential debate who referred to South Korea as the "Southern Government", as though she were a North Korean, so they are out there.; 12/8/12, 3:31 PM
Balfegor said...: It was Lee Jung-hee. Netizens' reaction:

Go back immediately, to the North!; 12/8/12, 3:43 PM
Unknown said...: I think you are right about it being worse after the Civil War, I meant it more as it serves as a post hoc justification for that war. Also, of course the South Koreans aren't going to treat North Koreans in SK well. These noble savage idealizations collapse the second one comes into direct contact with that which one once lionized.

Sorry for the name change two different gmail accounts.; 12/8/12, 4:10 PM
el polacko said...: thanks, aridog ! i knew that, when i saw that chubby asian hopping around that it reminded me of SOMEthing...chubby CHECKER !! duh!; 12/8/12, 4:18 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/8/12, 4:34 PM
edutcher said...: Roberto said...

Poor babies.

Still smarting from that good ol' ass thumping you got last month?

Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

No, we're having all kinds of fun anticipating the knots you'll be tying yourselves into trying to blame the fiscal cliff on us.

(he waited this long and came all this way just for that?); 12/8/12, 4:38 PM
Unknown said...: Except it wasn't at all. It was entirely an out shoot of Sunshine era student radicalism. Conservatives are for entrenchment and confrontation with the North, but of which the South needs the US to assist with. Just because nationalist=conservative in America doesn't make that principle world wide.

Balfegor how are the president's of South Korea so Christian? Is the elite in South Korea more religion than the country at large?; 12/8/12, 4:41 PM
Jim S. said...: It's a pretty horrific thing to say, but the man apologized for it. If he recognizes that it was wrong, and that he was in the wrong for saying (and even just thinking) it, that's enough for me. I say this as a former Marine.; 12/8/12, 5:05 PM
Balfegor said...: RE: Samuel/Derek Brown:

Balfegor how are the president's of South Korea so Christian? Is the elite in South Korea more religion than the country at large?

Yes, although the country as a whole has a strong Christian presence. I'm not sure whether the Chaebol families are particularly religious, but the professional classes which make up much of the ruling elite tend to be quite Christian. If Park Geunhye wins, though, I think she's technically Buddhist, like her father, so there'll be a non-Christian President for the first time in 20 years.

As for why Christianity is so prevalent in Korea, I'm not sure, but I suspect it's because many of the leading activists in the independence movement were Christian, and Christian churches helped to organize such resistance as there was. That lends it a certain prestige.; 12/8/12, 5:16 PM
Balfegor said...: RE: ambienisevil:

If any conservative had been in Psy's place 10 years ago in Korea, they would have been pissed off, too. It's actually a very conservative position.

Pretty sure "kill their families slowly, painfully," is not a conservative position.; 12/8/12, 5:21 PM
The Surge said...: Perhaps the blog Ask A Korean, if you people actually bother to read it, may enlighten you: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2012/12/quick-thought-about-psys-past-anti.html; 12/8/12, 6:38 PM