CutieBootieTootie [she/her]

You’re boxing ghosts, if you live in the imperial territories, your only possibility to change things is inside those imperial territories. I grew up in the United States which Jose Marti referred to as the belly of the beast. I am speaking from my own perspective as a white American. We do not have the right to dictate Korean people or Korean politics.

What many white Americans and other privileged people of the imperial territories pass of as critique is really white chauvinism in disguise, not seriously attempting to understand the systems or people that their empire is trying to crush. I’ve done my best to try and educate myself on Korean history and politics as I can as an outsider, but I don’t think it’s relevant to the ultimate and final point that those living in the imperial territories should advocate against their empire at all costs.

You can browbeat me all you want if you’d like, but it doesn’t mean anything because I know the following principles are true

1. This post was made by a member of the imperial core
2. This post doesn’t try to seriously engage with Korean politics, but instead to ridicule it from a place of chauvinism and to try and decry socialism as they see it
3. Weirdo racist shit that conforms to the two prior points should be dorked on and made fun of

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t seriously engage and discuss this stuff. I think if it’s relevant to you and you would like to, why not? But obviously weirdo racist shit, like the posts that we’re commenting under, is clearly not contributing to any greater understanding of Korean politics and instead seeks to demonize an entire society, which at the end of the day makes American intervention easier.

The country I’m in and global order that most other Lemmy users are in is in fact at war with Korea. It’s not nuanced to make some kind of weird fucking image like exists at the head of this post, when our society is at war with Korea, all it does is justify intervention in Korea and demonize those who don’t want to spend billions of dollars fighting a war overseas that helps nobody on the planet except for the billionaire class.

The proper approach to take is is that, sure, issues exist in places abroad, of course, but it’s not our place to dictate those, and in fact, by trying to dictate those, we only give fuel to the war machine, which wastes lives and sends money directly to billionaires. It’s difficult to change one’s own society, but one has to do it in concert with many others. But there’s nobody in concert to change another society except with the government of yours that wants to declare war on it.

Right now, the Korean Peninsula is split solidly in half between the resistance forces that freed it from Japanese occupation and those who collaborated with American intervention. That’s just a fact. Just because it was founded by resistance fighters doesn’t mean it’s a society without issues. But our society going to war with it only exacerbates those issues and doesn’t allow it to develop. If Korea and the Korena people were truly allowed to dictate its own fate and its own future free from foreign intervention, who knows if it would look the same it does today? Very likely not! Societies are able to develop when they don’t have to be fighting wars against imperial domination by powers like the United States, England, etc. In fact, we’ve seen it in Iran. There were many people who were trying to bring about serious changes to the state of women’s issues and queer issues in Iran, who had been forced to side with the government because of American intervention. It was their right to do those things, and they were engaged in it until the United States forced Iranian people to all stand in one front against American imperial domination.

So, no. Smearing an anti-imperialist stance as somehow dismissive colonialism isn’t right. It’s in fact quite the opposite. It’s the approach that societies and people within them should be free to choose their destiny without external colonial interference that attitudes like the white chauvinist one from the OP only empower. That stance is innately anti-imperialist. Whether you like the government of Korea or not, it’s not like the people really have a choice while they’re under war and siege by the American Empire. Do you want Korean society to change for the better? Then you have to advocate against the empire wherever you live in it.

I think it means that posting weird unhinged shit like this is a waste of time which screams white mans burden.

Those who don’t live in Korea can’t change the politics of Korea, but what they can change are their country’s belligerent warring policies against the Korean Peninsula, which caused this crisis in the first place. At the end of the day, complaining and caring so much about the internal politics of another country, one which is opposed to the West, really just means that you’re justifying any future intervention or any future wars against that country. We saw it with Iran. It’s a country with many internal contradictions, but any criticism that people like us living in the west could say about it won’t change the internal politics of that country. All it does is it means it makes it easier for our governments to try and invade and subjugate the Iranian people.

Just the same with stupid bullshit like this. Who the fuck cares about the internal politics of Korea? I really doubt that the vast, vast majority of people who see something like this would even begin to understand the actual internal politics. Myself, honestly included. You know what I do care about? The fact that my country and a coalition of other members of the United Nations killed 20% of the North Korean population during the Korean War in the 50s. I care about the fact that the United States implemented the same exact system of policing that previously existed under the Japanese Empire in the South. I care about my country subjugating others because I live in my country and I can change my country. You know what country I can’t change, and clearly the author of this post cannot change? Korea.

So when I say shit like this is a waste of time, it’s because it’s a waste of time. We’re not going to be changing the internal politics of Korea. The only thing we can do in countries outside of it is basically be asking our countries to intervene, which only would exacerbate any existing issues, and in fact is the cause of many of the current issues in Korea.

Your country is committing a genocide, who gives a fuck, lock in and deal with your own country’s issues first