The Korean kids are alt-right

Courtesty of Elle Morre

By David A. Tizzard

Transcultural diffusion is real: ideas, technology, beliefs and styles move between cultures and nations all the time. Sometimes this diffusion is generated by expansion as powerful nations stretch outward, increasing their influence over a growing number of countries and peoples. Elsewhere, relocation diffusion sees individuals travelling abroad, creating diasporas, and bringing their cultures with them unconsciously in the lining of their coats. Social media has added an incredibly powerful dimension to these diffusions, moving ideas at breakneck speed and connecting similar classes and interests around the world.

Social media has also had an incredibly damaging effect on societies and democracies however, exposing some of our worst human traits as influencers clamor for attention, outrage, and profits. More and more frequently, analyses of Korea project examples of American culture wars onto the country. Every few months, we'll get a spate of articles decrying the South Korean president-elect as Trump, men here as alt-right, and young people as conservative incels. And the ethnocentrism doesn't seem to bother people making such claims. Geography, colonial experiences, national culture, democratizing processes, and populations don't really come into the analysis. So you will notice that these articles rarely use any transcultural diffusion analysis from Taiwan, Indonesia, or Brazil. The choice of the American-lens arguably says more about the person using such terms than it does about Korea. It's often just a case of throwing apples and oranges in the same box and calling them all fruit. It would instead of course be more appropriate to suggest that Korean people are becoming different Korean people rather than simply simulacra of the American original.

But what of the charges? Has Korea suddenly shifted right because of a host of right-wing social media grifters amid malevolent motivation to oppose any increasing rights for society's oppressed? There are certainly those Korean elements in Korean society. Outrage peddled by grief-merchants is a reality all around the world, including in mainstream media. You will have no doubt noticed the trend for reputable news outlets to use Tweets as a story. Just imagine the effect this has on people tweeting: "If only I can write something that goes viral, I'll be on the news!"

But, and this needs to be stressed emphatically, social media is not reality. Twitter and YouTube are not an accurate reflection of day-to-day life just as Instagram photos are not what we really look like. I have the good fortune of being able to spend a lot of time with Korean people in their 20s across two universities. My courses on contemporary Korean society require students to study and understand social issues in their historical and cultural contexts. They are then expected to write essays, take part in discussions, and give presentations on the issues they feel they have something to say about. What one notices in these real environments day in, day out is that young Korean adults are more progressive than "they" have ever been.

These young Korean men and women are nearly unanimous in their support of equality, women's rights, LGBT acceptance, and focus on mental health. They all seem to value freedom. They want streaming services, they want relationships, they want jobs and money, they want to live their dreams free from societal constraints. Of course their positions all exist on a spectrum and differ in terms of language and application. Some hold rather radical views, others are liberal, and many are just what you would expect from decent people. Some take positions because they want to punish the ruling DPK party for what they see as hypocrisy and/or political and economic failure, extinguishing the flame of revolutionary hope which burned so bright in 2017. But nobody is advocating the return of traditional Korean practices which included slavery and confining women to private indoor rooms and had them covered from head to toe.

So while statistics and viral articles talk about K-Trump and alt-right Korean men who want to deny women their existence, I just don't see it. Of course one person's experiences don't make something the case. It's quite possible that the two universities I work at and the particular lectures I give attract students with certain personalities and proclivities that are not reflective of the more general population.

But for all the fear-mongering online for attention and the admittedly outrageous statements by certain individuals in positions of power and influence, I would instead put forward the claim that Korean people in their 20s are on the whole more progressive in their views toward women, refugees, foreigners, the LGBT community, the disabled, and each other than "they" have ever been in the history of the country. They might not be as woke as some people who use American Twitter, but then if you expect them to be like that, you're not only denying Korean history and culture, you're also just doing that hierarchical diffusion thing again.

The trouble is, the idea that Korean people are more progressive in their social and cultural views than Korean people in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, or 2010s isn't very exciting. It makes sense, and it matches up with reality. But that's not what social media necessarily wants from us.

Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast, which can be found online. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.