RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Martin.

Short and sweet.

Narrator:  'Look at this shattered British guy coming home from his long day at work, and then doing the 50/50 housework'

Oglop:  '뭐야' 

Narrator:  'Look, he spilled the washing powder all over the floor before stepping on a soiled nappy'
*repeated three times with a boing sound* 

Wife:  오빠 바보!

*canned laughter* 

Oglop:  FML 

There's something unsettling about these sound effects on a news broadcast; seems undignified:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C20inS4gT_k

Soooooooooooooooooo ooo third? "Koreans are second most victims after American and British actresses."

Yeah, and I'm the second best tennis player after all the best tennis players in the world.

Also, unnie?  It's like spelling  아저씨 Ajuicy.

That took some doing. Turning a story about the sinister practice of inserting people's faces into porno movies without their permission into a propaganda piece for K pop.

Just as people are allowed to like ballads, people are allowed to not like pop. You can't get on people for not recognizing that people can like whatever they want and then turn around and go after people for not liking whatever they don't. It seems strange to be open-minded enough to understand why people might like a genre you don't care for, but not enough to understand why people might not like a genre you do care for.

I'm trying to point out to someone who thinks they have no musical value or whatever, why they may have a blind spot in their view. Some people frankly "don't get it" when it comes to why people like certain things. It's not that they are wrong for not liking it, just that there seems to, in some cases, be a certain level of ignorance.

"They don't even play their own instruments. It's bad music."
What I'm doing is pointing out how that's irrelevant to the intended audience. They aren't looking for instrumental musicianship. They are focused on the singer and their vocal talents as well as their ability to emote and communicate so in turn the listener empathizes with them and in a sense, lives vicariously through their performance.

The critic has completely misunderstood the point. And again, I'll point to the Roger Ebert standard for criticism- you judge something based on how it was intended towards the audience it was designed for. A goofy slapstick comedy done extremely well is more worthy of 3-4 stars than some art house film poorly done. The latter may be more creative, have better acting, etc. etc. but it doesn't succeed, whereas the former does. This requires the critic to be comfortable with all genres and to empathize with the audience and value them and what they are trying to experience. At the core of it is the idea "I am not the center of the universe and my standards are not the standards of the world that everyone should agree with. Rather every person has value and the entertainment preferences they have, have value, and I will do my utmost to try and respect those."

It's not surprising that people who have trouble with musical genres focused more on empathy and a listening style based on experiencing the emotions of the performer, in turn have trouble empathizing with other consumer of music and seeing taste and preference and quality through a lens other than their own and in turn start to judge people as human being based on things like "taste in music".

None of that really addressed the point I was making at all.

Ranting? Okay...here's mine

I hate people who are self-anointed world saviours and identify as liberal but call anyone and everyone who disagrees with them a racist or some other jive description.

I'd like to talk to them in 30 years or so. It's remarkable how time seems to serve as a trend towards conservatism. I used to be like them, but years, experience and wisdom have made me a realistic pragmatist. You'll learn......

You're not averse to a few worn out tropes yourself. 

In my experience here in Asia, Western guys who are vociferously anti-feminist tend to fall into one of three categories:

1. The Player

These guys are treating their 20s as an extension of the frat house or student halls, and their social lives revolve around trying to get laid. Some may have been successful with women back home and are now equally successful here. Others less so, but they've bought into the idea that Asian women are an easy catch. Some of them are bullshitters and braggarts in the classic PUA mold, while others just quietly try to accumulate notches on the bedpost. Both groups need to see women as little more than sex toys to justify their continued pursuits, but some may eventually mature, take a relationship seriously and leave this phase of their life beyond. Their activities are generally apolitical, more hedonistic than anything else, but they react to women's empowerment like a toddler having its toys taken away. Hence, you'll occasionally get an eruption from them, since they are obviously threatened by feminism.

2. The Embittered Loser

Many embittered losers didn't begin that way. In fact, some came to Asia as aspiring Players, sold on the idea that the women of Japan, China and Korea were waiting, legs apart, for their triumphant arrival. These guys thought it was all going to be so easy. Yet after numerous knock-backs, false starts and embarrassments, the harsh reality started to bite. However, instead of acknowledging the obvious (many Players are liars, women aren't impressed by your foreignness alone, your "game" might need some work), they've turned on women in general, finding solace and community in the meanest and most hostile corners of the internet. Some of these guys might eventually go down the MGTOW road, or at least beat their chests in a similar style, declaring that they've tried dating, they've given everything for a relationship, but modern women are just too corrupted by Western feminism to possibly be a good partner. This is the most politically active category. They have the most time and least joy in their lives, so they've become adept at finding scapegoats to blame for everything they consider wrong with the world. The Embittered Loser is more likely than the other groups to be attracted to extreme ideologies, believe in conspiracy theories and display paranoid tendencies. Like the standard-issue incel, they are equally furious that "sluts" are having casual sex, and that these women are not freely giving their bodies to them. Some Embittered Losers will eventually drift toward Southeast Asia in pursuit of the prize they were never able to obtain in Korea or Japan, places they will speak of with total disdain.

3. The Betrothed

Some of The Betrothed may have begun their careers in online misogyny as Players, but others were relatively well-adjusted men, seeking mutually fulfilling relationships with women. For both groups, life has started to sour since marriage or engagement. Adult responsibilities and, in some cases, the stresses of fatherhood have sapped the fun from what started as exotic sexual dalliances in the Far East. Their relationship began joyously but the longer he has stayed in Korea, the more the power balance has evened out, and the domestic servant + arm candy ideal has mutated into something very different. Rather than reflecting on this as a normal stage of life and a chance for personal development, The Betrothed prefer to focus on the freedoms they've lost, a loss rubbed in their faces everyday by the sight of women socializing together, women socializing with men, women succeeding in public life, women dancing in tiny shorts on TV... Stuck in Korea, stuck with a family, stuck in an English-teaching job with little scope for advancement or change, these men will resort to some of the same scapegoating as the Embittered Losers, though will likely spend less time flirting with other strains of extremism.

A bit unsightly as a full quote, mind you

I was going to just quote the headings and the intro but that wouldn't have shown how well worn the tropes actually were.

Thanks for bringing that post to greater prominence. It got held up by moderators when I joined the site and ended up buried at the bottom of semi-retired thread, but now you've inserted it into a much more active one, which belatedly validates the work I put into it. A bit unsightly as a full quote, mind you, but the effect is the same.

You've got some issues, huh?  I think things are going to be picking up around here. 

I think "Unnie News" on Arirang is not meant to be in the same vein as the nightly news. It's a casual news program that's as much edutainment as news. It's not like she's talking about some trade deal or the Korea-Japan dispute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ZEbo_AMaw

Can't wait til I'm mature enough to spend my time repeating worn out talk radio tropes, attacking a Swedish teenager, publicly fetishizing Asian women's bodies and bragging about my superior lifestyle with all the subtle humility of a rich teenager who just got a convertible Mercedes for his 16th birthday.

If I can escape my safe space, here's hoping the next decade sees me evolving into a great person like you. Gotta get me some of that wisdom and experience first, though.

Yeah, I was waiting for you to show up and whine. What kind of cheese goes with that whine anyway? Funny children......

I think "Unnie News" on Arirang is not meant to be in the same vein as the nightly news. It's a casual news program that's as much edutainment as news. It's not like she's talking about some trade deal or the Korea-Japan dispute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ZEbo_AMaw

I stand corrected. Leave that crap to youtube and casual tv news.

Thanks for bringing that post to greater prominence. It got held up by moderators when I joined the site and ended up buried at the bottom of semi-retired thread, but now you've inserted it into a much more active one, which belatedly validates the work I put into it. A bit unsightly as a full quote, mind you, but the effect is the same.

Probably held up for being absolute tripe.

Thanks for bringing that post to greater prominence. It got held up by moderators when I joined the site and ended up buried at the bottom of semi-retired thread, but now you've inserted it into a much more active one, which belatedly validates the work I put into it. A bit unsightly as a full quote, mind you, but the effect is the same.

Probably held up for being absolute tripe.

i've never had it, but i hear tripe is pretty good

I think "Unnie News" on Arirang is not meant to be in the same vein as the nightly news. It's a casual news program that's as much edutainment as news. It's not like she's talking about some trade deal or the Korea-Japan dispute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ZEbo_AMaw

I think what Martin failed to grasp here is that Arirang is the Korean channel that is beamed around the world.  It is what foreigners in other countries might stumble upon while they're flicking through a million channels from their satellite dishes on the top of their house.  It is like state tv as it's financed by the Ministry of Culture and, Sports and Tourism, so it's like the public relations arm of the SK government.  I was on holiday in Italy with my dad and he called me over to tell me he'd found this 'fantastic Korean channel', thing is he said that about 'Russia Today' and 'CC TV' too.  Basically, my dad is an idiot.   

I think what Martin failed to grasp here is that Arirang is the Korean channel that is beamed around the world.  It is what foreigners in other countries might stumble upon while they're flicking through a million channels from their satellite dishes on the top of their house.  It is like state tv as it's financed by the Ministry of Culture and, Sports and Tourism, so it's like the public relations arm of the SK government.  I was on holiday in Italy with my dad and he called me over to tell me he'd found this 'fantastic Korean channel', thing is he said that about 'Russia Today' and 'CC TV' too.  Basically, my dad is an idiot.   

That's true, but it's also true that it is a segment that's seemingly specifically designed for casual consumption on youtube. Now, they should stick to "lighter fare" rather than serious issues with those kind of effects, so that's a fair point, but at the end of the day it's a cutaway segment to something called Unnie News so let's not make it out to be more than it is.

Arirang is complete and utter ****. I used to work in the Arirang building and even being subjected to 20 seconds of Arirang TV in the elevator was torturous. I always hoped to bump into some hot Korean celebrity there but never did :(

Arirang is complete and utter ****. I used to work in the Arirang building and even being subjected to 20 seconds of Arirang TV in the elevator was torturous. I always hoped to bump into some hot Korean celebrity there but never did :(

That is hilarious 

Nothing like turning up to work in a foul mood after being tortured like that for a short space of time.  What if the lift got stuck?   

Worse than that would be if your carshare is a K-pop fan with a phat stereo.  Christ.  Kill me now.   

I was on holiday in Italy with my dad and he called me over to tell me he'd found this 'fantastic Korean channel', thing is he said that about 'Russia Today' and 'CC TV' too.  Basically, my dad is an idiot.   

It's difficult to figure out what Arirang's deal is. Personally, I think it's just another one of those goofy attempts to attract tourists or positive attention to the country. It's right up there with those hilarious 비빔밥 and 막걸리 ads they put in the NY times to try and attract tourists or the "I Seoul You", "It's Daejon" fiasco.

If Arirang wants to market Korea, that's cool, but it's a bit disjointed when everything about the presentation and image screams 'serious news channel', then the focus on K-pop, close-ups of white girls crying over Korean celebrities and related content. Rather make it an MTV style format, the majority of English speakers watching it are Koreaboos anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzzTMaXaTY

It's difficult to figure out what Arirang's deal is. Personally, I think it's just another one of those goofy attempts to attract tourists or positive attention to the country. It's right up there with those hilarious 비빔밥 and 막걸리 ads they put in the NY times to try and attract tourists or the "I Seoul You", "It's Daejon" fiasco.

If Arirang wants to market Korea, that's cool, but it's a bit disjointed when everything about the presentation and image screams 'serious news channel', then the focus on K-pop, close-ups of white girls crying over Korean celebrities and related content. Rather make it an MTV style format, the majority of English speakers watching it are Koreaboos anyway.

Yeah. It seems to be caught between two worlds.

Of course, what else is to be expected by a government run operation?