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South Korea's President is being impeached.

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Garou

Member
That president is so strange, any other leader would have simply resigned at this point.
 

Unison

Member
She had 4% approval ratings. Shocking.

It looks like the lowest for a US president has been when GWB hit 22%.
 

TTOOLL

Member
That president is so strange, any other leader would have simply resigned at this point.

Not where I come from. Politicians here think the positions are theirs forever, they just won't let go of it. It takes a lot to give up an important public position. You're right, though, in a perfect world Amy leader should just resign if certain conditions are met.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
My Korean girlfriend is embarrassed about the state of Korean politics, but I continue to be impressed that the populace at large is outraged and mobilized against the corruption.

If this happened in America... I dunno. I think you'd just get a biased defence force out of some large double-digit percentage of the populace... many who actually love and defend that the President is controlled by fringe weirdos.

Didn't it kind of just happen? The alt-right whispers into Trump's ear, after all..
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
It is incredible how the Koreans are so motivated. Very impressive and I wish the USA did it.

That said, Korea is more of an ogliarchy than the USA. Even still, their quality of life is higher than the USA imo. Better infrastructure, affordable medical care. It's just the job market that holds people down. Making like $80k is considered excellent, which is a joke salary for cream of the crop graduates who slave away for it. That hasn't changed because it's the younger folk who are affected most. Surprise surprise, less protests about it.
 

Timbuktu

Member
The whole side story with the olympic fencer is pretty amazing. All this came out because of an argument over a puppy?
 

Karu

Member
My Korean girlfriend is embarrassed about the state of Korean politics, but I continue to be impressed that the populace at large is outraged and mobilized against the corruption.
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On my way back from work every day the last few weeks I drove by a group of people sitting at in unisono with candles and stuff, protesting. And I couldn't resist, having a big ass smile on my face everytime. It's pretty cold here, too. So great to see. Every Korean I talk to about it, is like...maaan, what the fuck? Super weird situation all around.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
On my way back from work every day the last few weeks I drove by a group of people sitting at in unisono with candles and stuff, protesting. And I couldn't resist, having a big ass smile on my face everytime. It's pretty cold here, too. So great to see. Every Korean I talk to about it, is like...maaan, what the fuck? Super weird situation all around.
I love it. They're calling a crazy spade a spade.
 

Somnid

Member
Yup. The outrage at corruption was amazing and encouraging to see.

The standards are so low here in the US. Even liberals turn a blind eye to corruption here simply because of partisanship.

I'm not an expert on Korean politics but this statement seems wildly off-base. Like you just threw out any context and decided that because the US elected Trump and Korea is purging a cult puppet that Korea must take a strong stance on corruption while the US doesn't.
 

Eidan

Member
From what I read about the whole scandal, it sounded fairly overblown and rooted heavily in tabloid gossip. The actually "corruption" seemed pretty tame.
 

Eidan

Member
Danke. I knew about the..."confidant" influencing admissions, but didn't know about the accusations of extortion. Still not sure what the ferry tragedy has to do with her, unless that's just a reason for her sinking approval ratings that is separate from the other scandal.
 

Talon

Member
From what I read about the whole scandal, it sounded fairly overblown and rooted heavily in tabloid gossip. The actually "corruption" seemed pretty tame.
You are gravely misinformed.
The USA could learn a lot from South Korea.
Well, considering:
-50% of Korea's GDP is determined by five conglomerates: Samsung, Hyundai, SK, LG, Hanwha who do everything from electronics, heavy shipbuilding, photovoltaics, pharmaceuticals, insurance, grocery stores
-Korea has one of the weakest barriers for libel suits in the democratic world, putting the burden on the defendant instead of the accuser
-This means that the above conglomerates have a pretty easy time snuffing out critical stories from getting traction with a simple lawsuit
-The retired chairman of Samsung having been indicted of outrageous tax evasion and bribing political officials with cash...then being pardoned by his buddy, President Lee
-An executive at Hanwha Group was pardoned after being convicted of assaulting workers with a steel pipe at a karaoke bar after they scuffled with his son
-Former SK Group chairman, Chey Tae-won, was convicted of accounting fraud in 2003, was later pardoned in 2008 – and was then jailed again for embezzlement

Although other countries also have strong links between politicians and business people, in South Korea the relationship between the chaebol and the government is almost symbiotic: Lee Myung-bak, a former South Korean president who did the pardoning, is himself a former Hyundai executive. Mr. Chey, of SK Group, is married to a daughter of a separate former South Korean president, while the current South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the former military dictator who lavished favours on the chaebol until he was assassinated in 1979.

No, in fact, South Korea's system of governance is not great at rejecting corruption. This story with President Park is just next levels of galvanizing because of how bizarre it wound up being. The irony is that if the shaman was a chairman at Hyundai, we probably never get here.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Yeah LOL at the "wish USA stood up against corruption!" posts. You have no idea what you're talking about. Corruption is deeply rooted within Korean society and is widely accepted. It is disgusting and led to things like I mentioned in my previous post, the massive oligarchy.

They're more motivated to get rid of Park because how embarrassing it is to them. Koreans believe they look like primitive shamans who use a crystal ball to make decisions. To them, that's unacceptable. Corruption? Eh, that's just how things are.
 

Supast4r

Junior Member
My Korean girlfriend is embarrassed about the state of Korean politics, but I continue to be impressed that the populace at large is outraged and mobilized against the corruption.

If this happened in America... I dunno. I think you'd just get a biased defence force out of some large double-digit percentage of the populace... many who actually love and defend that the President is controlled by fringe weirdos.

Didn't it kind of just happen? The alt-right whispers into Trump's ear, after all..
Nice stealth brag dude ;)
 
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