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It is easy to single out Chang for this nonsense, but his views are largely derivative of the geriatric hard right in SK. These people are largely distrustful of democracy and the pluralism it has brought. At the same time, democracy has put them on the defensive, and they fail https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1263427855524016131
to produce new ideas that appeal to the broad public, except perhaps an economic growth-first ideology that has done little except to being increased polarisation and anxiety. Despite their apparent dislike of authoritarian regimes, they have no choice but to hark back to the
dictatorship of Park Chung Hee, when any dissent could be labelled as a 'communist plot' and diversity was squashed by hegemonic norms of state regimentation and conformity. Such discourse may seem anachronistic but shows no signs of abating as the right repeatedly fails to come
up a form of conservatism that might actually appeal beyond the right's ageing electoral base. Part of the problem here of course is that Korea's painful history means there is no real golden age that the hard right can look back to, apart from the anti-communism and pro-US
dictatorship of the 60s/70s. Much like the foreign Juche study groups, perhaps it's not surprising that the SK hard right attracts its own sycophants. The problem is when US media is unaware of the context and the fringe nature of such views, and treats such people as 'experts'.
