I’ll be honest, I’ve moved off of hexbear.net after the domain expired. All the struggle sessions (especially over China) were incredibly taxing.

I’m reminded of an excerpt from Blackshirts & Reds:

I listened to an East German friend complain of poor services and inferior products; the system did not work, he concluded. But what of the numerous social benefits so lacking in much of the world, I asked, aren’t these to be valued? His response was revealing: “Oh, nobody ever talks about that.” People took for granted what they had in the way of human services and entitlements while hungering for the consumer goods dangling in their imaginations.

The human capacity for discontent should not be underestimated. People cannot live on the social wage alone.

American imperialism, the devastation of WWII, and capitalist concessions all allowed for higher living standards for white Americans and others in the imperial core. Plenty of people were attracted to the West due to the perceived material conditions. And as you said, the Western working class will see fewer crumbs as capitalism decays and the world enters multi-polarity. I only hope that it results in a resurgence in communist movements in the West.

An openly communist subreddit? Where have I seen this before…

In all seriousness, I’m glad to hear there’s an ML sub. As others have mentioned, most others get banned or end up as left/right deviants.

It’s very possible I misremember what my friends said; I’ll check on them later. My two Korean acquaintances both grew up largely in the US, so that may have also colored their perception.

I am by no means casting judgement on South Koreans for any thing I mentioned. If anything, I believe its the American occupation that has had a largely malign influence on South Korean society, including the treatment of women.

Uhh I’ll fiddle with this later and figure it out. Thank you for the help.

I don’t think that works with numbered items :(

    Hello


1. World

Hello

1. World

I think RoK overall faces a lot of horrible misogyny. For the Burning Suns scandal, some of those idols have been convicted, and they got off relatively light IMO. Seungri ended up pleading guilty to all charges in exchange for 18 months in prison.

In addition, I’ve heard anecdotes from South Korean friends who say that the men are incredibly pushy, won’t say no, etc. Also, the beauty standards are something else. Plastic surgery is very common. Women are expected to wear make-up in public. Even my Korean friend who never wears make-up in the US would go through the effort every day when they were visiting.

Yes, being a “trainee” is pretty brutal. For those that make it and debut, some (many?) of their contracts stipulate that the idols don’t get paid until their company believes they’ve earned back their training costs. In fact, if an idol leaves before that time, they are obliged to pay back the company for their training. Going solo is the ideal.

It’s as you say; K-pop has become more and more of a commodity.

Also, how do I get new lines between numbered/indented paragraphs? The only way I found to work was to use  , but that gives three line breaks.