South Korea Wants To Ban North Korean Website
from the calm-down dept
Why is it that people who have certain beliefs sometimes feel so threatened by anyone who disagrees with them they decide the other point of view should be banned? If they're so confident that they're right, then wouldn't the arguments for the competing ideology melt away when faced with the arguments for their ideology? South Korea apparently disagrees. They're so afraid of a North Korean website preaching the North Korean version of communism that they've called for the website to be banned, so that no one in South Korea has access to it. Are there really that many easily swayed South Koreans desperately needing to be informed about communism in North Korea? All this move really has done is probably drive a lot more attention to this particular website and get it much more traffic than it ever would have had if they'd just left everything alone.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
That's not all they ban
What happens if you have a democratic society, where most people feel that there should be authoritarian rules to protect society?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Korean censorship
Koreans may realize that 'going negative' trumps the truth.
We homo sapiens are so intelligent that once a belief is established,
no amount of reason, truth, or fact will sway us from that belief, right or wrong.
Remember: 'My president, right or wrong!' was the battle cry of the watergate era.
A sizeable portion of the USA's voting population even yet believe:
-- Saddam Hussein actively participated in 9-11.
-- On the eve of invasion Iraq had vast stores of WMD.
-- The cost of the war would be recouped with cheap oil.
-- The Bush administration had an exit strategy.
-- The Bush administration had a plan to win the peace.
Kim Jong Il is no dummy and will quickly apply the negative lessons of our last election cycle in his homeland.
South Koreans are no dummies, but have limited choices for averting the North's oncoming barrage of lies.
Lies that less discerning South Koreans may all to easily accept without question.
Too many people are too willing to buy into any belief that avoids critical thinking on their part.
It is much easier to just accept whatever belief is expedient.
As one of my former supervisors once said:
"All that cypherin' makes my head hurt!"
( 'Cypherin' being reading, writing, and arithmetic. )
So here we are:
Nuclear armed bipeds who are averse to reason.
Sleep well tonight -- someone's finger is on the button.
What exactly does he, or she, BELIEVE?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
recent events convinced me
Short answer. YES.
People in general are easily manipulated and swayed by marketspeek, whether commercial or political. Its not about what's right or good or best anymore, its who's got the better PR staff.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
HELLO?!?
The problem with this kind of statement is apparent...any amount of evil can be passed off as a "different opinion" and held up as something worthy of serious consideration.
Communism is pure evil...it's been PROVEN again and again...ussr/cuba/east germany/china
Hundreds of millions dead by their governments...yet we STILL have whackjobs claiming;
1) well, it wasn't REALLY communism (yes, it was)
2) it's the people's fault, not communism's (not enough dead?!)
3) communism works in THEORY, not practice (see #2)
4) REAL communism is being held back by eeeviiilll capitalists that are enslaving the world (?!?! by making products to make life easier/better?!?!)
Some people are just stupid/misinformed/don't care/greedy. This is how propaganda works, your 'point of view' doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be trendy/sound good/promise things to people.
"...certain beliefs sometimes feel so threatened by anyone who disagrees with them..."
I think the numerous rallies about destroying all that oppose them, and the lessons of history make them feel threatened, not a 'disagreement'
It doesn't matter netwise anyway, people will still get access to the site. I'd see it more from the network admin's point of view...how much bandwidth can be opened up by getting rid of this garbage.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
You obviously have no clue about Korea or it's culture and what's going on.
[ link to this | view in thread ]