"Korea Is the World's Most Depressing Country"…an honest travelogue of a famous American writer

The Moon@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 165 points –
"Korea Is the World's Most Depressing Country"…an honest travelogue of a famous American writer - MK
mk.co.kr

Mark Manson, an American bestselling author and famous YouTuber, has made headlines by posting a video that he "traveled to the world's most depressing country" after visiting Korea. Manson, a best-selling author who has written famous self-development books such as "The Art of Turning Off Nervousness," is a YouTube creator with 1.44 million subscribers.

Manson recently released a 24-minute video on his YouTube channel under the theme of "Traveling to the World's Depressing Country." During his visit to Korea, Manson met with Americans, psychologists, and psychiatrists living in Korea to look into depression in Korean society.

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Which Korea are we talking about here?

South Korea or Best Korea?

You are joking, but it took me about 15% of the article to figure out definitively he was talking about ROK not DPRK.

You are joking

You are now banned from /c/Pyongyang

Ban comes in, ban goes out, can’t explain that!

When people say “Korea”, they probably mean the south one (unless they’re a fan of Kim Jong Un).

From the article:

He also expressed regret, saying, "It is the result of Korea maximizing the bad points of Confucian culture and the shortcomings of capitalism."

I don't really understand what that means.

So to be safe, you are now banned from /c/Pyongyang

I like this whole schtick you have going 😁

You are now a moderator of /c/Pyongyang

Fun fact: Kim Jong Un is the fattest person in all of North Korea, a nation experiencing perpetual famine. This makes him the living embodiment of parasitic autocracy! Fun!

You are now banned from /c/Pyongyang and I have fired warheads into the Sea of Japan.

Dammit, I was going to go for a swim there!

According to Dear Leader, the mutations created by the radiation will give you gills to help with the swimming.

Cool! Will I be able to shoot webs too? Out of my ass like a real spider does?

You'll be able to jizz from your nose. Carry lots of tissues and don't sneeze in public.

You would think a best selling author could express himself more clearly. But then again he‘s American. Perhaps he really doesn‘t know or care which one or if there is a difference.

Technically, Stephanie Meyer (Twilight), E.L. James (50 Shades of Grey) and Donald Trump (The Fart of the Eel) are all best selling authors, so..

That’s not even technically. They wrote immensely popular books, they’re just poorly written ones

Technically Trump didn’t write anything, his ghostwriter did.

That's what I meant: you don't necessarily have to be good at writing to write something popular.

In Korea, it's common to refer to the place as "Korea", and not "South Korea".

I've heard that "North Korea", when referred to in South Korea, is best translated as "Northern Korea". It might not even be generally thought of as a different country at all.

That‘s just normal behavior for people of split countries. It‘s not so normal when a foreigner doesn‘t specify clearly which of the two they’re referring to when speaking to a global audience.

And the part about it not even being considered a different country is of course nonsense. Some folks may be wishful thinking out loud, but the general public does not believe they are currently the same country. Some may think of them as the same people, but the countries couldn‘t be more different and divided.