logoalt Hacker News

zuzululuyesterday at 2:31 AM11 repliesview on HN

A little backstory to Korea's political scene: left leaning political power has come to power , similar to UK's Starmer, and have started implementing draconian surveillance laws.

There's almost no real opposition to stop these type of insane laws that violate individual freedoms. Expect more weirdness out of Korea


Replies

eqvinoxyesterday at 2:34 AM

Starmer is about as left headed as a straight line railway across Australia. Corbyn was left (maybe).

cf. https://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2024

Even if you consider that page biased in whatever way - it's still useful for comparisons on the same scale. E.g. https://www.politicalcompass.org/norway2025

show 4 replies
mullingitoveryesterday at 4:19 AM

What does the left have to do with this? South Korea has had draconian anti-online privacy laws for as long as it has had the internet.

show 2 replies
mparkmsyesterday at 4:25 AM

If the implication is that the left is more willing to violate freedoms, you're leaving out that the right-wing president was ousted for attempting to subvert democracy by instituting martial law for no good reason.

anigbrowlyesterday at 4:18 AM

Sure buddy, just omit the fact that the last president tried to do a coup and is now serving a long prison sentence. It's all the fault of the left leaning guy, there was no censorship or state surveillance in Korea before that.

jdw64yesterday at 4:40 AM

I’m Korean too, but people forget that the right wing has also enforced censorship. Personally, I think the Korean right wing cries out for freedom, but in reality their ideology is rooted in the anti-communist thought of the anti-communist liberal era. I myself have somewhat negative feelings toward communism, but the so-called 'right-wing' regime in Korea is really just nostalgia for dictatorship. The current Korean administration is called 'left-wing' only because the opposition is far-right. In fact, the Korean Political History Association has long classified the 'Democratic Party'(Party name) administration as conservative. This is simply due to a poor understanding of politics[1],[2]

[1]https://www.khan.co.kr/article/202502272123025

[2]https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereA...

show 2 replies
js8yesterday at 2:36 AM

Starmer is not left-leaning, he's a liberal (and supports austerity). People should learn the difference between the left, the right and liberalism.

show 5 replies
rurbanyesterday at 12:11 PM

The previous fascist governments were not much better. The oligarchy derived from that.

donkeylazy456yesterday at 4:19 AM

[dead]

jdw64yesterday at 4:30 AM

[flagged]