The Korean Conflict (Humor Thread) There are hostilities between the Koreas, with munitions being fired into war-games. I just wanted to be the first to say "StarCraft," because we are all working on some kind of punchline pertinent to it and current events. My metahumor is the first of many jokes, here. Have a good day, and keep the silliness in here.
So, can someone fill me in on why people are fighting? What's the problem (besides North Korea just being North Korea)? This has been going on for at least a few days now, and I still don't have a straight answer from people about what's going on and why. Anyone here have some reputable news sources I can get info from, or would any of you care to paraphrase what you've found out? I heard Boxer made a return in SC2, which would mean that he's not in the military anymore, which would mean the North Koreans might be less afraid of the South Korean forces?
North Korea is basically "responding" to South Korean military exercises near the maritime border. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11818005 EDIT: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11818729 No more inappropriate SC jokes please.
I'm no expert or anything, but this is what it seems like to me... The Korean war kinda didn't end. There was an armistice, but no actual peace treaty or resolution. North Korea is in pretty bad shape and one of the ways they keep the people supporting the government is by demonizing South Korea, the US, and the western world at large. I suppose at some point they need to act on that and to try and show their people and/or the world that they deserve good treatment. South Korea just defends itself (unless there's more going on that we don't hear about). That or one of the following... North Korea is fucking insane. China made North Korea do it.
lolwat? China hates North Korea. To them it is like, having a poop between them and a scary guy, but now the poop is getting increasingly stinky
I honestly don't understand how people get off calling North Korea "insane" or "crazy." There is a big difference between disagreeing with their policies and actions and calling these leaders legitimately insane. In-fact I challenge the people who call North Korean leadership "insane" to provide evidence for why their actions follow the textbook definition of insanity. I personally can only think of a couple leaders who can be placed under that category. Including a few African warlords who reportedly eat human flesh. North Korea is doing exactly what it needs to do in order to preserve its leadership and government stability. Which is exactly what all governments around the world do. The unfortunate condition for North Korea is the sheer power and political influence that the military has on foreign policy. North Korea has such power over media that they can fabricate war deaths if they wanted to keep the population riled up. Hostile actions made are clear indicators toward the international community that having war games on their border (which is under dispute by the North) is not only viewed as a threat against their government but as a hostile action. The actions here are text book power politics. The United States, RoK have military exercises near the DMZ or in the Yellow Sea, North Korea fires off a few shells to let the international community know that it doesn't take those sorts of threats sitting down. And every now and then those shells end up getting someone killed, this sort of thing has been happening since the end of the Korean War
I have no qualms calling Kim Jong Il, his late father Kim Il Sung, and his sons every bad word in the book. They are (were) bona fide assholes. The elder Kim took control of the government in 1948, and tried to hold onto it using scare tactics and mass elimination of dissidents through population purges. He had citizens who opposed or spoke out against him imprisoned and or executed. He dubbed himself the country's "Great Leader." His greatest goal was to reunify the peninsula through hostile, military takeover. The country grew into widespread and ongoing economic depression even though its neighbors to the North and West (China), South (S. Korea) and East (Japan) all saw good to great runs of economic prosperity. He raised his son to be an equally, if not worse, son of a bitch than he was, continuing the trends of poverty and human rights violations. I understand that every sovereign nation is allowed to promote its own agenda among the international community, but the ruling Kims have run their own people into the ground. That might not make them "insane" but what they do is flat out criminal and millions of people suffer for it. They are leaders who refused to relinquish power, refused to sacrifice from their own excess, and don't really care about the people whose lives they dominate in nearly every facet of life. If a person thought that kind of way to rule was anywhere near justifiable, I'd question his sanity, even if he didn't eat human flesh.
I think that using 'insane' or 'crazy' to mean 'a real jerk' makes language less clear. We should say he is a jerk instead. There are sufficiently accurate words to describe him without needing to change definitions around. For example, millions of people died in Stalin's purges. Also, Soviet Russia had lots of nuclear missiles. It makes a difference whether we say they are 'crazy' or not, because it can lead to different responses. Jobber/Canis, would you say Stalin was crazy?
The major reason why North Korea still exist is because China still supports them, since they see them as a buffer state against western influence. Remember that if China didn't intervene during the Korea war, North Korea would cease to exist. All those actions North Korea does are a cry for attention and to get a better position at the talking tables. They are dependant on supplies from other countries and if those cease to come, North Korea would rotten up from the inside. They can't produce enough food to feed themselves, not helped by having a series of natural disasters in the recent years and there's a chronic lack of fuel. Now many chinese is starting to see them more as a liability than an asset. I'ts gonna be interresting to see how this evolves further ahead. EDIT: Shouldn't this kind of topic be in the politics column?
I don't agree with this at all. The reason China keeps North Korea intact is because they don't want millions of North Korean refugees flooding their country when "evil imperialists" cause the fall of their country. The first place North Koreans will flee during trouble is the only neighbor that they've been told is friendly toward them.
Well, there are different motivations on all sides for keeping North Korea around: North Korean leaders like to be god-king-dictator-for-life. China doesn't want refugees. Maybe some small benefit from having proxy crazy guy, not sure. South Korea and the US don't want North Korea to turn Seoul into an inferno. I don't know about the whole 'crazy' thing, hard to see any great moves for the Kims at this point. If they act up a bit, they get some small short-term punishments and some medium-term rewards. (I mean, imagine if they never did anything crazy, we probably wouldn't send them any aid.)
We all know N.Korea is bad to their people and around them, but what about the U.S to the people around the world? *goes back to reading wikileaks*
This might be of relevance. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/29/wikileaks-cables-china-reunified-korea
perhaps it was a part I was emphasizing with the hopes that you dumbfucks would stop making Starcraft jokes.
It's time to be a dick. It's an unfortunate public service. No, Jenga and Tetris were the diversions du jour. Seriously, though, 9/11 was a tragedy that nobody saw coming. This recent conflict has been brewing for a while, and is headed by some rather stupid people. You do what you've gotta do for yourself, but I for one am not going to respect this idiotic drama any more than I have to. Does it suck that two civilians and two marines (last I checked) are dead? Yes. Yes, it does. Families have been torn apart by this bullshit, and I acknowledge that. Do Il and his kid deserve to be taken seriously at all? No. No, they do not. There are professionals with access to a wide breadth of munitions that have to give him the time of day, much like how society needs garbage-men. (That's a shot at N. Korea's leadership, nothing else.) I am not one of those professionals. If you are one of those professionals, what are you even doing here? All I can do from where I am against the bastards provoking this mess is give them as little regard as they warrant, and laugh at them and everything they do. The bastards don't deserve to be a weighted thought in my mind. Hey, not everyone responds to stress with humor. I get that. If you're not naturally inclined to wring chuckles out of the current events, I'm not saying you have to. War's like death and taxes, these days: it's gonna happen, and the best we can do is put it off and hope whatever damage it inflicts is done with soon. It's not any more pleasant for the fact; not at fucking all. You've got every right to be morose about this sort of thing, and every reason to back it up. I understand your stance. Some people, however, don't see a benefit to feeding some situations even when the best of intentions are meant. To that extent, let's all hope that N-Ko doesn't fall back to Banelings or the like, eh?
You're missing the point though. Several people have asked you to stop already, including those who have a much greater emotional connection to the conflict than you do. It's easy to joke about it when you have nothing to lose, but when the events could potentially effect you suddenly it's not so funny anymore. If you want to make jokes, kindly take it somewhere else.
Apparently, I can't edit a thread's title. Damn. Canis and I get what you're saying, mate. The thing is, when this thread was explicitly made for the sake of humor, indignation loses its leg to stand on. A parallel would be going to a metal-concert and complaining about the noise. Nobody here faults anyone else for NOT being amused by the conflict, but those of us holding different perspectives on the matter are equally entitled to their expression within a neutral setting. That's why this is in General Chit-Chat instead of Politics. In a serious discussion of the Korean conflict, behavior such as this is inappropriate. In a jocular discussion of the Korean conflict, which this was meant to be, behavior such as this is par for the course. If you're not into what's being discussed, that's fine. On the same note, this "room" was made for the sole purpose of discussing what we're discussing; and as we're trying our best to keep to ourselves, reciprocation of the same respect we're giving is due.
http://news.naver.com/main/hotissue...&iid=9598771&oid=028&aid=0002070889&ptype=011 From Senataor Hwang Jin Ha Translation: 1. "This is an artillery shell." 2. "And this must be 76mm..." "Ah, so this is a howitzer shell" 3. "This has a label...doesn't look like a shell" 4. "This isn't a shell, its a thermos!"
No, that doesn't make any sense at all. Suppose I started a thread entitled "Holocaust jokes". Would it be ok? I started it strictly for humor.
That was so long ago and I doubt anyone here were living during that time. If there is a time to joke around about the holocaust, now would be fine. Yes, it would be okay. Right now, people are being affected by this, and making jokes about it is not appropriate.
So guys, how do you fit 10 jews in a Volkswagen Beetle? I do think theres a measured amount of respect that needs to go out to other peoples feelings, but hey, people make light of terrible things all the time through humor and I would say it's a good thing. Personally I do think it's pretty scary too, but to me, thats more the reason to put a humorous spin on it. I can understand BT's desire not to, but I think the best response is the one we just saw -- make a political topic.
Assuming we are talking about the average adult size, 2 in the front, 2 in the back and 6 in the ashtr.... Nuclear launch detected.
BT don't speak for others that are affected by this crisis such as myself. I follow the latest events daily because I worry about family and friends in the region and I do appreciate some of the jokes that get me to laugh in some of the threads and comments on the net. Of course there are many bad jokes that offend, but you just learn to ignore it like everything else on the internet. And as bad as Alfonso's original post and intentions are, just stop being a white knight and being mad over nothing bad that hasn't been said yet. Exactly how I feel. I feel there's a time and place for to lighten things up (joke around). In a serious debate or discussion you shouldn't. This thread isn't one of them. The jokes here are nothing and show some restraint. SC's "carrier has arrived" quote for U.S warship entering the yellow sea, macro & gg references? Really is that bad? that you need to act like some kind of pretentious white knight fighting the good cause and call people "assholes" and "dumbfucks". An inappropriate & tasteless joke would be "In breaking news: N.Korea strikes back at the heart of S.Korea, the esports center for starcraft".
Nick 'Tasteless' Plott, brother to Sean 'day[9]' Plott. He's a commentator in Korea and former pro-ish Broodwar player. The Plott brothers are some of the most well known SC2 commentators in the world and both were very good players at some point.