Mobilizing Fear and Hate: Discourses and Strategies of the Korean right

• In Event: 2483 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 12. Right Wing Social Movements and Guns

Abstract

How do extreme, undemocratic ideas and practices coexist with the institutions of democracy? How are hatred and discriminatory languages normalized and practiced in a democratic society? Through a case of right wing protests in South Korea held in 2016 and 2017 against candlelight protests that demanded the resignation of the President Park Geun Hye and the normalization of Korean democracy, this paper examines how right wing protesters mobilized hate languages. Protesters often used aggressive slogans such as “Declare the Martial Law!” “Root out North Korean Sympathizers (chongbuk ch’okkyol)” “Wipe out Commies (ppalgaengi).” Accusing left-liberal organizations and citizens that support peace and cooperation with North Korea and labor rights in South Korea of threatening the legitimacy and superiority of South Korea, the right wing utilizes anticommunism and national security as their ideological weapons. Unlike the radical right in Western societies targeting foreigners, immigrants, and other minority groups (LGBT or Muslims), the Korean right wing tends to express hatred against “internal enemies” that seek more progressive changes in Korea. This distinctive feature of the Korean right wing, I argue, is due to particular historical and geopolitical conditions of the divided nation and the confrontation with North Korea, and political elites and entrepreneurs that have appropriated and rationalized Cold War languages. Drawing from in-depth interviews and online discourses, I analyze how right wing groups constructed “others” and mobilized hatred against them. By doing so, this paper provides a historical and comparative perspective to understand the right wing politics of Korea and its challenges in times of democracy and globalization.

Author

• Myung Ji Yang, University of Hawaii-Manoa