"So why is the myth of mass lemming suicide so widely believed? For one, it provides an irresistible metaphor for human behavior. Someone who blindly follows a crowd—maybe even toward catastrophe—is called a lemming. Over the past century, the myth has been invoked to express modern anxieties about how individuality could be submerged and destroyed by mass phenomena, such as political movements or consumer culture."
Individuality destroyed by peer pressure, or mass phenomena.
Used to go on vacations, amusement parks, restaurants, etc. After decades of traffic jams, salty expensive food, and such, I gave up for the most part. LOL
Prez Yoon's administration announced cuts on income tax, corporate tax, inheritance tax, property tax, and maybe some others, lost track.
At least, Korean media is showing figures that the wealthy and large conglomerates save the most from the cuts. If you add in Korean government aid for research and development 'projects' for companies and tax exemptions, some Korean corporations probably save another few percentage points in tax, at least. Save tons on property taxes.
Prediction, rent increases. All so predictable, now.
The government is stating that the wealthy and corporations will invest the savings into their business and create jobs. That's what Trump said, yes? And all previous conservative Korean government have falsely claimed in the past?
Time to observe the level of Korean cognitive dissonance?
There are constant news reports on Yoon telling his ministers to do this and that. To rein in inflation. To do something according to the constitution and law.
What about his suspension for abuse of power when he was head prosecutor and his wife's falsified resumes? And countless other scandals. Big contradiction. All Koreans know or are convinced that Yoon applies rule of law mainly on opponents. Doesn't seem to care about much else. Just stamping out opposition and creating a stir, while he is doing something else. What is he hiding?
Almost guaranteed that Yoon will grant pardons to former Korean president and convict Lee Myung-bak, Lee of Samsung, and other conservative favorites. According to the constitution and law? Let's see.
Wondering if this media blitz will work? Probably raise his approval ratings to the low 40s?
They didn't even shake hands or bump fists during the photos. They raised elbows, as per Reuters article. How awkward! If it was the Moon administration, there would be a media frenzy about how they didn't even shake hands, how bad relations are, and placing the blame on Moon.
Usually, two sides meet and release a statement with results of the meeting. No results. Just the same suggestions as in the past to resolve the problems.
The Moon administration tried to resolve problems with Japan and presented numerous solutions but the Japanese just flatly refused to negotiate. The Reuters article states that the Moon administrations efforts stalled. Let's see if the media reports Yoon administration efforts as stalling when there are no developments next year. Fat chance. LOL. Seems pretty unfair since this happens often, for whatever reason.
Then the media, including CNN commentators, states falsely that Biden hasn't cut tariffs on Chinese products. He has told people to start doing it, and they are. But selectively, as per Fortune report.
Think the US is negotiating with China on the tariffs, but it seems someone is playing hardball.
If Biden unilaterally waived all tariffs on Chinese products, then the media would ask why China didn't do the same and say that Biden waived tariffs without any concessions from China. The media and conservatives would go to town on Biden saying he is weak on China and feebleminded.
Biden's people are probably too busy to defend him from media attacks. Trump has his army of media supporters, where is Biden's? Big money doesn't back Biden, so no media support (owners, advertisers).
Productive people probably too busy to defend Biden on social media. Usually people with too much free time are on social media, IMHO.
Too many American believe things that the media, social media, politicians, rich people, textbooks, and other people without question. Foolish, cognitively dissonant, or what?
In general, most people do not seem to be very informed, or logical.
Maybe, media shouldn't be blamed. Maybe most reporters, journalists, and other related people don't notice certain false and misleading statements in reports and commentary.
When they talk about inflation, usually only one view is stated in a report, usually attributing inflation to one or two things. When someone criticizes others or blames others for problems, question their motives. Remember what Jesus stands for.
Inflation is due to many reasons too long to be contained in a simple report and cannot be blamed on Biden. Most of the blame lies in higher prices for materials and energy, due to conflicts, COVID, sanctions, downsizing, many companies automatically inflating prices because of profit margin and refusing to lower prices when costs for materials and energy go down, money supply, consumer and corporate spending details, and other factors.
Korean retailers and restaurants charging as much as they can until business drops, due to the ridiculously high rents they pay.
Probably the same in New York and other large US cities.
Big Money's greatest fear is inflation. Could halve their wealth in a short time. Panicking. A couple years of 10% inflation...A decade?
A couple of months ago, just before local elections, all the major conglomerates pledged to spend hundreds of billions of dollars and create tons of jobs in the next five years. The conservative party candidates won all the elections for city mayors and province heads.
Now, some conglomerates are saying that their investment plans can change depending on business climate, as predicted in a prior post. I seriously doubt that the conglomerates will keep their pledges, They have used this ploy for almost every election under a conservative party president.
FYI, for billion dollar investments by listed Korean companies, a stock exchange filing is made. For example, Korean shipping firm HMM [KRX:011200] announced plans to spend KRW 15 trillion (USD 11.3 billion) over the next five years.
Nothing from the conglomerates that pledged hundreds of billions of dollars, yet. Some announcements on acquisitions of other companies, but that doesn't create jobs in Korea.
Will people never learn? The younger Korean generation in their 20s and 30s believe what they see on TV without question, seemingly. Majority of 40s and 50s don't trust media on political issues.
Korean President Yoon's approval rating dropped to 32.5%. No media fuss about the rotten job he is doing, or that it could be a record low for a Korean president.
In spite of ALL the extremely FAVORABLE publicity from almost ALL Korean MEDIA, Yoon's approval is dropping. Could go down to around 30%, with support from only hardcore conservatives.
The former prosecutor is obviously trying to smear political opponents with allegations of crimes, as he has done repeatedly throughout his career.
The previous conservative administrations committed crimes and the public wanted investigations. Yoon led the prosecution to convict former President Park Keun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, not the Moon administration.
Yoon locked up many people for falsifying resumes but not his wife, for some reason. It's okay for her to do that, but others get lock up for years?
Imagine if Musk said the same things about a potential bid for Facebook as he did for Twitter.
Musk stated "I also want to make Twitter (Facebook) better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans."
Make Facebook algorithms open source? About a good a chance as making Google's or Youtube's algorithms open source, probably.
