4 votes

Tyranny, slavery and Columbia U - Interview with North Korea defector Yeonmi Park

4 comments

  1. nothis
    Link
    This could be interesting. And it could be terrible. What the hell can I expect from "The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast"? Does he interrupt her every 10 minutes claiming something like "yea, that...

    This could be interesting.

    The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast

    And it could be terrible. What the hell can I expect from "The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast"? Does he interrupt her every 10 minutes claiming something like "yea, that wouldn't have happened if they followed the social norms as established in the old testament!"

    EDIT: I swear I typed this before looking but they have a chapter list and one is "Freedom in South Korea through Christianity".

    9 votes
  2. [3]
    JakeTheDog
    Link
    The last third of this podcast is the reason why I'm sharing it here. The first 2/3 is par for the course as far as stories from N. Korean defectors goes: horrifying tales of starvation,...

    The last third of this podcast is the reason why I'm sharing it here. The first 2/3 is par for the course as far as stories from N. Korean defectors goes: horrifying tales of starvation, desperation, human trafficking, slavery etc. Though it's still worth listening to because every story is unique and offers a slightly different perspective.

    The last third though, actually terrified me. Yeonmi Park escaped as a barely-literate teenager and eventually put herself through a formal education, which I think gives her a unique perspective as a N. Korean defector living in the West. An especially heavy point was when Yeonmi Park mentioned that her worst experience since escaping was an American liberal arts university, Columbia. She said it was the first time she had to self-censor since escaping.

    I'm not an American and my academic experience has been contained to the "hard" sciences, so I always thought that the criticism of American universities was right-wing sensationalism and artificial products of fed Fox News panel rants. But hearing Park's history and experiences made it all click for me. It gave me the feeling like the character in a horror film where "the call is actually from inside the house". I wouldn't be so worried for it if American politics and culture wasn't so globally influential, and I wonder if there is any intention of reform that isn't reactionary, because right now it seems to only be gaining more steam.

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      nothis
      Link Parent
      Ok, I just finished to the Columbia part. Peterson was literally crying about "watching these great institutions hang themselves". But what Park was saying was essentially... "they gave me trigger...

      Ok, I just finished to the Columbia part. Peterson was literally crying about "watching these great institutions hang themselves". But what Park was saying was essentially... "they gave me trigger warnings, pointed out racism everywhere and I struggled using the right pronouns because English isn't my first language". I guess if you survived what she did, you earn a bit of eye-rolling about things like this but that's about the only concrete criticism she had. IMO it's a very ok thing for universities to bring attention to systematic racism and gender inequality, especially in humanities. I also don't see how this leads to South Korea stopping the dropping of leaflets in North Korea, it's not like they don't want to hurt their feelings, they just don't want to provoke a war with an power hungry dictator.

      Her story is obviously one that needs to be told but Peterson did manage to hijack the whole thing for his bizarre agenda, to a point I did not even expect him to be capable of. It's easy to get soundbites from a North Korean refugee about how communism is terrible but it's absurd to claim that America is on the way towards communism because we're calling someone "they" or something.

      15 votes
      1. rosco
        Link Parent
        Yeah, this is my biggest qualm with Peterson. He "rationalizes" absurd points of view by juxtaposing them against unrelated entities. Let's pull back and ask the question "Are we really going to...

        Yeah, this is my biggest qualm with Peterson. He "rationalizes" absurd points of view by juxtaposing them against unrelated entities. Let's pull back and ask the question "Are we really going to compare he/her/they pronoun usage at Columbia with the brutal regime in North Korea?" How was 1/3rd of this 2 hour podcast dedicated to this? Purposefully, because it move forward a narrative that suit Peterson's regressive world views. Even if his points feel like they have a basis in science, he is arbitrarily selecting and highlighting evidence that suits his goals.

        10 votes