this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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Mark Manson, an American bestselling author and famous YouTuber, has made headlines by posting a video that he "traveled to the world's most depressing country" after visiting Korea. Manson, a best-selling author who has written famous self-development books such as "The Art of Turning Off Nervousness," is a YouTube creator with 1.44 million subscribers.

Manson recently released a 24-minute video on his YouTube channel under the theme of "Traveling to the World's Depressing Country." During his visit to Korea, Manson met with Americans, psychologists, and psychiatrists living in Korea to look into depression in Korean society.

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[–] drmoose 95 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Korea is surprisingly dystopian and no other country is exactly like that tbh.

The internet (and many other areas) are completely captured by monopolies that control everything. There are so many inhumane, draconian laws too. This all contrasts with advance tech and pop production so starkly it kinda breaks people's brains.

[–] GhostFence 25 points 11 months ago

Behold the corporate state.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So the world of Cyberpunk 2077 basically

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, the genre of cyberpunk in general can be loosely summarized as “it’s the libertarian wet dream future and it sucks”

[–] dlpkl 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

"...but the aesthetic is dope"

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[–] sugartits 75 points 11 months ago (11 children)

Which Korea are we talking about here?

South Korea or Best Korea?

[–] buycurious 72 points 11 months ago

You are now a mod of c/Pyongyang

[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You are joking, but it took me about 15% of the article to figure out definitively he was talking about ROK not DPRK.

[–] sugartits 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You are joking

You are now banned from /c/Pyongyang

[–] thorbot 7 points 11 months ago

Ban comes in, ban goes out, can’t explain that!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

From the article:

He also expressed regret, saying, "It is the result of Korea maximizing the bad points of Confucian culture and the shortcomings of capitalism."

[–] sugartits 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't really understand what that means.

So to be safe, you are now banned from /c/Pyongyang

[–] Viking_Hippie 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I like this whole schtick you have going 😁

[–] sugartits 9 points 11 months ago (7 children)

You are now a moderator of /c/Pyongyang

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When people say “Korea”, they probably mean the south one (unless they’re a fan of Kim Jong Un).

[–] sugartits 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You are now banned from /c/Pyongyang

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yes we all remember that old joke from Reddit.

[–] sugartits 6 points 11 months ago

You are now banned from /c/Pyongyang

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 70 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Nicholas Plot, an American StarCraft professional commentator who has lived in Korea for 15 years, said, "One of the things that surprised me when I first came here was work ethics. They almost collapsed from overwork but didn't say anything. In an apartment in suburban Seoul, 15 to 16 game players trained in an environment similar to a PC room, using bunk beds, he said. "When there is a small ecosystem where everyone pushes each other to get better and better, Koreans completely dominate (the environment). At the same time, I had no choice but to think about the psychological slump it created," he said.

This is reasonably accurate. Korea is very heavy on the grind. If you ever want to learn work ethics and how to have fun with the short amount of free time you get, this is the place.

Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (3 children)

It doesn't sound like the kind of work ethic I want to learn. That's basically voluntary slavery.

Individualism is great.

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[–] Viking_Hippie 21 points 11 months ago

Source: 대한민국에서 살고 있어

No, YOUR mother is a craven harlot!

[–] APassenger 61 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The video title is "Depressed" not "Depressing."

He based that on the suicide rate. It's hard to have a metric for happiness/depression, but that's a credible one.

The article took liberties with the message.

He spoke directly with many people across South Korea. Interview style and not coming at it with a load of certanties.

By the second sentence he said, "South Korea."

I don't know why so many people here have to imagine a slight and then react against it.

[–] robocall 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But Korea has their superior fried chicken and the corn dogs with potatoes on the outside. It can't possibly be bad.

[–] Viking_Hippie 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

corn dogs with potatoes on the outside

Wouldn't that be potato dogs?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Seems very similar to Japan except South Korea has been gaining popularity in the West more recently.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

AFAIK Japan is also pretty bad but not as much as Korea.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Korea and Japan are in the same general situation, but in Korea it's taken to the extreme. So suicide rates, average working hours, etc etc.

[–] GhostFence 11 points 11 months ago

Lowest birth rate in the whole world, too. 0.84 births per woman.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

For the Koreans I met who moved to Japan, the work culture can be less bad, as can be working at certain companies despite where they graduated from. My sample size is small, though, and I am neither Japanese nor Korean.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

These countries have similarities, but this seems more like simplistic stereotypes and generalizations.

South Korea's suicide rate is almost double that of Japan's. Japan has a lower suicide rate than the US, and similar to European countries like Sweden.

South Koreans work some of the longest hours of any rich country. They're closer to India and Mexico than Europe. The Japanese work fewer hours than the US. Yes, Japanese people work too much, but I think Americans don't realize that they work too much too.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I guess he hasn't been to Eastern Europe yet.

[–] Squizzy 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How do they compare, I've been to a few eastern euro countries and the people are happy and vibe is fun. The standard of living might not be high but it isn't high stress worker drone society boxed in by societal expectations.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You have probably been in big cities where a lot of stuff is happening but visit the countryside and it is full of broken people and dying towns.

Another thing to note is that further south you go, the happier people will seem, while in the north, long winter days and lack of Vitamin D can really mess with local people.

The people over 45 have it especially bad here, since the world they used to know is no longer there, they can't adapt to it, they don't make as much as some younger people do, and they are beginning to lose their friends and family. While life is amazing and exciting to the young adults you are most likely to talk to in bars. The contrast actually adds to depression.

When it comes to comparisons, I think the main difference is that in East Asia, people have to deal with too much order and monotony.

In East Europe, the life as you know it might disappear at any moment. Life is fragile and fleeting and everything around you and everything you know will be dead one day. Nature itself reinforces that fact every year.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that basically just all rural areas at this point? I am not aware of any rural towns where you will have a jolly good fun time.

At this point it just seems like a trade off of rural living. You need to be part of some community if you want to live a happy existence in a rural area.

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[–] The_v 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You basically just described every rural town, anyplace in the world I have traveled to.

The younger generation leaves the rural communities for the opportunities found in larger cities and towns. What is left behind is 50+ year olds with no-one to pass the farm onto. Eventually they sell out to someone or go bankrupt. The consolidation of land resources continues.

My wife and I are some of those the fled the rural hellscape. Those that stayed behind have spent their lives in poverty and ignorance. Both of my grandparents went bankrupt farming and died living with some of their kids in a city.

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