 More and more That's right, one more More Is this socialist propaganda? Let me ask again, is K-pop socialist propaganda? Wait, take a couple of seconds to think before giving your answer. If you voted no, you're probably colluding with Korea in order to undermine the president. Okay, okay. Yes, this does seem kind of random, but this is actually what someone believes. So, this is the guy right here. His name is K.W. Miller, and it looks like he's an independent running for Florida's 18th congressional district, Florida-Duby-Wilindo. Well, here's his homepage. And yeah, here's the URL right here, do what you will with that. I mean, right off the bat, I can see he missed a blitz. One of his links take you nowhere, pretty poorly made. Anyways, what I really wanted to show you guys is his Twitter account, where on July 7th, at 5.15pm, he made this tweet. Last month, AOC worked with K-pop agents via the app TikTok to sabotage the president's rally. K-pop is foreign propaganda. Why was AOC conspiring with Koreans such as Jungkook and BTS? Big-time socialists to undermine our president. TikTok is Chinese-owned. Kim Jong-un knew. Now, that is a pretty bold claim, and some of you guys probably have no idea what he's referring to in the first part of the tweet. So, let's go back a bit. President Trump is moving ahead with his first campaign rally in more than three months. On June 10th, President Donald Trump announced that he would be holding a re-election campaign rally at the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, scheduled for June 19th. This was Trump's first public campaign event since the COVID outbreak in March. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the rally fell on the same day as Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans, which is becoming more and more recognized as an official holiday in the United States due to the George Floyd protests. Understandably, this caused some controversy, and three days later, President Trump announced that the rally would be pushed till the 20th. Their biggest mistake was the way they handled tickets. You see, anyone could sign up as long as they filled out their information with a valid phone number and email address. From those people who signed up, only about 19,000 people would receive tickets to the event, functioning kind of like a lottery. And if you were chosen as one of those 19,000, you would be emailed a ticket. And once you got your ticket, that's your ticket. And like you said, I don't know if people caught that, but over a million people have requested tickets to come to this event. The crazy thing is, the internet got wind of this, and by the week of the event, nearly one million people requested tickets to the event. However, by the time the event rolled around on the 20th, only about 6,200 people showed up, according to the Tulsa Fire Department, which means about 13,000 others who received tickets just chose not to attend. And it turns out that this spread like wildfire on TikTok and within K-pop fandoms. Guys, Donald Trump is having a rally next week, and it's free. All you have to do is give your phone number. Now, this is epic. Dang it, I accidentally went to the Trump website and reserved two spots at the Tulsa Oklahoma Trump rally. And this resulted in pictures like this at the event. Supposedly, this may have also been partially caused by protesters outside the event center who were preventing supporters from entering. AOC said this about the event, praising the TikTok users as well as the K-pop fandom for their, quote, contributions in the fight for justice. You just got rocked by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign with fake ticket reservations and tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID. Shout out to Zoomers, y'all make me so proud, K-pop allies. We see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too. So yeah, this is the tweet that AOC made which caused KW Miller to make his now infamous statement that K-pop is foreign propaganda and BTS dance for big time socialists, of course. All right, now this KW Miller is pretty wild, but just how true is his claim? Is K-pop really socialist propaganda? Socialism. Political and economic theory of social organization that advocates collective or government ownership of the means of productions and distribution of goods and services rather than private companies. I mean, let's look at some South Korean history. A lot of you guys have heard of the Japanese economic miracle, especially those who have watched our video on the origins of vaporwave, which I personally recommend, but did you know that South Korea had a miracle of its own? When we think of the two countries in North and South Korea, what are the first things you think of? In a way, they're exact opposites. For most, North Korea brings feelings of oppression, totalitarianism, agriculture, lack of technology and basic human rights, and for South Korea, pop music, television programs, smartphones, cars, skyscrapers, oh, and wealth, of course. But it wasn't always this way. In 1953, when Korea was formally split into North and South, the first Korean Republic was formed, also known as South Korea. South Korea wasn't in very good economic shape. Many other countries at the time were wealthier, such as Zimbabwe, Gabon, and yeah, even North Korea. In fact, North Korea had a higher GDP than South Korea until 1974. You see, the southern half of the Korean Peninsula had nothing. It hardly had any natural resources and was mostly agrarian, while the north was where most of the factories were located. North Korea actually did okay for itself at the time, being backed by both China and the Soviet Union, and it was South Korea that was really struggling. They wanted to be a rich, democratic country with a capitalist economic system, and they even followed in the footsteps of the United States Constitution in order to right their own. However, at the time, they failed to even provide food for themselves. This sparked many protests that led to several revolutions causing a transition in government to occur four times, before settling on Park Chung-hee as the new president slash dictator. And while he didn't do much for the country in terms of democracy and human rights, his leadership saw rapid economic growth in South Korea, which has been dubbed as the miracle on Han River. He pushed for a national five-year plan, which put an emphasis on agriculture and energy as well as infrastructure, building new roads, ports, and railways. Park was a military man, and he knew how to rule with an iron fist. No doubt, he learned that from his days in the military. The Imperial Japanese Military. No one wanted to stand up for this guy. He basically just suspended the Constitution and dissolved the National Assembly, allowing him to do anything he wanted. This included cracking down on any protesters, activists, and dissidents, basically anyone who disagreed. He was able to jail, torture, and execute pretty much anyone he wanted, thanks to his power over the police and the military. Hey, that kind of sounds like socialism. Snow. Stop. At the time, he met with the heads of some of South Korea's largest families and companies, and basically made them a deal that he would do anything to help them survive, such as exempting them from taxes and borrowing money from foreign countries, forgiving their debts. It was like a get-out-of-jail-free card. Three of these large companies sold simple goods. One company sold sugar and wool, another manufactured plastics, and another harvested rice. It's because of these early beginnings that Samsung, LG, and Hyundai, respectively, are the unstoppable juggernauts they are today, and they were backed financially by the government. A big three, if you will. Today, these large conglomerates are known as Chebol. Okay, now this really sounds like socialism. So yeah, Park was kind of a controversial figure. He was quoted as saying, Democracy cannot be realized without an economic revolution. His objective, first and foremost, was to eliminate poverty, and then South Korea would be ready to become a democratic country. And though Park was eventually assassinated and Korea shifted to a more legitimate constitutional democracy, similar to that of the United States, the economic policies he put in place still have effects today. So what does this have to do with K-pop? Well, first off, because only a few select companies, or Chebol, are destined for greatness, what would the government backing them and everything? It's really, really hard to start your own company in South Korea, because who wants to compete with a large, successful company backed by the government? It's many South Koreans dream to work for a large, successful company, work hard and get a job as, like, a manager or something. And because there are so many people that make up South Korea's workforce, they're all applying to these same companies. There's a certain competitive culture in South Korea where everyone is always trying to be perfect, the absolute best. Everyone is always trying to get an edge, a leg up on everyone else. And this culture has spread through all facets of society, and that might sound a little bit familiar by itself. But secondly, South Korea was able to experience the benefits of their economic miracle, not only due to their economic policies and the determined South Korean workforce, but also due to substantial foreign aid from Japan as well as the United States. This Western influence as well as their newfound economic growth allowed them to enjoy and follow trends around the world. One of these trends was Western pop music. When American troops were stationed in Korea, occasionally famous American entertainers such as Nat King Cole, Marilyn Monroe, and Louis Armstrong would perform for the troops. And the South Koreans really liked it too, and sometimes they would perform American pop songs at clubs because, you know, Americans would pay good money if they liked the performances. Eventually, Korean music groups started performing exclusively pop music such as Ad4 and the Kim Sisters. South Korea would also put their own spin on pop music and really make it their own, eventually forming their own unique genre. And the rest is history. This new K-pop would evolve along Western pop, giving us two distinct but similar genres today. So let's get to the bottom of the original question. Is K-pop socialist propaganda? Well, while there were some socialist policies and even some despotic aspects involved in bringing about the miracle on Han River, it was South Korea's unique take on capitalism that really brought about the South Korean society as we know it, an environment in which pop music could really thrive. In fact, the whole business model of K-pop depends on a capitalist system to succeed. K-pop fan culture is centered on the purchase of albums. In addition to receiving the actual music, albums are decked out with photos, memorabilia, and other goods. Every time you buy an album, it comes with a random photo card of a member. They're treated like collectibles, similar to baseball cards in America. Sometimes fans will buy multiple albums to get more photo cards. Likewise, sales also affect a group's probability to win music shows and awards, which leads to fans buying even more albums to support an artist. In addition to albums, there are seasons greetings, photo books, light sticks, and of course, concert tickets. The list goes on and on. The whole idea of K-pop is centered on the exchange of goods for money. And hey, we're not seeing any North Korean pop music yet. So I think it'll be a while till we see any socialist propaganda coming from K-pop. To answer KW Miller's question, I'm going to have to say, no, K-pop is not socialist propaganda. And now to answer the second question, does BTS really stand for big time socialists? Well, a quick Wikipedia search can verify that. Wait, what?