memecucker:

I think one of the weirdest moments of “Trump derangement syndrome” is when Trump briefly mentioned Korea used to be under China and a bunch of bluechecks took a three second glance at wikipedia and saw that Joseon isn’t labeled as a Chinese province and thought that this easily verifiable historical fact must’ve just been made up. Like this was when GOT was at peaks popularity those people understood what the concept of vassalage was

Like, one of the big things leading up to Japanese imperialism in Korea was that many progressive activists in 19th century Korea wished to throw off the yoke the Qing had on the country and mistakingly thought Imperial Japan would be act as both as an example of modernization and also as a direct an ally in the quest for political independence and worked with the Japanese military to overthrow the Joseon monarchy

The awkward thing is that the Japanese occupation of Korea is largely continuous with the American presence, under which substantial elements and comprador powers were carried forward largely intact under an authoritarian government dedicated to keeping the population in line with their patron’s geopolitical imperatives, and this did in fact result in the upgrading of (South) Korea to an industrial power and “first world country” while fending off a Chinese-backed attempt to vassalize them by military force