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THE PUNISHMENT OF CANCEL CULTURE NEWS

Role model perfectionism and the hammer of cancel culture continues to shock South Korea.

The Korean entertainment world is mourning the recent passing of beloved actress Kim Sae-Ron. The actress, dead at 25, was discovered at her Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu residence on February 16, 2025. Her legacy lies not only in her unfulfilled dreams but also in the remarkable talents that made her a gifted individual. Kim, a child actress, became the youngest Korean actress to walk the Cannes Film Festival red carpet at age 9. Her performance in the 2010 film The Man from Nowhere solidified her status in the industry and earned her critical acclaim.

But she was canceled and career shut down by a 2022 drunk driving incident. Even though she made amends, with businesses damaged in the wake of her DUI accident were revealed, she could never recover her career or reputation. On May 18, 2022, Kim crashed into a transformer in Gangnam, causing a power outage lasting three hours, and 57 nearby stores were affected. The outage resulted in problems such as card payments halting and other commercial outages. Kim publicly accepted her fault after the incident and released a handwritten apology on Instagram, in which she pledged to settle the damages. In a recent report, Korean media outlet Kukmin Ilbo stated that the actress went to each shop and compensated them for all that she promised to do. Store owners were surprised and thankful for her unexpected gesture. Although she sought to mend her public image, the damage was done - - and she was faced with financial problems when her entertainment activities stalled and fines were imposed, reportedly more than $480,000 US to her former agency. Even though she paid all compensation for drunk driving damages to the businesses, netizens continued to hound her. They criticized her working at a cafe at minimum wage without knowing she was in severe financial debt.

Kwon Young Chan, head of the Korea Celebrity Suicide Prevention Association, who had met with Kim's father, who pointed out an unnamed YouTuber during an interview. Kwon stated Kim's father said that his daughter suffered severe emotional distress due to YouTuber A's videos. His daughter was pushed to the brink after watching the videos. All videos related to the late Kim have been made private on YouTube tabloid reporter Lee Jin Ho's channel. This is believed to be in response to growing criticism that excessive speculative reports and YouTube content contributed to Kim's suicide. Previously, reporter-turned-YouTuber Lee had produced multiple gossip driven videos about the late Kim Sae Ron. One of these was about marriage rumors that surfaced in January.

Lee Jin Ho removed all videos related to Kim Sae Ron after Kim Sae RonÕs father claimed his daughter was pushed to the brink after watching the videos. When Lee Jin Ho attempted to contact Kim Sae Ron for clarification, he found that her number was unavailable. He then criticized her harshly, saying, “It seems she even deleted her number due to the controversy. She lacks sincerity in her self-reflection and has no sense of responsibility as a celebrity.” Lee also previously criticized Kim for allegedly drinking while on a self-imposed hiatus after her DUI incident. He questioned whether she was genuinely remorseful, although drinking itself is not an issue, only drinking and driving is. However, he framed the situation as if simply consuming alcohol was inherently wrong.

The general public does not realize what intense criticism can do to a celebrity. Within a few days, another sad story appeared as star yoga instructor Lee Yu-ju, 35, who appeared on the MBC entertainment program Infinite Challenge passed away, her last words are even more heartbreaking.

In December of last year, she had confessed her mental anguish, saying, “I don't like pretending to do things because I'm afraid of losing face or others belittling my worth. I want to say that I'm in pain, but I don't want to worry or feel sorry for them. I need to live by receiving that strength, but I don't absorb any support or encouragement. I just want to rest for a while. It seems that she was also considering retirement. She stated in another post, “Actually, I'm thinking about retirement, but I don't know what my life will be like after that. I'm working like a squeezing machine and it's so hard. I don't want to say anything or hear anything. There's nothing I want to eat, do, or see. When I see the gifts I receive every day, I need to gain strength, but I don't even have the strength to be grateful. My sister is having a hard time. I want to retire before I cause any harm. I'm so sorry to the (yoga) members. I want to quit while my condition is still good. I really don't know what to do.”

She also expressed her pain. “I confess to you all. Even though I always appear bright and cheerful, in fact, my heart aches a little. The yoga I created by fighting against family discord, love failures, social expectations, and loneliness is sometimes so bad that I hate it . . . It's hard to use my mind the way I want to. When my heart hurts, my body aches and it's hard to lead a normal life. I've been receiving medical help for a long time to avoid dying, and my daily life is a difficult one where I have to endure even the smallest things like drinking a sip of water or eating a bowl of rice. I'm sorry to you all for teaching these days. I'm sorry for my incompetence. I miss my old self so much. I'm helpless now, but I want to stand up again."

South Korea has the highest suicide rate in industrialized countries.

Celebrity deaths have once again re-ignited debate over South Korea's harsh and unforgiving nature toward public figures, particularly celebrities. Experts point to the nation's deep-seated culture of relative deprivation as a root cause, fueling intense societal pressure on celebrities to maintain an image of perfection and leaving little room for mistakes or redemption. Sociologists say that the unforgiving nature towards celebrities' mistakes, which possibly drove Kim and Lee to the edge, is due to Korean society's tendency to constantly compare themselves to others, leading to relative deprivation toward those who seem to have more than them. In the case of celebrities, from the outside they look perfect terms of looks, lifestyle and nuances. It is the perfect life that most Koreans crave to live puts that celebrities at the center of jealousy, sociology professor Huh Chang-deog from Yeungnam University told The Korea Herald. “Due to societal problems that currently take hold in Korea, such as high living prices, many Koreans tend to develop a sense of being impoverished and wanting more, comparing themselves with celebrities. This puts celebrities at the center of respect but, ironically, also arouses a sense of jealousy and hatred toward them for having what they don't have.” Huh explained.

Another sociology professor, Choi Hang-sub from Kookmin University, said the attention and popularity celebrities in Korea receive is like a double-edged sword, as emotions linked to jealousy can exacerbate further once a celebrity is seen making mistakes. “Though public figures, especially celebrities, have always been held up to extremely high standards, it has gotten even more common recently to see celebrities get pushed over the edge, as people wish to feel a sense of power and pleasure from playing a part in condemning and destroying others,” said Choi.

It is also due to Korean society's rigorous expectations, a deeply ingrained sense of collectivism and a culture that places immense pressure on individuals to conform. Such social traits have fostered a zero-tolerance environment, where personal failures, especially among celebrities, are seen as irredeemable. The nation's competitive nature, driven by strict educational and professional hierarchies, leaves little room for mistakes. Public figures who err are not just criticized, they are erased. Unlike other countries where celebrities have been able to rebuild their careers after similar incidents, Kim appeared to have found herself permanently ostracized, according to local reports quoting industry insiders. Kim lost acting roles, had her scenes cut from Netflix productions and was blacklisted by brands and media outlets. Her attempts at rebuilding her life - - - taking a cafe job and later preparing for a return through theater - - - was met with further ridicule and online harassment. Even a simple social media post of hers sparked waves of renewed criticism.

The entertainment industry, in particular, enforces a moral standard that often leaves no room for second chances. As for the reasons behind such a sentiment, sociology professor Koo Jeong-woo from Sungkyunkwan University told The Korea Herald that there is an unspoken “social contract” that Koreans hold over celebrities based on moral standards. “In Korea, being a celebrity isn't just a special career, they are expected to meet public expectations and are held up to high moral standards. In the case of fans and celebrities in particular, you can say that there's something like a social contract between them, where fans say they will organize special events and conduct nice gestures for the celebrities' successes, while expecting them to act responsibly in return.” One fall from grace creates an unmerciful public backlash.

Once again, Korean media raise the question of whether its society and culture has gone too far in pushing people to the edge of their lives.

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CARDBOARD IS THE NEW CRYPTO TRENDS

Streamers gotta stream . . . content. Whether it is MMOG (does anyone do FORTNITE anymore?) or music, games, or daily vlogs, there is a need to create new content to stay relevant. Recently, active streamers have dove off the deep end for Pokemon card unveiling. Pokemon trading/play cards are now the rage. A large market has been created for rare, valuable cards. But this does not have the innocence of children collecting baseball cards from packs of gum. This explosion is interweaved into many cultural dogmas.

First, the unhealthy need to be relevant and popular on social media. Influencers and content creators are slaves to their own celebrity. The card pack reveal content is simple and effective in engaging an audience focused on the current trends.

Second, the Christmas present dopamine rush of opening a surprise fuels an addictive state for searching for valuable cards. A $10 pack can contain a thousand dollar card. This is essentially a form of gambling entertainment; instead of scratch off lottery cards it is cardboard Pokemon characters.

Third, some creators are verging on the scam end of the business. The card markers control the supply of rare cards to the point of making them so rare, you may not find one in a case of card packs. It is a pump and dump strategy similar to Trump's worthless MEMEcoin which is not pegged to any currency or value but to his roller coaster popularity. There are some card companies and retailers who supply streamers with packs in order to continue to hype up the market.

Fourth, expanding the quest to go to Japan to find rare packs is a trend within a trend. Spending thousands of dollars on an overseas trip just to try to find a special piece of cardboard is on the cliff of questionable sanity. But filming a quest is good video content for some.

But remember, the 1980s when Boomers took their childhood joys such as plush toys and baseball cards and tried to monazite them into gold-value investments. Beanie-Babies skyrocketed into thousands of dollars while baseball cards clipped into the millions. But with most unsustainable cultural manias, their spotlight bubble burst. Likewise, this Poke card mania will fade away once some clever YouTuber or Twitch streamer finds a new shiny thing to promote to death.

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WEAPONIZED AI NEWS

Donald Trump has promoted his controversial vision for what his Riviera of the Middle East plan for the Gaza Strip could look like when the war between Israel and Hamas has ended. It is a bizarre AI generated film that shows beach resorts, a large golden idol statue of himself, and crazy terrorists dancing on the beach in bikinis. How is this is diplomacy? No, it is madness. It is the crazed vision of a bully real estate developer who now believes foreign policy is a real estate deal that just has to be closed. And when he means closed, he clearly states he wants all the current Gaza residents forcibly removed so his plan can be built in his own image.

The sight of this social media post horrified European allies and the press. The underlying video's song lyrics go:

Donald's coming to set you free, bringing the light for all to see, no more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here, Trump Gaza's shining bright, golden future, a brand new light, feast and dance, the deal is done, Trump Gaza number one.

Trump laid out an extraordinary plan at a press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month, stating: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too." Trump has said, Gaza in its current state is inhabitable for any human being. Trump's proposal was met with global criticism by both lawmakers and analysts who fear the plan would forcibly displace Gaza's population of two million, while US critics wondered if the President's vision would plunge the nation into the potentially bloody role of occupying imperialist power.

I is believed the video was AI generated since it contained a series of bold, gaudy images of a Trump hotel, a giant golden statue of Trump, and a child holding a Trump balloon among resplendent beach-front resort complexes. Lost in the discussion is the fact that this video is an example of AI created propaganda. There will be many people who will think the story and images are feasible reality. And that is what the AI industry wants the world to think. Fake is the new Reality.

Virginia Tech studied the role of Large Language Models (LLMs), which train to write fluent-reading text using vast data sets, have automated many aspects of fake news generation. The new instant video generator Sora, which produces highly detailed, Hollywood-quality clips, further raises concerns about the easy spread of fake footage. Virginia Tech experts explored three different facets of the AI-fueled spread of fake news sites and the efforts to combat them. The ability to create websites that host fake news or fake information has been around since the inception of the Internet, and they pre-date the AI revolution. With the advent of AI, it became easier to sift through large amounts of information and create believable stories and articles. LLMs made it more accessible for bad actors to generate what appears to be accurate information. This AI-assisted presentment of how the information is consumed makes such fake sites more dangerous.

Addressing this challenge requires collaboration between human users and technology. While LLMs have contributed to the proliferation of fake news, the also presents potential tools to detect and weed out misinformation. Human input - - be it from readers, administrators, or other users - - is indispensable to combat fake news growth. Users and news agencies bear the responsibility not to amplify or share false information, and additionally, users reporting potential misinformation will help create detection tools for AI content.

Easy access to AI means more disinformation, especially deepfakes or real people, makes it easier to create and disseminate fake news, and the law will have a tough time catching up. Legal accountability for deepfake content presents certain logistical problems, as many of the individuals creating the content may never be identified or caught. Generative AI video and images are so good they cannot be distinguished from actual photographs of real events. Even watermarking and disclosures may not be enough because they can be altered and removed. As a result, politicians, campaigns, and voters are entering a new political reality where disinformation will be higher quality and more prolific.

It is almost like we have to train ourselves to be cautious and suspect, like telling children not to interact with strangers offering them candy. We all need to evaluate “news” articles. Virginia Tech suggests the following:

Fake news content is often designed to appeal to emotions so one should pause when something online sparks a big emotional reaction.

Verify headlines and image content by adding fact-check to your Google search.

Very generic website titles can be a red flag for AI-generated news.

Some generated articles have contained error text that says things along the lines of being unable to fulfill this request because creating the article violated the AI tool's usage policy. Some sites with little human oversight may miss deleting these messages.

Current red flags for AI-generated images include a hyper-real, strange appearance overall, and unreal looking hands and feet.

What is clear in 2025, is that AI generated content is being weaponized for political and economic purposes. AI articles and films can be generated faster than a human reporter and editor can do. Once AI fake information hits the internet, it spawns more copies of it - - - like a virus - - - to engage more and more people who find the repetitious fake information more real because they have seen it over and over again. The danger is apparent. We are in an era where general public is not told what is true or false, but what seems real and what seems fake. In that box, it is clear that 75 percent of the decision making process falls toward it being deemed fake. But in reality, that 75 percent makes fake information more realistic or true.

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QUICK BYTES CYBERCULTURE

FRIENDLESS. A recent study concluded that men generally do not maintain male friends after they get into relationships or get married. Men were trained to be stoic robots in front of other men, but that women are the only people they are allowed to turn to for emotional support - - if anyone at all. And as modern relationships continue to put pressure on the One (where men cast their wives and girlfriends to play best friend, lover, career advisor, stylist, social secretary, emotional cheerleader, mom - - to him, their future kids, or both - - and eventually, on-call therapist), this form of emotional sinkhole is not only detrimental to men, it is exhausting an entire generation of women.

THE DECLINE IN THE CHAINS. Restaurants that exist today may not exist in FIVE years, according to industry experts. The latest bankrupt food chain is Hooters of America, which adds to a growing list of major chains such as TGI Friday's, Denny's, Ruby Tuesday, Rubio's Coastal Grill and Red Lobster that have filed for protection in bankruptcy court. The COVID lockdowns destroyed their business models. Many took on debt to cover operating expenses such as rent, utilities, etc. when they had no customers. High inflation has also curbed the public's appetite for going out to lunch or dinner. Marquee names may fall by the nostalgic wayside sooner than people think.

RECEIPT, PLEASE. But even if you only paid a few dollars for your Big Mac and apple pie, you should still ask for proof of your purchase - - - if only to throw the slip in the trash a few seconds later. As Reader's Digest reports, simply asking for a receipt can improve the quality of your fast food meal. Many customers are not too concerned about getting receipts for small purchases, so the request may immediately set employees on alert. If they assume the diner is a secret shopper, a corporate quality control person, they may do everything possible to ensure their food is especially fresh and high-quality.

iToons

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FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET

In the daily chaos of politics, classic quotes are popping up on social media feeds. It is to tell readers that this type of tyranny and official misconduct has happened before but was turned back by a vigilant public protecting their rights and freedoms. But there is a large part of America who do not want to hear the truth, let alone want to know the truth. Fake news and personal opinion without factual foundation are now more accepted than Germany in the 1930s.

Source: facebook

In 1920, playwright Karel Capek is credited with coining the word ROBOT in his play R.U.R. It was an early form of the science fiction genre. In the play, robots are created to replace human workers. Over time, the robots become self-aware to revolt and slaughter mankind. If it sounds familiar, it is a stable dystopian trope in films and TV shows. And in real life, AI critics echo this conclusion.

Source: neatorama

For the first time, no major American newspaper has a circulation of more than 500,000 subscribers. Without a strong media institution, freedom of speech and public accountability to taxpayers are in serious danger. The lack of true journalists covering national, state and local news allows corruption to thrive at all levels of society.

Source: Daily Cartoonist

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THE WHETHER REPORT

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STATUS

Question: Whether Trump's chaotic executive orders and foreign policy gaffs destabilize the world's conflict zones?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether the high error rates of AI written documents slow down adoption by professionals?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether the tech market bubble is about to burst?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

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