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UD thanks Shane for tipping her off earlier today…

… to the Psy controversy.

The mega-hot Mr Gangnam Style will perform on Sunday (the show will air later on TNT) WITH MY KID at the annual Christmas in Washington concert at the National Building Museum here in DC. (La Kid is in the chorus.)

Now it turns out that eight years ago Psy sang disgusting anti-American lyrics in a concert in Seoul protesting the American military. There’s been an effort to have him taken off the show, but apparently it will go on as planned with the President in attendance.

Since you ask, here’s what I think: He should have apologized long ago. He certainly should have told people about it and apologized as soon as his Gangnam thing went cosmic. He has to have known the earlier performance would come out.

In any event, he has in fact issued a long and serious apology, and unless we want to be the sort of people who issue fatwas in response to verbal attacks, the grown-up thing to do is accept it and move on.

I also think that security at this already tight-security event (La Kid has had to fill out forms for the Secret Service, etc.) will now go through the roof. And I think that tons more people will view the show than would have otherwise.

Maybe there will be pickets?

*******************

Comments at Lucianne.com, UD‘s go-to source for the Tea Party brew, are somewhat surprisingly mixed.

Margaret Soltan, December 7, 2012 7:33PM
Posted in: snapshots from home

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16 Responses to “UD thanks Shane for tipping her off earlier today…”

  1. Mark Says:

    I did not expect you to be an important source of Psy-related news. But it is amusing that you are.

  2. Mark Says:

    PS: amusing and charming

  3. Shane Street Says:

    His apology is actually pretty good:
    http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/psy-apologizes-for-anti-american-performances-20121207

    His PR flunkie is much better than most.

  4. Alan Allport Says:

    Comments at Lucianne.com, UD‘s go-to source for the Tea Party brew, are somewhat surprisingly mixed.

    Some of them are just as bonkers as Psy’s original screed.

  5. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Thanks, Mark. It is a bit of a clash. On the other hand, I’ve been dancing to that YouTube for the last week.

  6. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Alan: You haven’t read Lucianne.com very much, I think. These are totally in the normal range.

  7. Alan Allport Says:

    UD: Fair enough. Sigh.

  8. Shane Street Says:

    Oh please. Have you ever read the comments on any WaPo article?

  9. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Shane: Did I say those weren’t nutty?

  10. Shane Street Says:

    Oh I’m sure you make a point of how nutty WaPo and NYT and HuffPo and CNN and CBS and ABC commenters are all the time. I must miss those comments, somehow.

  11. Derek Says:

    Shane –
    Taking your comments here at UD in their totality I cannot help but think you’re a shrill critter, the type people avoid at cocktail parties. I mean, Jesus – is your argument really that one cannot comment on anything negatively without taking into account the totality of all things in that same vein that are also potentially negative? That’s really dumb. I won’t even go into the false equivalence. It’s the Christmas season. Maybe try being pleasant? The beleaguered conservative schtick gets really, really old.

    dcat

  12. Shane Street Says:

    Oh, I don’t know, “Derek”, my dogs seem to like me well enough. I think we can both be thankful we don’t attend the same cocktail parties. Merry Christmas!

  13. Derek Says:

    No need for scare quotations around my actual name.

    Deck the halls, and all that.

    Dcat

  14. david foster Says:

    “unless we want to be the sort of people who issue fatwas in response to verbal attacks”

    I don’t think this is a good analogy. Declining to honor someone with a concern venue, or especially with Presidential attendance at said concert, is not equivalent to issuing a demand that that someone be killed or mutilated.

    If someone wrote & sang a rap song proposing that all English majors be tortured to death..in a serious rather than a comedic tone…would you want to attend his concert? Wouldn’t it be a little disrespectful to your students to do so?

    Similarly, I would think it extremely disrespectful toward U.S. military people, whose commander-in-chief Barack Obama of course is, to attend this guy’s concert.

  15. Shane Street Says:

    The WaPo has had a good series of articles on he Psy controversy (e.g., http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/heat-is-on-south-korean-rapper-psy-for-anti-american-rap/2012/12/07/56e319d4-40bd-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html?tid=pm_pop) (stay away from the comments!)
    They rightly point out just how divisive US relations are to South Koreans. I’ve seen this reflected, anecdotally, in the many South Koreans I’ve met, usually in a scientific context. They tend to be either very strongly pro US or the opposite, very little ambivalence. Perhaps not surprisingly those who were here even semi-permanently (post docs) had the most favorable opinion of the US. It may just be obvious then to say that perhaps that’s what’s at work here: it’s perfectly respectable to hold virulently anti-American views in South Korea, but if you are chasing opportunity or just the almighty buck in the US, your tune is going I have to change. Pardon the pun.

  16. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Shane: I think that’s a reasonable reading of the situation. I’d add to that the fact that internally as well South Korea is very much about (or has been until pretty recently) fierce anti-government rhetoric/action. It’s a loud, pretty no-holds-barred protest culture.

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