Sage Advice from Michael Breen: Ignore These Fools

This made me want to stand up and cheer:

The political activist who last weekend violated a travel ban to go to North Korea claimed that he “risked his life” for the sake of peace and unification. If the government applies the full force of the law against him on his return, he may be right. And that would be unfortunate because people who try to upstage the democratic South by embracing the Nazi North need to be seen for the ideological nincompoops that they are, not turned into nationalist heroes. [Michael Breen, Korea Times]

Now, by some reports, a prosecution is rather unlikely, as it should be. But what Breen is saying is substantially similar to a conversation I had last night with a professor from Seoul National U., who also asked a similarly sensible question: why do South Korean conservatives insist on giving these buffoons so much free press coverage? Do you see the 9-11 truthers hitting page one of the New York Times here? Of course not. We ignore them because they’re neurotic imbeciles. The same applies to PSPD’s conspiracy allegations about the Cheonan — what technical, scientific, or political qualification justifies giving so much media attention to a zany band of Peace Studies drop-outs?

The only qualification I offer to this is that the South Korean authorities ought to be looking into who is funding these groups, exposing them publicly, and using the legal tools available to freeze those assets and prosecute anyone involved in funneling foreign money to them.