My conflicting thoughts on Sowon scandal

I also do not think she is anti semitic, just very very ignorant towards history. She literally did not know that this soldier was a nazi. People who accuse her of supporting Hitler either do not know what the Nazi were in detail (ideology and more) or just want to spread hate or incite fanwars

everyone says dumb/stupid shit that one regrets afterwards - like i don't even remember what ww1 was about - idols just gets their dumb shit smacked in everyone's faces

It's kinda interesting, this whole Sowon scandal, when (western?) K-pop fans are scolding and mocking Sowon (and by extension Koreans) for not being aware of Nazi curiosities, when at the same time it seems most K-pop fans don't know themselves that the uniform she was posing next to is apparently a WWII German army, not a Nazi uniform (SS uniform would be a real Nazi uniform, I guess).

K-pop fans love to see everything in black & white, but not all Germans were Nazis, in fact a majority of them wasn't, and the same goes for the German army, most of them were just conscripts.

Quote from Zenning

It's kinda interesting, this whole Sowon scandal, when (western?) K-pop fans are scolding and mocking Sowon (and by extension Koreans) for not being aware of Nazi curiosities, when at the same time it seems most K-pop don't know themselves that the uniform she was posing next is apparently a WWII German army, not a Nazi uniform (SS uniform would be a real Nazi uniform, I guess).

K-pop fans love to see everything in black & white, but not all Germans were Nazis, in fact a majority of them wasn't, and the same goes for the German army, most of them were just conscripts.

Good point

Let’s also not forget how kpop fans love to scold idol yet they themselves are 99% unaware that Asia is a continent not ONE monolith country. At best they know that SEA (also not ONE country) seem to be a special part of Asia good for streaming

EYE ROLL

The whole uniform thing is so overblown. Had I been in her position I would have done the same thing because it's genuinely hard to see that it's a Nazi uniform - the swastika is tiny and at the top of the hat(?), and the mannequin is taller than her in general, so seeing it is hard. There's nothing about it that would make me look at it while messing about and go 'oh shit that's out of line' - and the blame should fall towards whoever was in charge of the set.

The nickname stuff. I don't know enough about it, but also I feel like we all make jokes other people would find offensive in one way or another. Hitler jokes were common at one point or another, they still may be, and kitler honestly makes me think of the cat that looks like Hitler. Should they have released the info on the nickname to the public? No, because it's stupid and they're running a high chance of offending someone, but it also doesn't automatically mean that she is a Nazi sympathiser.

more than her scandal I am just annoyed at ppl calling her and other country ppl airhead, dumb and other words cause they can't recognize nazi uniforms.

Ppl need to know not every cares about certain things the same way as they do.

I relate swastika to god and not nazis . Entire europe thinks it's negative while here we see it as positive and religious thing.

Also assuming that everyone who knows hitler should know the stuff he did and the details of nazis when for some of us it's a 5 marks question for history and nothing else.

I don't know the history syllabus of korea, just check the high school history syllabus before calling her names.

If they did have the details then calling her out is valid.

Quote from Zenning

It's kinda interesting, this whole Sowon scandal, when (western?) K-pop fans are scolding and mocking Sowon (and by extension Koreans) for not being aware of Nazi curiosities, when at the same time it seems most K-pop fans don't know themselves that the uniform she was posing next to is apparently a WWII German army, not a Nazi uniform (SS uniform would be a real Nazi uniform, I guess).

K-pop fans love to see everything in black & white, but not all Germans were Nazis, in fact a majority of them wasn't, and the same goes for the German army, most of them were just conscripts.

Not everyone was in the SS but everyone was a part of the Nazis since the Nazis were a political party called NSDAP. Nazi stands for Nationalsozialismus and not for just one special army unit. Nationalsozialismus was the ideology which was the reason why the NSDAP was even elected into the parliament.

Addition: the NSDAP had until they got with a coup to power almost the majority of votes in the parliament. The ideology of Nazis existed since the German empire. It was even used in education. It was not only used in war. The NSDAP reigned until the beginning of war already 6 years and was heavily supported by the public and military since 1923. As a German it is hard to admit that a majority of people back then have believed in it but it was sadly the truth.

It’s just weird seeing people downplaying what nazis did and stood for. If it was a mistake or misinformation that’s fine but I’m tired of discussion turning into why nobody should care about nazis.

I am not a fan so there is not an emotional attachment that makes me want to defend her so I will say what I would say about anyone in her position. I think this was blown out of proportion a little bit. Kpop fans tend to have that mob like mentality when it comes to these things where discussion means defending and they condemn first and discuss later, if ever.

As I said in the other thread it was a stupid thing of her to do. I understand why people felt offended.

I don't think though she saw the Nazi uniform and said 'oh a Nazi soldier mannequin, let me take a picture with him because he is cute'. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. It took me some time to realize it was a Nazi uniform myself and I have seen my fair share of war movies and studied about it in detail at school.

And I can tell with certainty that people here in my once Nazi occupied country wouldn't recognize a Japanese Imperial Army uniform. We never delved into that part of history that much. So, when I don't expect Asians to automatically recognize certain things is because I know not everyone here knows their history in detail. Not because I want to protect them or excuse them but because I know that not everyone in Europe would know these things about the Japanese and all their atrocities. I think this only logical that people know more about their own history or don't know many details about others'.

As for the jokes, it was in poor taste but I am afraid this is quite common everywhere.

"I genuinely don't think she is anti Semitic or hates Jewish people or likes Nazis" Of course she doesn't freaking support the nazi's!! Many people make dark jokes like that, that doesn't mean they are bad people? Do these people never make these jokes sometimes with their friends? Do they actually have friends? Are there people who really think they support nazi's by making jokes like this? If you think that, then you are VERY dumb.

Quote from sailorvelvet

It’s just weird seeing people downplaying what nazis did and stood for. If it was a mistake or misinformation that’s fine but I’m tired of discussion turning into why nobody should care about nazis.

Exactly like she was obviously misinformed but those people trying to shrug off what Nazis did is very shocking to me. This could also be due to the fact that I am from Germany but some people’s mind gymnastics are yikes.

such a overblown controversy 90% of the world would not have recognized that was a german ww2 uniform and as for the kitler joke things like that are used all the time. grammer nazi, femanazi, ect. like people act like sinb is complementing her by callling her kitler. its a jokingly insult between friends.

Quote from prodigy210

such a overblown controversy 90% of the world would not have recognized that was a german ww2 uniform and as for the kitler joke things like that are used all the time. grammer nazi, femanazi, ect. like people act like sinb is complementing her by callling her kitler. its a jokingly insult between friends.

90 %?!

And 27th January - 76 years since the liberation of Auschwitz just passed few days ago...

Makes me dread how many (%) might recognised 'Auschwitz'...

I don't think she's being anti-semitic or anything like that. She's just being ignorant, most probably because of her lack of education about these matters.

While Nazis play a huge role in the WW2, it seems that a lot of Eastern countries' education systems didn't really focus on them when teaching about history. If I recall correctly, in my country, WW2 is barely one lesson long, barely an introduction to the next lesson which would be the Japanese occupation. The allied and axis powers is something that is only briefly mentioned and they'll show a black and white portrait of Hitler for reference.

People will probably know terms such as "grammar nazi" and "feminazi". They'll probably even recognize Hitler and the infamous "swastika" but not really know much about the story behind it.

I just showed her picture to my tenth grade brother and asked him what's wrong with the picture. He can't point out any. And that's because this part of history isn't talked about in here.

I personally was only able to learn more about Holocaust and other related issues because of my own curiosity.

im from poland, so ww2 obviously affected poland lots. and as someone whos not american, some people from the us like to be a little close minded sometimes and dont understand that people in different countries, learn different things in their history classes, thats why when an idol does something problematic, i think they (usually) genuinely are just ignorant/dont realize how something they do would be considered problematic, and that they arent saying/doing stuff with hateful intentions. we need to educate them. at first i thought that she was just ignorant too but after a live stream gfriend had and said they called her kitler? bruh thats a little weird. i dont think shes anti-anything but that was just strange. i also heard that the uni she was in, literally required a WORLD HISTORY EXAM in order for u to get into that particular school, idk if its actually true but i read it somewhere

hi all))

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