... back in Los Angeles, I am utterly fed up. Although I did have to come back for work, and although I do appreciate the extra frequent flier miles I am picking up, I am regretting coming back.
Dealing with three new Korean-American hires at work was a nightmare. Between the US and South Korea, if I was asked to name which country is the land of freedom and individualism, and which one is one of primitive Third World conformity, I would've named the US as the former, and South Korea as the latter - no questions about it. But now, I am not so sure. Between the total grip of fundamentalist Christian death cult on the Korean-Americans (and many other ethnic groups around Los Angeles as well) and the increasing tendency of South Koreans to speak up, it often feels like the US is now the one becoming the backward Third World country.
Case in point: California's gay marriage fight. Most South Koreans do not know of the current legal situation around gays in California, other than a vague news story or two about San Francisco. However, I've shared, with a few, the current situation regarding the gay marriage legalization, the attempts to amend the state constitution to ban it once again, and the heavy Korean-American support of the ban; the South Koreans, including moderate Christians, simply shake their heads, believing that while religious objections can definitely be raised, legal objections are way out of place. They rightfully tell me that the best way to oppose gay marriage is to not get into one oneself. They further express disbelief at the fact that all Koreans end up becoming death cult extremists upon moving to America (even when they have witnessed it first-hand from their own visits to the US), and that they are the only nonwhite non-refugee demographic to support the Republicans. It does appear that W, McCain, and 2MB all enjoy much higher levels of support in the Korean-American community than in South Korea.
While the Korean-American community is the most notable and the most extreme example of foreigners moving to America to send America backward, it is far from alone. I also count many other Asian and Latino demographics, particularly the Vietnamese-Americans, the Cuban-Americans, and many Central American immigrants, as culprits as well. Another problem with the immigrant communities is that the first-generation settlers and their second-generation American-born children often have huge culture gaps, and that results in massive conflicts and family strains, as the first generation forces its backward ways on the (until now, anyway) freer-thinking second generation. And the first generation is winning - and the passage of California's gay marriage ban will be the biggest victory yet (not to mention a chance for the first generation to scapegoat someone else for its own problems).
Immigration is supposed to be a tool for a sovereign nation to find workers that the native population cannot supply in enough numbers to meet demand; in case of the US, some high-tech workers and some menial laborers are definitely needed. At the same time, the interests of the native workforce must be protected as well, particularly from unfair competition. In those regards, the US immigration policy is a complete failure. It has failed to bring in enough workers with needed skills to fill demand, while bringing in sweetheart nationalities well beyond the job market's ability to accommodate them, crashing wages, destroying the livelihoods of native workers (especially acute in manufacturing and construction), and tilting the electorate in a partisan way. I'm really sick and tired of the immigrants going out of their way to eliminate the rights of some Americans to a pursuit of happiness. And the Korean-Americans have the extra luxury of having a wealthy government in their home country, gladly paying for this very destruction of American society and values.
Many countries require immigrants to accept the prevailing values of the host society in order to naturalize and become full members of the society. It's true of the Europeans, and South Korea's new provisions for naturalizing foreigners make that clear too. The US does not have such requirements set in stone, and in reality, the reactionary establishment encourages immigrants to keep up their backward ways, including beating of wives and honor killings, in the name of "celebrating diversity" or "we are all Americans" or some other liberal-sounding grand slogan that are never applied to truly deserving foreign arrivals.
I am also confounded by the continued Republican demonization of immigrants when the immigrants are doing everything to make regressive Republican social and economic agendas a permanent reality in the US, as well as the continued Democratic coddling of the immigrants despite their opposition to the true progressive agenda that the Democrats supposedly stand for. And the white liberals in the Democratic Party and other progressive organizations only pander to the immigrants, and do nothing to really turn the immigrants' mindsets around to their cause. This will doom the progressive movement and values in the end, just like it has already doomed marriage equality in California.
From now on, Democratic politicians who pander to the immigrant population out of political correctness, while letting the immigrant tyranny run rampant and making no efforts to educate them about true American values, will never see my support again.
I was really steamed when the immigrants got California's original gay marriage ban passed, and again when they put W in the White House - twice. Specifically, I have NO sympathy for the plight of Muslims in the US today, as they gladly voted for W in the first place due to the shared backward social values. And my experience with the Korean-Americans, before I had left for Seoul and today, is further convincing me that partisan-motivated immigration policies are doing nothing to promote American interests and everything to destroy America.
I have just booked my ticket back to Seoul. I am confirmed to leave again midweek next week, and will have three months to return - the validity of my visa. I don't even know if I'll be able to wait that long for my departure. 2MB has surely done lots of toxic damage to his own country, but his damage to the US, in the form of funding all the "Muslim extremist" rumors about Obama as well as funding of California's gay marriage ban, is even more toxic. And all the toxicity in both nations makes my proposed Hong Kong getaway all the more imperative.
