🚨 Political Hooligans: The Problem of Excessive Political Loyalty and Exclusivity

Today Korean Social News | 2025.05.16

📌 Election Banner Vandalism Surges Ahead of Presidential Election..."Political Hooligan" Controversy Spreads

💬 Vandalism of election banners and posters is increasing nationwide ahead of the June presidential election. According to the National Election Commission, 570 reports of election material damage were received just two weeks into the campaign period, a 35% increase compared to the same period in the last presidential election. There is growing concern in political circles about the "political hooligan" phenomenon, where supporters show blind hostility towards opposing political camps.

Summary

• Political hooligans refers to supporters who show blind loyalty and exclusivity toward a specific political party or politician.
• Extreme supporter behavior in the divided political environment is harming democratic discussion culture.
• Political conflicts are spreading to everyday life, creating problems for social integration.

1️⃣ Definition

Political hooligan is a political supporter who shows extreme and exclusive behavior based on blind loyalty to a specific political party or politician. This term, derived from "hooligan" who shows violent behavior at soccer games, describes the phenomenon of overly extreme political beliefs.

These supporters show unconditional loyalty to their preferred political group and tend to justify hostility and rejection toward opposing camps.

💡 Why is this important?

• Democracy is based on respecting diverse opinions and rational discussion, but political hooliganism undermines this.
• Political division affects everyday life, making social integration difficult.
• Extreme political behavior highlights emotional conflict rather than meaningful policy discussion.
• It can damage the fairness and peaceful participation in the election process.

2️⃣ Characteristics and Causes of Political Hooliganism

📕 Main Characteristics

• Political hooliganism shows several distinct characteristics. The main features include:

  • Blind loyalty: Refusing to acknowledge mistakes or flaws of their supported party or politician, showing unconditional support and defense.
  • Hostility toward other camps: Defining people with opposing political views as "enemies" and justifying personal attacks or hate speech.
  • Extreme behavior: Expressing political beliefs through aggressive actions like online comment harassment, damaging election posters, or disrupting opposing rallies.
  • Confirmation bias: Selectively accepting information that strengthens their political beliefs while ignoring or distorting opposing views.
  • Group behavior: Tendency to organize and act collectively, especially through social media or specific online communities.

• Political hooligan behavior appears in various forms. Main behavioral patterns include:

  • In online spaces: Malicious comments about specific politicians or parties, spreading fake news, and organized "comment army" activities.
  • In offline spaces: Damaging election posters, disrupting campaign events, and physical confrontations with supporters of opposing camps.
  • In daily life: Cutting off relationships with friends who have different political views, boycotting products from companies with certain political leanings, and discrimination based on political reasons.
  • In media consumption: "Media polarization" where people only trust and consume media that aligns with their political views.

📕 Causes and Background

• The causes of political hooliganism are diverse. Major causes include:

  • Political polarization: Ideological conflicts between political groups intensify, weakening moderate positions and strengthening extreme positions.
  • Identity politics: Political beliefs become a core part of personal identity, causing people to take political criticism as personal attacks.
  • Changes in media environment: Algorithm-based social media and YouTube create a "filter bubble" that strengthens users' existing preferences.
  • Influence of political leaders: When political leaders demonize and show hostility toward opposing camps, supporters tend to justify such attitudes.
  • Socioeconomic insecurity: Social anxiety caused by economic recession, job insecurity, and polarization can be expressed as political conflict.

• Korea's specific context also has an influence. The Korean context includes:

  • Historical ideological conflicts: Ideological divisions in modern Korean history affect current political conflicts.
  • Online community culture: Closed online communities formed around specific political views strengthen group thinking and confirmation bias.
  • Lack of political alternatives: As political polarization weakens moderate political forces, voters show blind loyalty to existing parties to choose the "lesser evil."
  • Lack of social trust: With high distrust in institutions and media, people tend to trust claims from their supported political group more than objective information sources.

Main Problems with Political Hooliganism

1. Weakening democracy: The basic democratic values of respecting and discussing others' opinions are damaged.
2. Disappearance of policy discussion: Focus shifts to personal attacks on politicians or scandals rather than substantial policy debates.
3. Social division: "Social disconnection" intensifies with conflicts between family and friends for political reasons.
4. Justification of violence: Illegal acts or violence for political purposes may be overlooked or justified.
5. Suppression of political participation: Moderate citizens' political participation may be discouraged due to extreme political culture.

3️⃣ Domestic and International Cases and Impacts

✅ Major Domestic Cases

• Various political hooligan phenomena are appearing in Korea. Major cases include:

  • Disruption of election campaigns: Currently, with the 2025 presidential election approaching, vandalism of election posters and banners is increasing nationwide. In some regions, campaign vehicles have been attacked and candidates have been insulted.
  • Online attacks: Cases of organized malicious comments, spreading fake news, and exposing personal information about specific politicians or parties are increasing.
  • Boycott movements: Frequent large-scale boycotts due to a company's political orientation or advertisement content.
  • Relationship breakdowns: Increasing cases of "cutting contact with family or friends because of political views," with "cleaning out politically different acquaintances" becoming popular on social media.
  • Media credibility polarization: The "selective acceptance" phenomenon is becoming prominent, where the same news is interpreted completely differently depending on political orientation.

• The social impact of political hooliganism is expanding. Major impacts include:

  • Decline in social trust: As political conflicts intensify, trust between members of society decreases and cooperation becomes difficult.
  • Deterioration of political discourse quality: Emotional confrontation and personal attacks spread instead of rational discussion.
  • Increased political fatigue: Healthy civic participation is shrinking as "politics-hating groups" increase due to extreme political culture.
  • Weakened policy-centered evaluation: The tendency to decide support based on "our side/their side" logic rather than policies of politicians or parties is strengthening.
  • Increased democratic costs: Social costs for resolving political conflicts increase, and the consistency and sustainability of major national policies are hindered.

✅ International Cases and Response Measures

• Political hooliganism appears in various ways around the world. Major international cases include:

  • United States: The Capitol riot in January 2021 is a representative case where extreme political views led to violence, showing the dangers of political hooliganism.
  • United Kingdom: During the Brexit debate, social division between "Remainers" and "Brexiteers" intensified, and threats of violence against politicians increased.
  • Brazil: The storming of parliament and supreme court by Bolsonaro supporters is a case of extreme political action that refused to accept election results.
  • Thailand: The conflict between Yellow Shirts and Red Shirts, representing different political camps, continued for a long time, leading to violence and social division.

• Various response measures to political hooliganism are being discussed. Major response measures include:

  • Strengthening civic education: Germany reinforces democratic citizenship education along with Nazi history education to check extreme political tendencies.
  • Media literacy education: Nordic countries like Finland include critical media literacy education that helps distinguish false information in school curriculum.
  • Improving political discourse: Countries like Iceland and Ireland have introduced processes where ordinary citizens discuss and agree on important policies through "Citizens' Assembly."
  • Strengthening platform responsibility: The EU's "Digital Services Act" regulates social media platforms to strengthen responsibility for hate speech and false information.
  • Bipartisan cooperation culture: Countries like Sweden and Denmark maintain a political culture that values dialogue and compromise between political camps.

4️⃣ Related Terms Explanation

🔎 Political Polarization

• Political polarization is a phenomenon where the ideological distance between political forces widens and moderate positions weaken.
• Political Polarization refers to the phenomenon where political forces ideologically divide into extreme opposites and moderate positions shrink. This means politicians and voters tend to move toward the extremes of the political spectrum, such as conservative and progressive, left and right.
• The main characteristics of political polarization include: first, policy differences between parties are maximized; second, negative emotions toward the opposing camp (emotional polarization) are strengthened; third, political compromise and agreement become difficult; fourth, political orientation affects various areas of daily life (consumption, residence, relationships, etc.).
• Political polarization is one of the main backgrounds of political hooliganism, as extreme political actions can be more easily justified and spread in a polarized environment. To ease polarization, various efforts are needed, including political system reform, encouraging cross-political dialogue, and strengthening moderate forces.

🔎 Echo Chamber Effect

• The echo chamber effect is a phenomenon where people repeatedly encounter only opinions similar to their own thoughts.
• The Echo Chamber effect refers to a phenomenon where people selectively access information that confirms their existing beliefs or values, and the same opinions repeatedly echo in their environment. The term metaphorically describes a situation where only similar opinions circulate, like sound echoing in a closed space.
• The main characteristics of the echo chamber effect include: first, social media algorithms prioritize content that matches users' existing tendencies; second, users tend to selectively consume information that reinforces their opinions; third, online communities of people with similar tendencies form; fourth, opposing opinions are excluded or attacked.
• The echo chamber effect is one of the key mechanisms reinforcing political hooliganism, strengthening the conviction that one's political beliefs are absolutely right and weakening tolerance for opposing opinions. To overcome this, efforts are needed to intentionally access diverse information sources and evaluate information through critical thinking.

🔎 Confirmation Bias

• Confirmation bias is a cognitive tendency to selectively accept information that strengthens one's existing beliefs.
• Confirmation Bias refers to the cognitive tendency where people actively accept information that supports their existing beliefs or hypotheses while ignoring or devaluing contradicting information. This is one of the basic psychological characteristics of humans and appears to some extent in everyone.
• The main characteristics of confirmation bias include: first, selectively seeking and remembering information that matches one's beliefs; second, doubting or ignoring opposing evidence; third, the tendency to interpret ambiguous information in a way favorable to one's beliefs; fourth, the illusion that one's judgment is objective.
• In a political context, confirmation bias leads to applying double standards - being lenient to supported parties or politicians and critical to opposing camps. This confirmation bias is maximized in political hooliganism. To overcome this, efforts are needed to intentionally seek information that contradicts one's beliefs and examine issues from various perspectives.

5️⃣ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: How can we distinguish between political opinion differences and political hooliganism?

A: Political opinion differences and political hooliganism are clearly distinguishable. Healthy political opinion differences involve rationally discussing policies or values while respecting the other person's character. In contrast, political hooligan attitudes show the following characteristics. First, they define the opposing camp as an "enemy" and attack them personally. Second, they unconditionally defend all actions of their supported political force and unconditionally criticize everything from the opposing camp. Third, they justify illegal acts or violence for political purposes. Fourth, they rely on emotions rather than facts and selectively accept information that matches their beliefs rather than fact-checking. For healthy democracy, political opinion differences should be respected, but extreme behaviors that dehumanize others or ignore democratic procedures should be avoided. It's important to have an open attitude that recognizes diversity and verifies one's own beliefs through critical thinking.

Q: How can we overcome political hooliganism at an individual level?

A: There are various ways to overcome political hooliganism at an individual level. First, access diverse information sources. Intentionally look for media with different political orientations from your own and try to understand various perspectives. Second, prioritize respecting character in political communication. Criticize policies and ideas, but don't attack the other person's character. Third, don't absolutize political identity. Political orientation is just one part of your identity and shouldn't be the only criterion in relationships with others. Fourth, recognize and be cautious of confirmation bias. Develop a habit of examining information that contradicts your beliefs with an open mind. Fifth, develop critical media literacy. Always check the source and reliability of information and be cautious of political messages that appeal to emotions. Sixth, develop empathy. Trying to understand the position and situation of people with different political orientations can reduce extreme confrontation. It's important to develop critical thinking and an attitude of tolerance as a healthy democratic citizen.