For a stupid but explicable reason—American culture is bored, indulgent, tribal, and unthinking—Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean dicator Kim Jong-un, was memed (flatteringly) because she gave Vice President Mike Pence “side eye.” As the Washington Post’s Philip Bump tweeted (before he thought better of it and deleted the tweet):
And let this CNN story headlined “Kim Jong Un’s sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics”—as if supporting actresses complicit in brutalizing humanity are the best kind of Oscar nominees—continue the narrative:
Two things:
One: Bump said it wasn’t his “intent” to be a “fanboy” of the Kim regime. And surely it wasn’t. But there comes a point at which your desperation to reinforce your criticism of Donald Trump’s government is unnecessary, too much, demonstrable of nothing but unproductive, incessant behavior.
This is that point. The issue is not “intent”: The issue is taking time to note that Mike Pence was thrown shade, regardless of who threw it—in this case, a woman who was sanctioned by the U.S. government in connection to human rights abuses authorized by her brother, who regards her as a confidant.
Two: Read my colleague Ethan Epstein about the perversion of glamorizing a tyrant’s aide. Ethan is a Korea expert, so I called him today to ask if I was missing anything about Kim Yo-jong’s personal story—whether she is an advocate of human rights, whether she has the temerity in her position to challenge her brother’s atrocities—that should be noted about her professional life, which in turn would make alleging her cultural coolness excusable. There is no such information about her publicly available, which on its own is unsurprising. But were her life’s story bound on the shelves inside the Library of Congress, it is unlikely we would learn anything so redeeming that Kim Yo-jong was worth making into a cute, transient icon in this fidgety Internet era.
Please do two things: Enjoy the Olympics. And do not turn murderous accomplices into fun GIFs because you don’t like Mike Pence.
