Signed essays and arguments
At the June 3 local elections, dozens of polling stations ran out of ballot papers — and within hours the internet had declared it a stolen election. It wasn't. But the real danger to Korean democracy is quieter than fraud, and Korea has about one news cycle to get ahead of it.
The K-pop industry sells closeness at industrial scale — and a small, devoted minority takes the promise literally, escalating from devotion into surveillance, stalking, and worse. Drawing on BTS, NCT, and Jackson Wang, a guest essay on the machine that manufactures longing, and the people who pay for it.
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