Netizen reaction to TOP’s overdose was about as deluded & worthless as expected

While I was covering the mess of TOP‘s overdose and subsequent hospitalization, I didn’t get the chance to complain about people being absolute dicks about this.

Netizen comments shouldn’t matter, but I feel it’s important to highlight some as yet another reminder of why you can’t take these translated netizen comments as anything credible to base your opinion on.

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Netizens reacting to TOP being hospitalized basically read like convincing themselves they didn’t do anything wrong, like they had a guilty conscience.

1. [+34,476, -1,081] What are you doing? You need to be showing that you’re reflecting for all the kids who had dreams because of you
2. [+17,465, -469] Hul
3. [+16,219, -645] Was this a suicide attempt…?
4. [+10,302, -347] Hul…
5. [+8,894, -331] We told you to reflect, not kill yourself
6. [+6,827, -198] He seems to have a weaker mentality than GD… anyway, stay alive and work hard to pay back your crime…
7. [+6,066, -107] Drug use always comes with such a tragic end… don’t do drugs
8. [+6,194, -221] If only he apologized with the same bravery he had to attempt suicide
9. [+5,558, -145] Seems he’s really weak mentally… pay the price of your crime, not with your life though
10. [+5,465, -182] Idiot, you committed a wrong but it’s not like you killed someone. Just pay the price of your crime, apologize, and reenlist in the army. Don’t kill yourself over it.

Then because TOP’s mom was upset by her son almost dying, they had the classiest of responses to her being upset.

1. [+2,052, -155] His life is not at risk and he’s even responding so why do they keep doing this ridiculous media play… be embarrassed of yourselves!
2. [+2,012, -163] Don’t give him sympathy. He did drugs.
3. [+1,811, -163] Never give him sympathy. These are fake tears.
4. [+139, -7] With the way she’s acting, you’d think someone force fed her son drugs… He broke the law and he’s being dealt the consequences that he deserves, what is she feeling so gretful over? It wasn’t even a one time mistake, he smoked it four times…
5. [+127, -4] With every update we’re getting, it all feels like a planned out scenario… they’re taking it too far

1. [+2,861, -382] Please be enraged over the crime your own son committed
2. [+2,495, -93] We should all just wait for a briefing by his doctor
3. [+1,764, -195] Mother, please stop lashing out at the police and worry about educating your son properly
4. [+169, -16] This is such a joke
5. [+156, -10] Obviously people are going to believe the police, why would they believe the mother?

That last comment quoted there is amusing, because even after it was revealed she was correct in her assessment of the severity of the situation, comments about the matter didn’t improve.

1. [+1,739, -291] What’s wrong with his mother? Does she not get that her son did drugs? She should be reprimanding her son for doing drugs, not acting like this
2. [+1,567, -104] The infamous OSEN
3. [+1,561, -155] Will she faint if the media reports that he grinds his teeth in his sleep too?
4. [+115, -11] Yeah well the public laughed 10 times at hearing that he snored in his sleep ㅋ
5. [+106, -2] Oh wow… if it isn’t YG’s loyal dog OSEN ㅋㅋㅋ f*ck off

Humanity was a mistake.

But it wasn’t the clear hateful comments from trolls and/or idiots that bothered me, but rather the people who seemed to genuinely believe that this was all fabricated or a conspiracy or something. Look, I’m cynical as hell and I certainly am no fan of YG Entertainment‘s seemingly constant flow of bullshit, but jumping to conclusions in a matter that was constantly changing and was as serious as this? Just foolish.

It didn’t help, of course, that the Korean media and sites like Netizen Buzz did what sites like that do and played up the narrative that TOP and YGE somehow faked the severity of the situation even as he lay in the ICU. Inevitably, that kind of coverage led to netizens (both Korean and international) believing that this was just a case of a celeb faking sickness in order to escape punishment or something, and that the whole ordeal was just media play.

1. [+24,488, -277] The police sound mad ㅋㅋㅋ he was basically just sleeping and the media kept saying he was in critical condition
2. [+17,052, -276] Gotta give it to the media for hyping things up unnecessarily
3. [+16,646, -426] This article should be on the front page. The media play that was involved in exaggerating everything to get sympathy for him was just amazing…
4. [+14,135, -293] Well that’s good news then. Hope he recovers and gets punished.
5. [+13,277, -314] Enough’s enough. Just pay the price of your crime.

You still have to be a piece of shit to be so callous about an overdose, but okay, the police said it so it’s understandable to believe them (even if the situation was evolving by the minute and it was stupid to make final judgments).

But even after the police backed off their statement completely and their ‘nothing to see here’ act was proven horseshit, people showed that the truth didn’t matter, just what they wanted to be true.

1. [+13,389, -522] Basically what the doctor is saying is that he overdosed on the sleeping pills to the point where he wasn’t able to breathe properly and fell into a deep sleep but is still in a state where he will wake up if given strong stimulation. The police came yesterday when they saw that he was awake and didn’t think anything was wrong. So TOP’s current state is that he’s not in critical condition but the medication is still in his system so it’s going to take a couple of days for him to completely wake up. His body is in a deep enough sleep where his breathing was affected.
2. [+10,072, -332] So his mother was right and the police were right. He was in a critical state but he’ll be fine with recovery with the proper treatment.
3. [+9,044, -357] Glad to hear that he’ll be okay. Recovery healthily and get the punishment he deserves.
4. [+7,538, -426] Glad that he won’t have brain damage… Wake up for the sake of your parents please.
5. [+6,504, -398] Fact of the matter is that he’s laying in the hospital after doing drugs. He needs to wake up and take responsibility for his own actions.

1. [+572, -32] So basically his life isn’t threatened at all, he’s just sleeping. He doesn’t respond to normal stimulation because of the sleeping pills but he will respond to strong stimulation (which means he’s there conscious wise)
2. [+538, -34] So the police was right, he’s just drowsy ㅡㅡ
3. [+433, -27] YG: Wait, this wasn’t supposed to happen…
4. [+33, -7] YG manages to even make the police their enemy ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
5. [+32, -0] Basically means that he’s asleep because of the sleeping pills ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Christ.

The reality is that police were emphatically spewing bullshit.

1) Police said he wasn’t carried to the hospital. He was.

2) Police said nothing was wrong after the test results. Tests showed high blood pressure, high heart rate, high carbon dioxide levels, low oxygen levels, and unstable breathing. He was at risk of respiratory failure, was deemed in critical condition, and moved to the intensive care unit as as result.

3) Police said he was just in a deep sleep. Doctors said he’s essentially unconscious, which is why he’s still in the ICU, and that his breathing has not returned to normal yet.

4) Police said he would be back to normal in a couple days. Doctors said he would need at least a week of recovery, that they believe he has avoided brain damage, and that he needs psychiatric treatment.

5) Police said he was only in the ICU for privacy. Doctors said he was in the ICU due to his unconscious state and threat of respiratory failure.

I wrote all that just because I wanted to show in points that basically the police’s entire statement was false, but it was basically a waste of words because the police themselves backed down…

https://twitter.com/OH_mes/status/872259209571827714

…and then the doctors themselves characterized the police statement as false.

[Doctor's Briefing] We do not know who gave the police representative the false information of T.O.P's health status.

— mes #TeamPinky (@OH_mes) June 7, 2017

One basically can’t take all this information in and rationally or logically conclude that the Korean netizens are being reasonable about this, which is kind of expected because the ones chosen are generally antis or trolls or tweens who usually don’t represent the Korean public at large (“netizens” is just a nice way to generalize the idiots that leave comments on these articles). So why then on other issues do international netizens frequently take their input as credible and let it affect their opinions on issues? It makes no sense.

Yet one of the popular arguments internationally, here and elsewhere, is about TOP’s use of marijuana. These Korean netizen comments have been flipping out about drugs from the start, and some international netizens feel like they have to cape for Korean netizens feeling that way. But why? Their screaming about it is meaningless, as it only matters if what they’re saying makes sense, and I haven’t seen a quality argument justifying the ‘Reefer Madness‘ yet.

My stance on marijuana use in Korea is the same as it has always been for TOP or anybody else: It’s dumb to use marijuana in Korea because it’s against the law, and thus if caught one needs to deal with the consequences. However, morally it’s a complete non-issue and anybody getting up in arms about it looks absolutely silly.

All this mess is especially amusing considering the drinking and smoking culture in Korea.

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Anyway, everybody has been guilty of taking netizen comments too seriously at some point (me included), but it’s events like this that serve as a quality reminder that we absolutely shouldn’t use them for anything but fodder. Unless the comment itself contains some kind of new information or explanation of their opinion, it’s as relevant as a YouTube comment, so to see people continually be influenced by them is disturbing.