Infromation quality on Gourd's forum ?
A very logical distinction that many individuals either as outsiders or even insiders tend to confuse is the clear cut dichotomy between this pair;
the personal vs. the national (not 'nationalistic')
The personal perspective regards the two individuals' particular relationship and history of transactions at all levels. The realtionship can range from friendly, trusting, supportive to hostile, doubting, destructive all depending on how one has treated the other in thoughts, words, and actions, and vice versa. The same principle should apply to the national (not 'nationalistic') relationship as well; they are independent relationships with their own track records.
I personally think Gourd has amassed an interesting collection of Korean cultural phenomenon without resorting to any rigorous method. At least he could have tried to decipher some Korean writing before posting any of his opinions. Obviously seen from his many, many misinformed comments, I can only regret the loose approach with which Gourd added fuel to what can only be described as a vicious cycle of lies and retaliations, both symbolic actions that the uninitiated can hardly comment on with any precision. The following sequence is what the thread seem to represent in analogy. One can substitute Tokdo claims to Fusousha textbook with little change in meaning in above illustration of Gourd's evil cycle.
1) The historical misrepresentation as seen in 扶桑社 Fusosha Publishing's junior high history book leading to...
2) Legitimately angered Korean teachers who illegimately went over the line of propriety to engender hatred instead of balanced historical analysis to...
3) junior high students some of whom bought the emotional response literally and transferred that to some strong propaganda pieces which...
4) some of the mindless teachers and school administrators, town officials, and populist politicans thought cool to post on the wall of the local subway station (not all over Seoul...the location Gourd gave 'all over the country' was totally off... that ignorant gourd !) which attracted the attention of likewise unsophisticated Korea watchers like Gourd who...
5) made two long series of ignorant threads full of such pictures of low taste with the biased commentaries of Gourd himself (if it was a guy)...
6) angering Japanese readers, some of whom would respond by saying, "Fusousha textbook did nothing wrong.... they did well to misrepresent Japan's past regarding its rape of Korea, China, etc. !"...
7) with the result that 14 Japanese school districts out of 47 support the 扶桑社 Fusosha textbook, and 10 go ahead to choose the Fushousha textbook for the next school year...
8) further angering Korean history teachers....
9) Thus, the evil cycle continues. That uninformed Gourd really needs to verify the Korean in ALL the photos before he can continue to post his ignorant comments. After reading some, quite a few of the so-called 'propaganda' posters come out clean and legitimate, or at least understandable in context.
I might add that some junior high schoolers are also watching the news, not only Korean but also CNN, BBC, and other less 'nationalist' sources. Who is Gourd to say that all the 'Japan-bashing propaganda' was orchestrated by the teachers? Is he calling Korean junior high school students fools? He doesn't sound that well-informed himself.