Summary

Ramsey Khalid Ismael, known online as Johnny Somali, faces trial in South Korea for disruptive behavior at a convenience store and is banned from leaving the country.

Somali, infamous for offensive stunts, has provoked outrage with actions like desecrating the Comfort Woman statue in Seoul and mocking historical tragedies in Japan.

South Korean authorities imposed a travel ban due to flight risk, though he remains at large.

Somali’s antics, often streamed on Rumble, have drawn widespread condemnation as part of a growing trend of “nuisance influencers” disrupting communities abroad.

  • KillerTofu@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Good. In my day there was that boy who took a trip to Singapore and brought along some spray paint. The outrage from America for him being publicly caned was nonexistent because he fucking deserved it.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I’ve been waiting for him to go to Korea. A lot of western people still think Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people are a homogeneous bunch of meek doormats.

      Korean culture is polite, but also very very angry if it’s not reciprocated. Plus, every dude grew up with a national sport that involves kicking people and then they have to go into the military.

      This dude got assaulted by random Korean dudes like 4 different times and streamers put out a bounty on his head. The hilarious part is that the news stations and police are protecting the identity of the people who assaulted him, but have made him public enemy number 1.

      • Joelk111@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Man people are racist as hell. I hadn’t even heard the Asian doormat stereotype before, what the fuck?

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          It may be a holdover from an aging stereotype. Not sure how the kids nowadays perceive east Asians, but in the 90’s it was definitely the cause of a lot of the fights I got into as a kid.

        • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 month ago

          Not necessarily a doormat, per se, but asian cultures are often associated with the feminine and demure. This mostly arose as a contrast to the hypermasculinity European powers were cultivating as patriarchal figures in the colonial era.

      • Entropywins@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I was so happy when some Korean ex military guy just fucking swung on him…heard the cops took the Korean guy but never filed charges.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          There’s a better video of a guy who is pretty clearly involved in organized crime, front kicking him in the chest, and then beating the shit out of his two friends by himself.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    He also mocked Japanese commuters over the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

    That alone makes me want to beat the crap out of him. Those bombings are two of the most horrific events in history, and he’s treating them as a joke? Asshole!

  • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    RIPBOZO. Streamers like this guy are why everyone hates influencers. I hope they throw the book at him.

    • Frog@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      There should be harsher laws for streamers. They are doing it all for money. That money should be taken away and given to the victims.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Ok so I’m like… not upset about this at all. Also, I know this is the millennial equivalent of “get off my lawn”, but fuck me if I don’t find the concept of “being an influencer” fucking dumb. Do a thing you love, post the content if you think you’re good, and be a known expert with a following. Don’t just PR for the sake of doing PR and then hope people listen to you. What the fuck even is that?

    • maplebar@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The concept of “influencers” and “content” is just some dystopian shit that came out of some corpo’s mouth at a tech company boardroom meeting and stuck. The fact that our modern culture is built on this kind of bullshit is a condemnation of modern people.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Absolutely, I’m still regularly shocked how normalized those words have become. They are absolutely accurate from a corporate perspective, but why are we all using those same words? They reduce any creative endeavors to the positive effect on the extraction of wealth by the rich through influencing others into buying shit they don’t need or want. “Influencer” should be a pejorative, not a job title!

        • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Influencer was always just a slur to me. I had no idea it’s an actual job description or “way of life”. Then i dated this girl that told me on our first date that she’s thinking about to stop buying things from influencers. To me it was like saying: man, maybe i’ll stop sending money to these kenyan princes.

        • maplebar@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Yep. I’m glad you see it that way too.

          We don’t make art or music anymore, we make “content” for YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. Kids don’t grow up dreaming to make the next killer movie or fun game, they want to become a rich and influential “content creator”. If they are lucky, the “content” that they make for big tech company “platforms” will eventually lead to them gathering a dedicated group of loyal followers over whom they can hold a strong “influence”, and that influence can be traded for money via advertising corporate products.

          What it comes down to is that the tech corps have money, and they will use some of that money to entice people to make “content” for their “platforms”, and that’s a big part of the framework of the modern era. If they ever gain the ability to create genuinely desirable “content” using AI, they will instantly cut out all of the human money-sinks from their business model.

      • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        Eh, bards and other old actor types are kinda similar. They’re doing public actions for fame and money. Wasn’t Socrates also considered an asshole? Not that I’m equating these influencers to philosophers, but at the time the people considered him to be mocking their culture (religion). Not nearly as bad as mocking tragedies, but the idea of living off of attention, including being a troll, isn’t new. It just usually resulted in much harsher consequences than the modern day, and usually paid less.

        • maplebar@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Wasn’t Socrates also considered an asshole? Not that I’m equating these influencers to philosophers, but at the time the people considered him to be mocking their culture (religion).

          Everything we know about historical Socrates we know from his students, and I don’t think there’s a lot of evidence to suggest he was an asshole. Socrates was allegedly put to death for thought crimes against the city-state and the state’s patron gods, as voted upon by a jury of his “peers”. His philosophy was not counter to the idea of gods, nor do I think it was particularly anti-authoritarian, but clearly people didn’t like what he had to say or the questions he was asking, so they up and killed 'em.

          Personally I think that makes the Socrates the good guy and the people of Athens circa 400BC the assholes, but to each their own.

          Either way, there’s a big difference in my view between a person who is influential for their ideas, creations or achievements versus someone who is an “influencer” because of the “content” that they create for the corporate tech platform of choice…

          • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 month ago

            My intent was not to actually complain too much about Socrates, but just use him as a more tolerable example. I generally agree with your opinion on who was in the wrong there, but part of my consideration was the reports that they knew he could flee and supposedly were OK with that, but he decided to stay on principle. Also the joke he made about them treating him like a hero for his punishment, probably not quite in good taste given the circumstances.

            That aside, while I do agree with your last statement, there have also always been conmen, fame seekers, and less influential but more… annoying people throughout history, especially if they had nepotism or class differences in their side.

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Honestly part of me wants to stream just riding a motorcycle and generally pissing about just as a counter to these idiots. I have a weird tendency for just seeing weird shit that even if im boring itd still be kinda interesting. I saw a wizard in fucken out in Yucca Valley a couple weeks ago, imagine if I was on a bike streaming that wouldve been great.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    Kid played the fuck around game. Not the brightest thing to do internationally.

  • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Isn’t this the guy who couldn’t leave his hotel because he kept getting jumped. Internet had put a bounty on him so anyone streaming him getting his shit kicked in was getting like $100 or something. I thought he had gone into police custody for his own safety…

    • T156@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Yes. For a while, South Korean internet nicknamed him the “Gold Goblin” (after Diablo), since he was so disliked that anyone shown hitting him would receive a decent amount of money in donations.

  • x00z@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Very nice.

    Not sure if this dipshit will ever learn his lesson but at least the police over there have the proof that all his actions are done with bad intent.

  • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    the first time I see news about his antics from a mainstream media. Shit is about to get real.

  • maplebar@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Man I’m sick of “famous” people being given carte blanche to act however they want. Lock this dipshit up and throw away the key.

    • PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      No, he genuinely has a face like an ai-generated thumb. He’s the kind of prank bellend that’s going to get shot eventually, and absolutely no one will care, he’s a gimp