Hate Politics and the Mass Psychology of the Korean Extreme Right

This study investigates why extreme-right hate politics has not only persisted but taken deep root in the everyday lives of ordinary citizens, despite the consolidation of procedural democracy in South Korean society. It does so by examining historical transitions and mass psychological mechanisms.First, the study analyzes how Korea’s hate politics is rooted in “state-led exclusion” forged under the Cold War system. Past authoritarian regimes secured the legitimacy of their rule by dehumanizing and animalizing the “Other,” epitomized by the label “Red” (communist). These memories of fear became internalized within the public’s subconscious as a “grammar of exclusion.”The study further argues that contemporary hate politics has evolved by aligning itself with neoliberal governance. Within a social structure dominated by hyper-competition and meritocracy ideology, hate no longer operates through state coercion but through the “voluntary reproduction” of citizens. Korea’s extreme-right hate politics functions as a sophisticated “social buffer” and a governing technique that redirects public anger away from vertical resistance and toward horizontal aggression. This study contends that hate operates as an ideological device for maintaining the status quo rather than being a mere emotional aberration, and calls for a reconstruction of solidarity as a means of overcoming this phenomenon.