President Lee Jae-myung Warns Against Blind Faith and Extremism: 'Believing Your Side Is Always Right Is Dangerous'

President Lee Jae-myung shared a post on X (a social media platform for short posts) on the 6th, stating, "Regardless of left or right, ruling or opposition party, we must be wary of blind faith, extremism, and partisanship." Sharing a post on X that day arguing that "instantly labeling someone a fascist simply because they think differently is an attitude far removed from democratic debate," Lee wrote: "If you sincerely believe that 'everything my side says is right and everything the other side says is wrong,' you are in serious trouble. That is what we usually call fanaticism." He added, "Whatever anyone claims, right must be recognized as right for normal debate to become possible, and only then can we approach facts and truth through argument."

This is not the first time he has made such remarks. On the 28th of last month, responding to criticism that he had quoted a post from the conservative-leaning online community FMKorea, Lee pushed back, saying, "Partisanship matters only because of values and convictions; extreme partisanship, whether left or right, must be guarded against." On the 31st of last month, he pointed out that "defending even the wrong parts just because it is my side or my cause does not help solve problems—it only makes them worse." On the 1st, he stated, "The most reliable bulwark against the spread of extremism and for protecting a healthy public sphere is not blind moral shielding, but transparently and proactively correcting institutional irrationalities."

On this day, as the president once again stressed the need to guard against partisanship, a special prosecutor law—pushed by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and targeting investigations into the Daejang-dong and Taeyoung-hanking North Korea remittance cases involving the president—was passed in a plenary session of the National Assembly.