Writer Heo Ji-ung questions Yoo Si-min's mental sharpness: 'How healthy is his brain now?'

Writer Heo Ji-ung has taken aim at Yoo Si-min, former chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, asking: "How healthy is the brain of someone who once worried about older generations, saying the brain rots after 60?"

On Saturday, Heo posted a lengthy message on social media criticizing Yoo and his followers.

"There was someone who divided people into three types — A, B and C — declaring that A types are driven by conviction, B types by self-interest, and that 'when the president's approval rating drops, B types will be the first to throw stones and attack,'" Heo wrote. "That very person is now hurling the sharpest stones at the president. I have no idea what kind of comedy this is."

Yoo had introduced his so-called ABC theory in March on the YouTube program "Maebulshow." He classified supporters of President Lee Jae Myung into three groups: Group A, the traditional core base that has upheld the party's history and values through the presidencies of Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, Moon Jae-in and Lee Jae Myung; Group B, an interest-driven bloc that outwardly backs Lee strongly for political gain; and Group C, pragmatic realists who weigh both values and practical interests. Yoo warned that a significant portion of Group B would likely be the first to defect should Lee find himself in difficulty.

"There is no future in relying solely on the existing core support base," Heo wrote. "Lee Jae Myung is walking the path of Franklin Roosevelt — the New Deal coalition. There are countless problems that cannot be solved without bringing the most uncomfortable people into the broadest possible embrace." He then took a direct shot at Yoo, adding: "From Lee's perspective, it's: 'I will definitely take heat for this — but I will save the country.' And someone who calls himself an intellectual cannot see that?"

Heo went further, asking: "After a record of political incompetence, you came back thanks to entertainment, and on your own — without anyone's consent — declared all your past failures overcome. Where exactly is your sense of shame?" He added: "Now that you yourself have reached that age, you suddenly crush any criticism that goes against you by invoking age, calling it an attack on the elderly. How vibrant is the personality of that shriveled, wretched, foul-smelling old man?"

Turning to the broader 386 generation — the activist cohort who came of age in the 1980s — Heo wrote: "You who happened to be young when absolute evil existed. You who landed jobs wherever you could and became asset holders as real estate prices soared. You for whom courage came at no cost. You who mistook luck for ability and never learned gratitude. You who nonetheless ask why the next generation — which never enjoyed that luck — does not thank you. You who never understood what gray areas were. You who lump together and dismiss the efforts of young people who must endure and navigate gray areas while at the same time defending their own camp. You who labeled everyone trying to win through logic and sincerity, without an absolute enemy, with contemptuous names."

"You must always have an enemy, you must always be right, there must always be confrontation — and when a clear enemy outside the camp is not obvious enough, you look for one within," Heo said. "Losing elections was the fault of failing to clearly suppress and distance people like you. The same goes for the collapse of support among younger voters. That is the current administration's mistake."

Heo then said: "The psychological state of putting others down and displaying a self-righteous attitude rooted in excessive self-regard is called ego inflation or ego expansion. History usually cites Hitler as the example, but in Korea, you and your generation — or Yoon Suk-yeol — are more fitting." He added: "To overcome it, one must accept oneself and confront one's inferiority complex — but Korea's 386 generation has no inferiority complex."

Heo closed with a pointed remark: "Wisdom comes from looking back; foolishness comes from repetition."