A satirical metaphor referring to people who claim expertise without real experience, who preach mastery without practice, and who wear “black belts” earned through nothing but words and self-promotion.

Correspondence Karate™ describes the modern phenomenon of individuals who collect knowledge, titles, or talking points—but have never trained, tested, or embodied the principles they speak of.
It is rooted in the image of someone earning a black belt via mail-order instruction, having never entered a dojo or fought a single round.

In today’s world of online branding, social media performance, and instant authority, many have become “karate practitioners of the internet”—engaging in word-based combat without substance.

The phrase was born as a cultural satire, derived from “correspondence education” + “karate,” targeting the increasing number of so-called experts, thought leaders, or instructors who rely on theory and aesthetics while lacking real-world grounding.

Originally derived from “The Black Belt of Online Karate” and “The Online Karate Sensei,” this concept evolved into a full-scale structure representing the gap between external display and internal discipline.

It also critiques AI-era habits, where people output ChatGPT-generated content and present it as their own insight—without any verification or experiential grounding.

https://ai-makouro.com

Confirmed