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Think critically: BTS are adult men. Jin is 28, Jungkook is 23 years old - none of them need you. You're not their family, nor their company. You're a fan, an the fact BTS gives us insight doesn't allow us to invade the private space they give us no control over.
From line distribution to clothing, you were not given permission by BTS to meddle into their private, business & work matters. We've joined them on this journey, we're not guiding them. So next time a solo whines for sympathy, just block them.
Another group we have to be careful about are legitimate trolls from the sociopolitical sewers of the Internet. Gamer//gators, 4 //chan users, right wingers - they hate male groups & hate BTS, so for them, it's fun to cause fanwars.
They are already inside girl group fandoms and the fact the "blue haired fat girl" anti-feminist trope was at one point used against ARMY by a certain fandom - that likes to throw the word feminism around - is a dead giveaway of gamer//gators.
The hatred from the right wing and 4//chan types isn't new, Kpop has been on their radar for ages, but they especially hate BTS because ARMY consist mostly of feminists & people who believe in social justice.
Accounts that have a sequence of numbers in their username are sockpuppets, not just in terms of stan Twitter, in general. "Jay456486344" or "Casey73056786" aren't real people, they are bots, some more, some less sophisticated.
They're most notably used by political trolls to divide the general opinion, so you can see a lot of them under political articles. Their goal on stan Twitter is the same - they think it's fun when we fight & insult each other.
Now, the name+number bots can come from rival fandoms, certain countries are more tech savvy than others, but generally, that's the rarer case, but not unheard of.
Now, sockpuppets of any kind causing drama isn't the sole reason why ARMY have a bad reputation. Do note that Kpop used to be driven by certain fandoms & many perceive BTS' success as unfair bc they're used to their companies' groups being the top.
I'm not going to name names here, but let me put it this way: anybody who says that we're toxic is revising history. For one, we were one of the first fandoms to unite the Korean and international side bc that used to be quite unheard of.
The fandoms claiming feminism now used to call groups like Secret and Sistar fat whores & didn't like 2NE1 bc they weren't pretty, skinny and girly. The gg fandoms claiming to be lesbians are pretty homophobic in general, too.
It's become a fad to say that ARMY are the worst, a personality trait, if you will. Truthfully, we aren't worse, we're not even close to some of the bullshit other fandoms pull and have pulled, but envy is driving the narrative.
A lot of it comes down to people fetishizing Kpop to feel special, to put themselves outside the box. They think their faves deserve BTS' achievements because *they* stan them, bc *they* find them special.
I noticed BTS in 2013 & at that time, I was already with one leg out of Kpop for many reasons. Part of why I prefer not putting BTS into that category is bc my attraction to them was through things I missed from Kpop, so naturally, for me, they aren't what Kpop is for now.
If anything, BTS is the future of Kpop. I do think we need to cut down on the "Kpoppies" and "BTSPOP" mantras since they are cringe to sb 18 years into the music, but that kind of dick measurement contest is always part of fandom culture.
The best way to exemplify how bandwagon the hate toward is is to look at how exaggeration is selectively taken seriously. A different fandom can claim to be industry leaders or whatever, and it's taken as what it is. An ARMY posts the same & people riot.
If I say that BTS are the best artists from SK, hundreds of ppl will ration the tweet, belittling me as a queer female, because I dared to use a normal emotional exaggeration - something that's standard for all of stan Twitter.
Imagine somebody taking sg like "Namjoon invented langauge", or "Jungkook invented tattoos" seriously...
Adding this to the thread, basically how journalism victimises fans for the sake of engagement: https://twitter.com/borasaekfarmer/status/1337460857928867840?s=19
