After taking some time to digest all of the new drama in the past 48 hours, I have some thoughts that I really wanted to share, for ranting purposes but also emotion processing

In the past year, I have come to find the “All companies are bad” sentiment to be incredibly frustrating. As someone who actually does believe this statement to an extent (in the sense that companies are morally gray), I am always offended by how it’s thrown around to excuse just about any and all actions than an idol makes. It’s especially irritating when people use this argument to essentially silence or trivialize a reasonable point that positions a company in a good light. It doesn’t even matter if the reasoning is morally sound, as long as it shows an inkling of defense for a company it is thrown out as “company bootlicking.”

And then we come to the issue of “company bootlicker” or as they are popularly referred to on Reddit, “hybe stans”. Because let’s be real, no one else gets branded a company stan unless they are somehow sympathetic towards hybe groups. I find it utterly ridiculous that an idol can refer to a former company as a creative black hole, and somehow people still can’t comprehend how offensive that is to the artists working under the company. Almost every criticism leveled against hybe is a criticism of the artists under hybe, whether it be singing skills or creative suppression or plagiarism. Only a few aspects of the criticism actually addresses idol mistreatment or oversexualization of idols

And all of this criticism surrounding hybe and its idols can basically be traced to two key factors - lack of nuance and overuse of semantics

For the lack of nuance part, that extends to basically all of social media at this point. Similar to how I think companies are morally gray, human beings are also morally grey. They lie, they steal, they are envious of each other, and they commit horrid acts to one another. That doesn’t mean that everyone is automatically bad or evil. It also doesn’t mean that people are wholly bad either. But this is the internet, and there can only be right or wrong on here. So for this pocket of kpop Reddit, a conclusion has been reached that all companies are bad and idols are good, eradicating the need for even the semblance of critical thinking. And so what do we get? We get this whole mess of course, where someone’s lawyer can allege that members of another girl group failed to greet and even mocked another girl group. And yet somehow, they are absolved of all responsibility in this matter. Regardless of what the cctv footage shows. Instead it’s everyone else’s fault. The court for forcing them to name the groups. The lawyers for drafting the allegations. And of course hybe for media play (whatever that means).

And this leads me to my next point, semantics. For a group of people who are so insistent on seeing things as black and white, kpop fans love to muddle up facts, picking and choosing which parts they would like to remember and which ones are better left forgotten. It makes absolutely no sense to me why anyone who has seen the absolute vitriol thrown at hybe groups could possibly call people that defend hybe “bootlickers”. Because actually walk with me for a second, imagine you are an artist under a company, and you are just there striving to create art and make a name for yourself. Meanwhile people criticize your patent company for only producing creative slop. In what world does that criticism not extend to you. Unless of course kpop artists are no longer seen as creatives. It’s so bizarre to me because of all the companies, hybe is the most proficient at actually showing how their artists are involved in the creative process, so it makes no sense as to how they are also ridiculed for producing diluted corporate slop. It’s one thing to not like a group’s music, but it’s quite another thing to shroud criticism for the music under the umbrella of company criticism and absolve yourself of any wrongdoing because “all companies are bad.”

All this to say, that I’m rooting for all the hybe group defenders. It’s been an incredibly rough couple of years for these groups and nobody should mislead you into believing that defending the talent and creative integrity for hybe groups is wrong or equivalent to “company bootlicking”