Yeah, I said it. I thought about phrasing the title as "the worst I've ever seen", but honestly? That qualifier isn't needed. It is objectively the worst hate train ever conducted by international K-Pop fans.
It's time to have a honest dialogue about it, outside of Megathreads, and I'm not looking to turn this into the Suffering Olympics, so I'll talk strictly about NJZ.
It has been almost a full year since HYBE announced their audit of MHJ, followed by MHJ's press conference.
When I say there has not been a single day without the most ruthless and vile comments being said about NJZ, even before they took a public stance, it's not hyperbole. The girls are treated with more hostility and hatred than actual criminals. Also not hyperbole. Recently I saw people comparing them to SEUNGRI. SEUNG****INGRI. And those comments were upvoted on reddit by the dozens.
And no, this isn't a reddit only thing. Go look at the first few editions of the ADOR/HYBE Megathreads. Go look at ANY NJZ article on the main site. Go look on X/twitter.
You can have a little bit of everything:
death threats, weaponization of pedophilia, misogyny. In fact, why don't I just SHOW you:
We'll start light
There are quite literally hundreds if not thousands of comments just like this. And it just gets worse and worse. In fact, the ones above are the tame ones.
Oh, a random AKP article about NJZ going to Jennie's concert? Surely that couldn't invite any malicious comm--
If this person posted on the forums, wholesome YamaChan might have to get shelved and risk ending up like Tattynumbers.
Danielle can't even do a live stream where she opens up to viewers about her trainee experience without a bunch of reactions like this:
Again, this is MILD compared to what I've seen over the past year. I'm kind of crazy so I can withstand it all without any real impact, but when I look at everything in its totality, I know for a fact no group has been subjected to this sheer volume of hatred by ifans ever.
There have been comparable PEAKS for sure and events others have suffered through, but it's just the daily constant unchecked and unfiltered hate NJZ gets that astounds me.
Equally astounding is when people try to act like this malicious behavior doesn't exist or try to persecute Bunnies who are showing signs of distress or angst from the vicious rhetoric drowning out any positive comments towards NJZ outside of the discord server, NJZ subreddit and HERE. MAYBE PC from time to time.
The hate has reached deranged levels as well. I've seen people:
- literally create their own "Netizen Article" to make it appear as if the Korean public had turned on NJZ.
- create a fake general chat filled with "Bunnies" making obscene comments about other girl groups just to set up NJZ fans.
- platform and retweet/mass like known sexist incel losers from one of the most degenerate online communities in Korea (they have since been banned from X and sued) to spread vile rumors and hate.
- edit photos of NJZ members at a Gigi Hadid party, removing all the women, so they can create a disgusting narrative about NJZ members that I don't think I need to fully detail for you to get the picture.
I could go on. See for yourself. And you have been warned. These comment are awful. I'll even put them in a spoiler.
Every single day. And now I can say, for as long as I've been a K-Pop fan, I have never seen a group get this level of sustained hatred from ifans for so long (A YEAR). The funny thing is that it made the fandom even bigger, stronger and mentally tougher. But I think SOMEONE needs to put a spotlight on this trashy behavior from a bunch of trashy people.
I don't ask for pity or sympathy, but I will demand acknowledgement of the sheer magnitude of the unacceptable levels of vitriol the girls receive on a daily basis.