PSA: Sorry for not sticking to the schedule, I had college work and personal issues, but I’m back!
Today I will be discussing
- Tall poppy syndrome/begrudgery
- Troll logic/schadenfreude
- Awards season Army/BTS hate
I’m not gonna lie, the increasing tolerance for trolls on this forum is incredibly disheartening to say the least, but that’s for another time…
It’s awards season! Which means it’s tis the season to salty assholes!
So let’s get this straight.
Armys and BTS are not responsible for whether your fave wins an award or not. They can’t control the so-called “rigging” (more on that later) and neither can we! It is not BTS’ fault that they are well-liked and put out lyrically cohesive music (though they do contribute 150% of course).
Edit: cherry-boy said it best! "Err, they kind of are responsible but it's not on purpose; It's by design. It's the name of the game. You don't want to get outshined? Can't sell records? Then do better."
If awards depend on numbers, it’s obvious Armys take the W. Half of this is a popularity contest! If you spent half the time you use bashing us, and rather promoting your fave instead, your fave probably could’ve gotten an award! I digress, let’s discuss this mindset, it will save everyone time in the long run:
Jealousy + Internalized discomfort of a fave’s failure = Bashing BTS
People take Kpop way too seriously. (I am not saying Armys don’t either, so don’t even try to enter with that stupid argument). I am also aware this essay can be construed as taking it too seriously too- but I wouldn't do this if people weren't so cruel to them.
People want a face for the name of the person who supposedly gypped their faves, and almost 100% of the time they put it on BTS- because why make an effort to speak up about the award policy when you could bash 7 boys instead?
Why else do you think so many angry little threads have been popping up in main and anon lately?
Psych and soc double major Vi coming through.
Before we discuss troll logic itself, let’s take a more sociological look with two concepts:
[Tall poppy syndrome]
Derived from the idea of “cutting down the tall poppy”- tall poppy syndrome is a cultural phenomenon characterized by the criticism and intense scrutiny of those who have achieved notable success in multiple aspects of life such as wealth, fame, or intellectuality. The criticism, sabotage, and scrutinization come from deep-rooted internal insecurities.
[Schadenfreude]
Originating from Germany, schadenfreude is the idea and emotion that can be described as “pleasure and self-satisfaction at the misfortune of others”. There are three types but today’s discussion can be wrapped up/described as two of them:
Aggression-based schadenfreude- Comes from a place of group identity, the happiness derived from others’ suffering comes from the observer's feelings that the failure/suffering itself will validate themselves and their own in-group status in relation to other groups.
Rivalry-based schadenfreude- Comes from a place of individualism and interpersonal connection, it originates from a desire to one-up or outshine one’s competition. This is based on the observer feeling better about their identity and self worth after witnessing the misfortune of others.
Looking at this from a psychological & sociological standpoint- BTS are the tall poppies. The boys fall under intense scrutiny for every little thing they do because of their massive success. When they “fail” in the eyes of antis, the antis (or even soft antis) experience schadenfreude.
These people experience happiness/a little bit of a rush when they witness BTS do anything that could remotely be deemed as a failure, (this includes but is not limited to: chart placement, past mistakes, Western promotion).
They start to feel more secure in their own fandom- justified that they made the correct decision stanning someone else. A feeling of “having the upper hand” is also experienced, as if they are winning an argument (an imaginary one!).
They believe that the minute BTS fucks up, their faves will outshine them- which simply isn’t true. Antis feel more comfortable with themselves and their standpoints whenever BTS does anything remotely un-redeeming in their eyes- because being a hardcore hater gives them an identity.
Essentially, some people on this forum would be nobodies on here without their hate for BTS, because they lack any other real personality traits.
The complex trolls truly do believe that they are right in every aspect, and will lash out when shown proof that their ideals are not true. Do not argue with known BTS antis on this forum because they will have an answer for everything. When these types of antis have their beliefs challenged, they get very angry and will argue you up down left right to prove their point, even if they are factually incorrect.
When it comes to basic trolls: you are engaging with someone who is logging in with the purpose of pissing you off. As much as they might convince themselves otherwise, people act out because they are deprived of any attention in real life. They lack a parental figure or they’re going through some rough shit so their only way to cope is acting like an idiot. I can guarantee you every troll on this website falls under either of the two categories mentioned above, because NO NORMAL PERSON in a good headspace would even begin to say shit like some of the stuff I’ve seen on here. Even if it’s for fun or “no harm meant”.
We should pity these people and leave them alone- and that goes for any troll on the website. These people are genuinely unhappy in some areas of their life to the point where they have to bully and bash and make wasteful threads to make themselves feel better.
Newsflash: if you derive pleasure out of others’ undeserved misfortune, you’re looking at a personality disorder!
These trolls type stupid shit with the intention of proving their points that “all Armys are evil”- that is what they aim to do. Trolls could not care less about your cohesive and well-put-together argument- as long as they get their little dopamine rush from bashing, they literally couldn’t care less about the effect they have on others either.
Every time we reply angrily, it makes them happy. I never thought I would have to explain this- and maybe some of you already know this, but it’s still important to remind everyone of it.
So before engaging with any more trolls (I’m guilty of it too!), please keep all of this in mind!
Oh and by the way, here are the 2021 MAMA stats!
Something tells me BTS will remain the tallest poppies in the field 
- Vi 
