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Their fandoms of organized young people do. The bands contribute shockingly little to that.


Would someone please explain what this is about? How are kpop bands (or their audience) "keeping democracy alive"?

Genuine question, there's obviously something I've missed.


A lot of KPop fans are very organized on social media (mostly Twitter/Tiktok/Instagram) and know all the best tricks for them, which they usually use to push their favorite bands. At the same time it also gives them a lot of power whenever social issues are discussed on those platforms.

Recently, they've been involved with BLM in various forms[0] and orchestrated the "million ticket" Trump rally prank[1], so very direct involvement in politics. Whether that is "keeping democracy alive" is probably up for personal interpretation, but in general there seems to be at least a high interest in political participation.

In contrast to their fanbases, KPop artists are pretty absent from those political debates (which isn't uncommon for mainstream media stars), and don't speak out about political issues in fear they might turn away a portion of their fans.

[0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52996705

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-...


"Keeping Democracy alive"...by preventing voters from attending an event by certain politicians.


If trying to subvert the activities of a campaign to re-elect a politician who happens to be actively undermining the democratic process isn't making efforts towards "keeping democracy alive", I don't know what is.


I see. Thank you for the explanation!


Kpop fans are active on Twitter and have flooded right-wing and pro-police hashtags with content designed to drown-out "racist" messages.

The Verge covered it back in June: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/3/21278950/k-pop-stans-socia...


If you consider Twitter to be a place to allow all voices (which it isn't) this act by kpop fans should be considered silencing voices




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