XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: drooney@gmail.com   
      
   Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa on Saturday night was not full,   
   and its overspill areas outside the arena were empty. The crowd   
   (online) went wild. Why? Because the campaign had boasted nearly   
   a million signups for the event, local officials expected   
   100,000 people to show up, and Trump himself reportedly had to   
   abandon his plan speak to crowds in an “overspill area” who   
   couldn’t make it inside the packed venue. The president prizes   
   his popularity with fans, which is why he loves rallies and   
   speeches, and a rival group of fans and teens seemed to have got   
   the better of him: the registrations for the rally were   
   overwhelmed by people who had no intention of going. TikTok   
   teens and K-pop fans got the credit.   
      
      
   The reaction from big names was swift: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez   
   praised TikTok users and K-pop stans for their work in a Twitter   
   thread to squeals from supporters and fans and abuse from her   
   obsessive anti-fans. She could add her name to stars like Jordan   
   Peele, who applauded K-pop fans for their “Twitter-bombing”   
   (organised overnight takeover of a hashtag, helped by the fans’   
   spread across time zones) of the racist White Lives Matter   
   hashtag and their flooding of police information forms with   
   fancams (short video clips of their idols).   
      
      
   Twitter and Facebook were equally noisy. Viral tweets and posts   
   claimed that Gen Z, zoomers and/or megafans will save us all   
   from fascism. Multiple big data experts “did numbers” by talking   
   about the registration system for the rally as a data-gathering   
   exercise that would now be useless (spoiler: nearly everything   
   political parties and campaigns do that requires your email or   
   phone number is for this purpose.) And, of course, there was   
   also plenty of dismissive commentary denying that the multiple   
   registrations did anything at all.   
      
      
   What actually happened: various different groups all organised   
   multiple signups for the rally and the idea spread swiftly   
   across different networks. Older people, younger people, TikTok   
   users (thanks to a challenge, the platform thrives on them), K-   
   pop fans (used to organising online), YouTubers. The   
   “registering for a free rally and not attending” tactic has been   
   used before, but this time it got more attention — and coincided   
   with a president losing popularity and a pandemic that keeps   
   most of his fan demographic safely at home.   
      
      
   K-pop fandom has a well-documented race problem. There’s a big   
   streak of anti-blackness and anti-queerness in K-pop fandom, and   
   fans bringing this up often face backlash and ostracization. The   
   music and aesthetics of the idols draw heavily on Black culture,   
   and Black fans are the ones behind campaigns relating to George   
   Floyd and Black Lives Matter — yet white teens are the ones   
   often getting the credit. The bands and singers themselves are   
   usually silent on politics, taking days or even weeks to respond   
   to campaigns like Black Lives Matter, and only one idol is   
   openly gay.   
      
      
   Suga from BTS recently had to apologize for using a sample of   
   cult leader Jim Jones, after outcry from Black fans. Those fans   
   were then dubbed “antis” and shunned for embarrassing their idol   
   rather than seeing any of the benefits from their work to   
   improve society and culture — a familiar problem, because they   
   are outnumbered in their fandoms and in the media by white fans   
   and journalists resistant to critique.   
      
   The networks and friendships created by fandoms have created   
   serious organising power that has benefited charities and   
   ethical campaigns over a number of years. The Harry Potter   
   Alliance, Tom Hiddleston fans, fans of K-pop band BTS — all have   
   raised money and awareness to platform their idols but also   
   improve society.   
      
      
   The downside is that vigilante fandom has existed for a while,   
   both inside and outside of politics. Black fandom expert Keidra   
   Chaney wrote powerfully about the “empowered stan”, a committed   
   and organised hardcore fan who can be mobilised in order to   
   defend the object of their fandom from any criticism or to   
   attack their idol’s rivals. Celebrity “cancellations” have also   
   arisen from this abuse of power.   
      
      
   Fandom is a weapon in politics. Trump uses it. Bernie Sanders   
   used it, or at least the people around him did (for all that he   
   said “not me, us”, not all the characterisation of “Bernie Bros”   
   online was unfair.) Nigel Farage uses it. Both sides of the   
   Brexit debate used it. Anti-trans activists use it. Tommy   
   Robinson uses it and so does Andy Ngo. They communicate directly   
   with their base, posting messages and images only the fans will   
   understand or care about. Trump drinking water using only one   
   hand at his Tulsa rally was cheered because of the memes of his   
   seeming inability to do the same in West Point.   
      
   Fans have been weaponized in ways that most of the people   
   cheering the TikTokkers on and calling them the future wouldn’t   
   like. During Hong Kong’s long campaign for democracy, the   
   mainland Chinese government have used fans and language related   
   to fandom to post pro-China content and in Korea, the election   
   candidates have had fangirls and fan songs and dances. Wonks and   
   political campaigns looking to exploit this group that they’ve   
   just discovered ought to be careful what they wish for. There   
   have been fans for as long as there has been celebrity, and   
   politics fans and political fans for just as long.   
      
      
   Fans are and have always been powerful but in different ways   
   than you think — and much as anyone might want to, you can’t   
   control their views or actions. Gamergate, 4chan and Discord   
   Trump memes are the other side of the same coin, and we are in   
   danger of fetishizing young fans and hiring TikTok zoomers as a   
   silver bullet. It’s too easy to cheer what liberal political   
   communication guys think of these groups instead of spending   
   time understanding how fandom works in politics. The latter is   
   my area of expertise, and in the past it’s often been roundly   
   mocked. Maybe not so often now.   
      
   https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-rally-kpop-tiktok-aoc-   
   turnout-coronavirus-tulsa-ok-a9579976.html   
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)