This is just me discussing a three year old discussion I was once a part of (those three years ago) and because the discussion popped up again (for reasons unknown to me) I read and remembered - and I guess I just wanted to talk about it, because I still have the same feelings I did back then, except I think I was sorely misunderstood and I gave up my stance and just left it. 

It's not to say I'm right nor that the discussion we were having then was everybody else's fault - it just sparked something in me to read it again and I realized, wait, I actually still hold this opinion.

The discussion was about BTS. This blogpost is not about BTS or ARMY. And I don't think my initial comment on the discussion post was about ARMY or BTS but I didn't read that far back. 

The whole thing actually sprung from this idea some fans hold that "you can't fault your idols for bad vocals when they're doing hard choreography if you can't do the same better". Anyway, that's usually the argument.

The construction is; "You can't fault X for doing Y action in relation to Z job badly if you can't do Y to the same standard yourself". 

And it's this argument construction I want to talk about it. Because we're on a page for fanfiction with K-pop idols, the logical next step is to relate it to kpop, but the argument construction is the same no matter what field we're talking about. 

Anyway, my opinion to this is: bull. 

You don't have to be able to do something to some standard before you can criticize someone for not doing their job well. And this is what sparked the whole controversy in the discussion. 

Because I work in healthcare, I related it to healthcare as it was most natural for me 

"I don't have to be a doctor to uphold my doctor to a standard and criticize them when they don't meet that standard." 

That was my argument for why it's okay to criticize idols on consistently low performance. My initial argument was 'it's their job and just like we hold other professionals to a certain standard, even if we can't perform the same job to the same standard - when they disappoint us, it's okay to criticize and point out areas for improvement". 

In the initial discussion it didn't hold up very well, because some people immediately drew a distinction between idols and doctors - when one makes a mistake, it doesn't hurt anybody; when the other makes a mistake, someone might lose their life. 

Which is a fair distinction but was irrelevant for my argument at the time. 

To me it didn't matter what you job was - it mattered that it was a job and not a hobby. 

I don't care with one off-performance every now and then, we all have bad days and we're all humans. Stuff happens and we own up to it. For me, it was the basic argument construction that mattered and I made a distinction between job and hobby. 

Most people with consistently low job performance are fired. Idols aren't, but they might lose their popularity if they don't live up to the standards expected from their fans. 

And not being able to perform your hobby to the standard you put on professionals doesn't make you unable to criticize them when they don't perform to industry or subjective standards.

It wasn't an attack on BTS or their performances as I genuinely haven't watched more than one or two. Maybe it was just the context of the discussion three years ago. I was definitely at another place in life than where I am right now. I've grown immensely over the last three years - and seeing this discussion again just kinda uprooted this opinion. I still hate the argument construction and I'm not sure I've been more eloquent than I was last time three years ago. 

I don't knooooow. This was a rant. I think. Bye.