Confirmation bias 101 for oxygen-wasting k-pop fandoms

This is just a little unspectacular and fairly unexciting post that I wrote mainly for my own benefit, so I can link other people to it rather than having to type out how confirmation bias works again and again for dumb fucks.  Maybe you will also find it useful to link people to if you've got some dumb fuckin' friends on the Internet like I do (and you almost certainly do if you hang around with the average k-pop fan, let's be honest).  Or maybe you are a dumbass yourself and could use some education (don't be sad - we were all dumb once).  Either way I hope that this post is useful for you in some way.

I realise that for those of you with an actual brain this is pretty Captain Obvious stuff and actually a really boring topic, so I'll try not to make it too fucking dull for the people who would rather be reading about tits and ass by inserting some eye candy here and there.  For the rest of you, try not to get too distracted while you learn stuff.

A film that's worth your time generally speaking is "Pi - Faith In Chaos", the debut film by Darren Aforonsky who also did the brilliant "Requiem For A Dream".  The film "Pi" or "π" deals not with circles and diameters and shit but with a mathematician who is obsessed with the idea that the stock market isn't random or controlled by semi-predictable market forces but has a system to it which can be predicted mathematically completely in the abstract.  Presumably he wants to get rich with this incredible secret once he uncovers it, but oddly the "I'm a lazy bum plus a greedy cunt" angle is never fully extrapolated in the film which instead uses the initial idea as a jumping off point to explore the psychological aspects of obsession.  This particular fascination that the main character has with a 216-digit number which he believes holds the key to the stock market is obviously fuckin' stupid beyond belief, and in the following scene our protagonist talks to a much older and wiser mathematician who tries to drive into his thick skull this obvious truth, in the process explaining confirmation bias perfectly and saving me a ton of typing.

In other words, if you're looking for X, you'll find X, whether X truly exists in any significant way or not.

Of course, the above example of confirmation bias (by which I mean the video of the movie, not After School's pole dancing skills which are very real - and to think people say this group isn't "talented" tsk tsk) is fictional, so let's look at another example, this time from the real world.  The clip you're about to see is from the documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" and it's an excellent documentary which anyone with any interest in music should watch.  If you have no specific fondness for or interest in heavy metal you should especially make an effort to watch it, as the film is a highly entertaining beginner's guide which does well to bust many of the stereotypes about the genre, while never pandering to controversy nor brushing aside the style's uglier elements.  Those who are already metal fans on the other hand will enjoy the experience of watching their favourite music genre being taken seriously in the media for a change, but you probably won't learn much that you didn't already know.

Anyway, in the clip below, Dee Snider hands Tipper Gore's "Parents Music Resource Centre" (or PMRC, a censorship organisation at least as creepy and misguided as Korea's MOGEF) their own ass on a plate, exposing the confirmation bias at work beautifully.  I won't ruin it for you by telling you exactly what happens.

It's relevant because that's pretty much how all k-pop controversies, issues and theories work.  Netizens make up their mind "I want to believe X" and then they go hunting around for things which reinforce their belief in X while mentally discarding any information that conflicts with X.  Never mind what the truth is, or anything.   This goes for both antis and fans.  Often X is a theory heavily coloured by their own personal experiences - which is why bullying and sex are two recurring themes, as most netizens are young people who are either bullies or bullying victims, or both, plus incredibly sexually frustrated.  Combine this with study schedules, pressure to perform, frustration with having no control or power over their own lives and just being a little douchebag in general and it creates a powder-keg situation - it's easy to see why k-pop fans will believe any old bullshit that they read on the Internet as long as it already matches what they had set on in their minds anyway.  Hell, some of them even believe MY bullshit.

I'm sure that the girls in this blog's pictures will all thank you for remembering this information when their next controversy comes up before you start posting like a little bitch.

Also, I vote that T-ara, IU, Ivy, Nickhun, Rain and Se7en all get together and do a "We Are The World" style cover of this song.

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading... if you did actually do any.