Ok, as usual I'm going to ruin the party with some background.
What you're seeing here is the confluence of 3 separate trends.
The "side hug" has been a staple of protocol in YMCA camps -- and, I'd speculate, other summer camps -- for quite some time now. At least 15 years, in my experience.
The purpose was liability. If you only hug campers by putting an arm around their shoulder, you avoid any misinterpretation that might arise (pardon the pun) from hugging the way we normally hug family and friends, which is face to face, or as we say here in the South "hugging your neck".
More recently, hugging has become rather startlingly prevalent among young folks. High school kids hug each other like we used to shake hands, high-five, or nod. Even boys hugging boys, which in my day was unthinkable outside of the football field, and even then only after a seriously killer play. It's become so commonplace that many schools have resorted to banning hugs altogether.
What you're seeing here is a reaction against frontal body contact via an organized effort (and this is the 3rd trend) using Xian pop bands.
Of course, to anyone outside this bubble of white suburban Xian youth culture, it's laughable. Not only the message, but also the messenger, of course.
To me -- because I'm immersed in this culture -- it's perfectly understandable. Of course they're going to have a yup-hop group disseminate this propaganda against front hugs. And of course it's going to be utterly ineffectual.
But no, it's not mindboggling at all. Not if you know the backstory.
