sometimes, a person that you love and trust with all your heart... will lie to you anyway. i've experienced abuse in fandom before, and there are lots of red flags to look out for. i'm seeing a lot of those same flags recently. +

- they shared a side to the story that painted them as a victim, and their victim as a liar, a creep, whatever - they were LYING, but they're popular. they post content that everyone loves. they seem so nice too, and on top of that, they SAID they were innocent! the end. +

- wasn't their first victim but they still won. wasn't their last either. they're still winning because all they have to do is lie about "the other guy" and they have support, and all their victims can do is give up and leave, or deal with still seeing them all the time. +

- despite everyone who's come forward over YEARS with similar stories, they remain. people think if they really were hurting people, they would admit to it, because people believe that they're honest. +

- they deleted YEARS of tumblr posts. interactions, personal opinions, etc, completely erased with the click of a button. they destroyed a lot of proof that would've cost them sympathy (and attention) from those who enjoyed their content if they hadn't. +

- there's two sides to them. public victim & private predator. many only see one of these personas - it's intentional. even on the off chance they truly don't mean to do harm like they say, they still DID and they still DO. actively. +

- intention alone shouldn't influence how a situation is handled. how victims are affected matters. victims matter. if someones hurting people, multiple people, over *years*, SO badly that it'd hurt the victims more to stay, there's a PROBLEM. it needs to be addressed & solved. +

- this isn't something that can be ignored forever. it'll keep getting worse until the whole fandom ends up paying for it in a grand reveal that i can promise nobody will be happy about. +

- calling out problematic people who constantly bring harm to others should NOT be labeled as "bullying" and brushed under the rug while the actual victims are being shamed for standing up for themselves. +

- before they hurt me, personally, i believed their innocence, too. why wouldn't i have? they were popular. they posted content i liked. they seemed nice. i trusted them. and i'm ashamed of that. i have to sit with that guilt. i defended them in the past, and i was wrong. +

- of course, this thread is describing the abuse i experienced in 2016 that i mentioned in the first tweet of this thread. similarities to people or events currently taking place elsewhere are, unfortunately, purely coincidental. +

- to the fandom i left in 2016 & to anyone else who finds this thread relevant: be careful. pay attention. break the cycle.