#being one of those people
I feel like what people on the margins don’t even begin to understand is the harm this shit has done to the community aside from the blatant theft itself.
I have had people who used to be friends with Maddie - and who are not anymore for all the reasons gracing your dashs these days - who didn’t talk to me for well over a year, because I was “on the wrong side” when someone came out about them copying their OC.
The thing is, I didn’t even openly position myself on my blog or anything - and I very probably should have, but I had my head full with early Covid panic, homeschooling two kids and whatever else came with being a parent and an adult during the apocalypse and didn’t feel up to dealing with Tumblr drama on top of that - but for them it was enough that I was friends with their accuser and thus some people just stopped engaging with me at all.
And as we made up and got back talking, they made very clear that they had acted/reacted that way, because they were made to feel like this was expected of them in terms of “picking a side”.
This is what we mean when we say Maddie is weaponising their friends instead of owning up to the fact that maybe, probably sth isn’t a funny coincidence if it happens again and again… and again.
