I’m glad Wilbur is back because I believe anyone who is trying to become a better person deserves a second chance.
No that doesn’t mean anybody has to forgive him or let him back into their lives, but it was so clear from the way he spoke about himself and his past in 2022-2024 that he understood the harm he’d done and was trying to do better. And obviously we’ll never know if he’s serious or if it’s just for the camera unless another shoe drops, but I think he deserves to try again.
And in the turmoil, I’d like to remind everyone of a few things.
1) Wilbur did not admit to abusing Shelby, he admitted to being disrespectful, slobbish and taking advantage of her kindness. He believed the biting was consensual, and did not admit to having ever hurt her.
2) Shelby has not produced one piece of actual evidence against him, nobody has been able to find photos of her with bruises from the time they were dating, and her friends only corroborated that he was disrespectful and uncouth, not that he ever hurt her. Nobody has backed up that claim or said they saw the bruises. None of his former friends claimed he exhibited the same behaviors Shelby claims he did either. It was only people he already did not have a good relationship with backed up her claims as well, aside from her friends.
3) Harassing Wilbur is not showing support for Shelby. You are centering the man she accused in her story about her own mental health and relationship struggles. You are placing more importance on Wilbur’s place in this story than Shelby’s victimhood. That is the opposite of listening to victims, actually, because you’re using her trauma as an excuse to bully someone.
4) Shelby is not a good person either. She does not believe in therapy, does not believe in people’s ability to change, and thinks anyone who claims to have changed from therapy are fakers who are lying to get attention and forgiveness so they can go back to treating people badly. She does not think therapy works, and that mentally ill people should just get over themselves.
