Sometimes it's not just a vibe; the bigger thing is to not divide
((warning: loooooong post with lots of talking sorry))
So recently (like, this day) @starlit-soothsayer made a comment about Sai Scribbles that I was about to honestly agree with because it sounded right to me. But then I happen to see that one of Lily's most prominent victims is deeply against Starlit's reasoning. They (this victim) is adamant that pp:"they not compare a person they don't vibe with [Sai] to a literal PREDATOR/GROOMER [Orchard]".
I get the said victim's take here, both on it's own and especially in relation to the last month/weeks. Recently one of the Lorch critical blogs, Fennec, decided it was a good idea to make a document calling Courtney Peet, Lily's abused sibling, ALSO a groomergooner just like their sister. Fennec's reasoning was shaky at best, vindictive, and stunk of the same kind of narrative Zena and Poppy, also grifters, took about Lily Orchard drama: "Lily's critics are the same kind of awful as her". Keep in mind, the reason I AM invested in the Lorch-drama is I've been worried about Lily Orchard's fans and base for years now. I've been mad at and staying on Lily's case for awhile. Say for Patchworkhearts, Sparky and Poppy herself, I wouldn't exactly call the want to see Lily put away and the push by different types/sorts of people to see that happen as analogous to what I just called Lily - a predator and a deflecting one at that.
I will say that " we ", aka all of the combined critics of Lily Orchard, aren't a fandom of even an exact community and besty buddy-buds, even if we support each other. Courtney, Lily's sibling, got on a lot of different people's cases here on tumblr before she was ultimately mass blocked by Lily's base. I remember. I saw it. Courtney and her story and testimony is a smoking gun, I'd say, in the truth of what kind of a person Lily is, but she's in no way a leader or even liked by all of us. On a personal petty basic-level I disagreed w Courtney over how she violently overstanned Johnny Depp and then over how Courtney talked about their niece and nephews offhandedly. I can't do anything about that, but, I'm allowed to support Courtney as a person without stanning her outright for what I think are her own demons. Courtney is not as bad a person as Lily Orchard because she is not the same kind of person as Lily Orchard.
Courtney is her own kind of a mess. And frankly so is Sai.
Two days ago, following drama from a different Lorch-critical blogger skeleton-bat implicated Sai to be as bad as Lorch and a groomer (no. Sai isn't a groomer. sns also don't do your 'proshippers = groomers' dance on me, Bats), one of the blogs that talking down skeleton-bats unpromptedly said skeleton bats was a joke and a phony for reblogging Palestine-gofundmeblogs. Their words were literally "all Palestinian bloggers are bots and scammers". I disagreed with that, because I know from my sources, lived experiences and someone with Palestinian family that that's simply untrue, to which this person proceeded to splain to me how ebeggers must be scams -Sai agreed with this person.
I am pro-Palestinian justice and aid in getting these people away from Gaza. I've been that way ever since I saw an ISRAELI film strait up say that what Israel is doing is wrong, long before Oct 7th 23'. I don't want to dwell to long on it or the explanations and fact checking for yourself with nonEnglish-speaking fundraisers how legit they are beyond going "look at the way it's written; it looks like begging", but now's not the time. This was my breaking point. I had to block Sai.
Personally I think Sai is a recovering edgeduchess who likes to pick on people first and then can get into the weeds of 'taking down' people if and when it benefits her. That doesn't make her a grifter ala skeleton-bat, Poppy and Zena or Fennec...but I do think that means she's more into the attention of p0wning Lorch, another queer creator, than she is other concerns. I do think she cares about the harm done by Lorch now, but in the beginning and definitely with her own non-Lorch-stan detractors, Sai struck me as being into dunking on Lily for attention. What bugged me about Sai's and that other user's comments was not only that it was unneeded/not relevant to what skeleton-bat is doing; it was that she tried to splain to me, a person who knows gofundme bloggers irl how they 'must be' scams especially in times of crisis. That was insensitive and wrong of her to do even if she doesn't mean anything hurtful by it. There ARE ways to say "hey, don't believe/reblog every fundraiser that comes your way sum might be scams" and there are ways NOT to do that; Sai chose the later option and frankly I see her as pretty racist at the moment by the confidence she chose in it. But obviously, I know some ppl are going to still support Sai, stand by her and that includes the victims of Lorch who are just happy that someone is helping them spread news of Lorch's crimes.
Bigotry is a different problem and a different evil than predation. One can be committed without the other and I'm not interested in splitting hairs over which one is "worse". ALTHOUGH Lily has been caught doing a lot of bigotry of her own, including just now, ON TOP OF being a grooming-predator. For Sai's case I don't think she even compares to Lily Orchard's racism and antisemitism. Sai seems like the kind of person who could learn if she really had to what she said was wrong. Lorch, if she were in Sai's place, would probably demand for days on end that Palestinian donations are inherent scams, that she is the only TRUE ally for both Palestine and then in the next two months delete the post and gaslight her audience into believing she's never said anything about Palestine ever.
Still though, personally, I'm allowed to not like Sai. I can admire her will, I think she's genuinely wanting to help ((she's absolutely a better artist than you, Orchards, stop criticizing Sai's damn art)) but I'm sorry I really don't like her after what happened two days ago. I left the convo because clearly I was making the sitch worse and I'm just not gonna step on Sai's toes about this if that's really how set she and that other blog I was arguing with feel. I'm genuinely hurt; deeply offended. I left. If other people of any other demographic feels differently about Sai I'm not going to get on their case about it. And I think part of the problem is that a lot of people ARE WANTING others to do something about it.
People dislike Sai and the cut of her jib in a serious enough way that they just can't stomach her even when she's on the side of 'good'....that's a really fair thing to do. For comparison, I really love Lindsay Ellis's stuff and agree with much of her takes. This does not mean I think people who say Ellis virtually forgave herself over her canceling are " wrong ". I personally hate being told I only 'stan' Ellis cuz I -"hate poc and Ellis is white so I 'MUST' feel more comfortable with her as a white girl". Not only is that a VERY weighted thing to throw at someone casually for why they must like a reviewer they grew up watching but....wtf!! do you seriously presume everyone who likes Ellis is a white girl? What if I were asian or black and still liked Ellis? What then? Because, if you're at all the kind of person -the kind of Lily Orchard-ish person- to start saying 'you aren't actually bipoc'/'you're a BAD bipoc' over a damn youtube personality that's definitely on you, hon.
I think that was skeleton-bats' problem [one of them] with all this. They can't leave it at Sai being an edgeduchess who used her own disability terms to her advantage and liking- they had to make it a matter of " tolerating Sai = Sai grooming people ". Which was unnecessary, foolish, and deeply insulting.
That's why skeleton-bat, you're also blocked atm alongside Sai. Blocks are created equally on tumblr but you don't need to use them equally. I block serious things like neon@zis and scambots as much as I do people who I know aren't going to listen to me, seem toxic and/or want to fight. I guess that was a blessing since you've been spamming the lily orchard tags with shit on everyone else who so much likes Sai or doesn't agree with you???
Look here- we are a bunch of adult strangers who at most found some comradery with each other over our mutual hurt, pain and anger at what Lily Orchard has done to us or to other people. We are not a fan base or even an anti-fanbase. With those of us who have actually known and hurt by Orchard and her fans, maybe don't insinuate that they're ally is now their 'savior' or that their personal beefemy is the same thing as their abuser.
We're gonna have to agree to disagree on this after awhile and focus on the bigger picture. If someone is here because they honestly want to see Lily Orchard go down because of her predation/gaslighting/grooming/bigotry, that person is your ally in this fight whether you like it or not. Sai is. That's how this works.
If someone says they want to see Lorch go down but really is more preoccupied with her being trans or 'progressive'(phony or not doesn't matter to people who unironically use 'woke' in 2024), wants to see a dumpster fire or is playing devil's advocate for Lily because "her critics are just as bad!! 8U"...enjoy your block too, hon.
We have a serial groomer to catch and make sure she doesn't hurt anyone again.
