thethirteenthcrow

[thethirteenthcrow]

I as a YouTuber who has never previously so much as even breathed in the direction of this company just wanted to give my earnest thoughts on the Watcher situation, because its really sad what they’re doing to their fans. Which is why today’s video is sponsored by BetterHelp—

[thethirteenthcrow]

#adhd #resource #zhalia's lil' chit chat

[thethirteenthcrow]

I’m begging the people who bullied and harassed them to not come back 😂

[thethirteenthcrow]

i think it's fine to have criticised their decisions and be forgiving to their response. it's what they wanted. it isn't "crawling back to them". you can still have been a dedicated fan and felt this way. they even admitted they messed up a little bit wrt saying everyone could afford it.

but if you were horrible to them, like wishing their downfall, calling them stupid names, being outright racist and disgusting about steven, or basically anything beyond criticism of watcher.tv, i don't think you should come back.

i don't know how half of these people could call themselves fans; you didn't HAVE to follow them to watcher. so many people made out like it was a chore to support their videos and they "preferred buzzfeed stuff anyway". well. you didn't ever have to be here? they had set out their intentions for their content to be different to that of buzzfeed, had show trailers so you could decide if it's for you, and it's been 4 goddamn years!!!! why the hell are you still around if you don't like their stuff????

[thethirteenthcrow]

people were really out here acting like shane, ryan, and steven personally murdered someone with their bare hands

[thethirteenthcrow]

Watchergate: 4/19-4/22

#sorry nins the thesis are all me

[thethirteenthcrow]

the fact that they all sat down and still cared enough to apologise to you all after they received a whole weekend of vitriolic nonsense and out-and-out racism for the crime of wanting to continue as a business... is genuinely mind boggling to me.

#they took higher roads than i ever could #i woulda gone 'well sorry for wanting to make the best content i guess' and then blow raspberries for 10 minutes #watchergate

[thethirteenthcrow]

I'll say something more eloquent later but I hope all you nasty little bad actors with your filthy little fucking grubby hands are fucking happy.

Y'all make me sick.

[thethirteenthcrow]

i am SO MAD that the boys had to backtrack like this. i am SO MAD that i had to listen to them apologize to a toxic group of fucking BULLIES who are just going to keep on bullying people now that they've been successful at it. i am INFURIATED that they look so tired and broken when all they were trying to do is better their company (and their lives and the lives of their employees)

i hate that a fandom that i loved, that kept me sane and smiling for years has turned into this. i hope that the bullies feel shame, but i know that they're celebrating instead and it breaks my heart

#none of you deserve travel season. it will be overproduced with steven's goldflakes anyway right? or does that not matter now? #i lost my faith in this fanbase. the majority of it. hope you're embarrassed as balls

[thethirteenthcrow]

People will shit on watcher just trying to make their company grow but turn around and support big corporations. 😭

#PEOPLE BE SAYING 'I RATHER HAVE NETFLIX' WITH THEIR FULL CHEST LIKE WHAT THE HELL WRONG W U

[thethirteenthcrow]

some people are mad at steven for a moral issue, tbf. regardless of your thoughts on watcher’s streaming service he did still say he has racist and homophobic friends. he still goes to a homophobic church.

I absolutely recognise that you must have been recently introduced to The Pod Clip that the twitter teens who hate him preserved to break out whenever it's a fresh moment to rally hate against him, but I would advise anyone just receiving this clip from August 2020 being passed around with the angle that Watcher tried to hide this. I and many others were there and just know that I have a zero tolerance standard for people who show no remorse or growth when they uplift racists and bigots.

Mine and other fans who were startled by the statement hoped publicly that it would be an opportunity to clear the air for Watcher because the current political climate was just finally examining anti-blackness in everyone's biases and as someone who is mixed-African growing up in an Asian household, I know that anti blackness is and has been a normalised mindset in the Asian community.

But the thing is, months before this, Steven platformed Tammy and her colleagues to discuss how all of us can work together to stop Asian hate and one of the conversations I highlighte back then was how very clear Tammy was that allyship from the Asian community to the African-American community was tantamount to moving forward. That the us vs them rhetoric has and continues to be harmful for both parties. Ryan and Steven were very involved in this discussion and agreed wholeheartedly.

Having said that, the narrative around the podcast ep never had a chance to be discussed rationally. It really ended up skewed because Steven's response to the backlash from that clip was this

I hope that's legible to you. Many people who felt uneasy about what he said felt a lot better and his intention to say something at the top of the next episode would once again, unfortunately, get derailed because Twitter users (some who are particularly loud about loving and supporting Watcher yet constantly join in on the throng of bullying as soon as the tide turns) were adamant that they needed Watcher to post the clip and Steven's apology publicly on their youtube front page and on the main socials, to literally advertise it when the reality is that not many people were watching/listening to the podcast. For what reason would it be intelligent or good business practice to broadcast this hurtful moment so that more people could get hurt by it?

Watcher's response amid the harassment was to release a full podcast episode where they all discussed what they would do going forward to show that they are allies, not just by not being racist or homophobic but by being anti-these things. They showed that they cared about their impact. It was emotional and devastating to watch and by that time, we knew the pod was likely going to wind down. 2020 was already a miserable time and it was made worse because no matter what Steven or Watcher said at the time, the "stans" on Twitter wanted the man fired, they posted memes saying the world would be better if Steven Lim didn't exist, they wanted him shamed by his staff, and for Ryan and Shane to publicly disavow him. Many of these so-called devoted fans raided the server to yell about how Steven's alleged homophobia hurts them, most of them were white and pointedly talking over people of colour telling them "it's not your apology to accept!". It was a blood bath.

And I see waaaay too many of the same faces utilizing this completely neutral move--that of COURSE could have been executed better--to terrorize Steven, to make petitions to get him fired, commenting on his wedding photo telling him that Tammy should leave him, posting those same damn disgusting memes because you see, a whole bunch of people forgot how disgusting and evil this vendetta was to the point where even watcher's socials started to FOLLOW some of these genuinely mean-spirited individuals. They didn't give a shit about a movement or activism.

What kills me--what absolutely THROWS me--is that these same people expect to be able to return to interacting with the staff, attending live shows, buying merch and sending fan mail as soon as the hate tide winds down. All these people so concerned about a statement referencing faceless hypothetical racists and homophobes that Steven never named nor attributed any context for--as he was never given the chance--are so quick to dehumanize and caricaturize real human beings to their faces and they think this is a normal and acceptable behaviour.

You'll have to excuse me, as an older fan who has seen my fair share of normalised homophobia and racism in these communities, if I disagree.

#watchergate #THIS LEVY. kissing u on the lips

[thethirteenthcrow]

now that everyone gets to watch for free i hope the content isnt so unbearably over produced for all the folks complaining about that

#i hope they post their stuff to youtube at 360p and put only the 4k stuff on watcher dot tv #watchergate

[thethirteenthcrow]

you're all fucking monsters and I hope that you're happy.

#over-accountability on their part #shame that these so-called fans forced them into this position #watchergate

[thethirteenthcrow]

Just finished watching their statement. I'm so exhausted from this weekend and I'm not even going to look at the reaction of anyone but my mutuals and friends. They are just, really good guys and more than half of the people online watching them don't even deserve them.

#watchergate #they're SO GOOD !!!! #be embarrassed 'fans'

[thethirteenthcrow]

truly the only damage done is the trust from Watcher in their fanbase

#zhalia's lil' chit chat #watchergate

[thethirteenthcrow]

'the damage is already done' what damage? you feeling entitled to content and harassing people just to get what you want like a little cry baby? that damage?

#zhalia's lil' chit chat #watchergate

[thethirteenthcrow]

how much do you wanna bet that after this response, the people bullying, harassing, and sending vitriolic threats to them are now like 'oh thank you for listening, love you guys so much' like give me a BREAK you people are miserable

#TRULYYYY MY GOD #like come ON #why are they apologising? steven's literally being harassed on this and THEY'RE saying sorry? #over-accountability #watchergate