"How did everyone fall for him despite of the obvious red flags?"

An IRL recently asked me this and I think it's good to share my response here, too.

Since the very beginning William Gold sold us, his fan base, on the idea that Wilbur Soot was his digital persona. A fictional character / alter ego he acted through. In SootHouse, in the ARG, the comedy songs, and in normal streams. Wil was meant as a parody of incel culture. So anything super alarm worthy was dismissed as in character.

This became a major problem for Wil when the DSMP exploded in popularity. As suddenly thousands of new eyes were on the first song of the Boyfriend Trilogy and his old work. Wil rushed to remove the most offensive and criticized works of his. He had to morph the Wil character from a creepy freak into a more tolerable one; landing on a charming, self aware, famous egomaniac.

He made this switch and tried to paint more separation between 'himself', Wilbur Soot the character, and DSMP!Wilbur. But often would use it as a shield for criticism. When he said rude / did things people assumed it was a joke.

That's why he got away with this for so long. He openly joked about biting Niki all the time and we, the fans, didn't bat an eye. It's not the audience's fault for having literal years of content telling us not to take him seriously.

Congrats Shelby! We love and support you!

Shelby said a lot during her stream, teetering from honorable to downright strange, and I want to address some of the issues. Before I say anything, I am still supportive of Shelby’s story, but this stream revealed a lot to me. I especially push Shelby supporters to read this, as this stream pushed MANY people I know to a neutral stance.

Shelby claimed having a depressive disorder just involved "feeling depressed", which is a harmful misconception that minimizes our struggles. Depression is more than feeling sad, and is categorized as being "different from regular mood changes and feelings about everyday life." It can involve constant hopelessness, angry outbursts, loss of motivation in most activities, and can lead to fluctuating weights, suicidal ideations, and self-sabotaging. To say "we all feel a little depressed sometimes" is to dismiss the lifelong struggles people with depression go through.

Shelby also implies that people with mental illness cannot change, and that recovery is not possible if your depression has hurt others. Not only is that an incredibly harmful idea to spread, it's blatantly incorrect. Just as habits and thoughts are trained throughout your life, they can also be untrained. There is genuine psychological basis in this, and to say that recovery is impossible is scientifically false. Personalities shift our entire lives, and changes in our physical and mental environments help us train new habits. This is part of the reason we try forming better schedules in new environments, and why a consistently stressful environment can bloom negative habits.

People don't chose to have mental illness, and if you're never taught to handle it, it can be extremely easy to hurt others. The most powerful tool to recovery is believing you can be better, and Shelby telling people to not even try is just enabling self-destructive people to hurt others for the rest of their lives. Change is a long process, but it's absolutely possible- Something as simple as a disruption in your life, a wake up call, and a drive to be a better person are the first steps to kickstarting change.

Shelby’s claims are very strange considering the rest of the stream. Earlier, she went on a rant about content creator’s influence on teenagers. She acknowledged teenagers are impressionable, and that it’s important to take care of those looking up to you. She recognized her fanbase was mainly teenagers, many of whom struggle from mental illness. It feels backwards to emphasize being a good role model before telling thousands of kids that their mental illness makes them a bad person. Her statement was about treating people with kindness no matter what, but she couldn’t keep that energy for people with depression.

Shelby herself was able to find help in therapy, so to deny that others should seek help feels selfish. She also confirmed on stream that she's seen the informative resources people sent her, and that she has ignored them. I can excuse the stereotyping if she's willing to be educated, but she's made it clear she believes she’s right. This is one thing I cannot defend, and I can't forgive her for slandering myself and thousands of struggling teens’ progress to their faces.

One final thing Shelby mentioned was that we should wait for evidence, and it's alright to feel doubtful. I want to revisit her statement with the current evidence we have, that I will take with a grain of salt by her own request. With the proof we have, nothing that Shelby claims comes across as abusive outside of the biting.

Shelby said she would get locked in his house at times. UK houses need a key to unlock the inside, and Wilbur likely only had one. While at his house, Shelby had access to her phone, and there were ways she could communicate with him or call for help if this was a problem. We have no evidence to claim that he trapped her. Shelby also stated her family never met Wilbur, because she had to travel to meet him. It wouldn't be unreasonable to stay in his house for an extended amount of time, and that was entirely her choice. She certainly might have felt neglected, but to claim that it was entrapment is baseless.

Wilbur was also busy with tours, absent nearly 200 days of the year. Feeling lonely makes sense, but raising that as abusive and holding it against him is ridiculous. As a famous musician, Wilbur has obligations that he legally can't drop. This was something she needed to be aware of when pursuing a relationship with him. She's allowed to wish things were different, but genuinely expecting him to abandon his lifelong passion is more than a little strange. This doesn't detract from her feelings, but to hold his legal obligations over his head when she should’ve known he'd be busy is unreasonable.

Shelby has also made a point of publicly shaming his hygiene. The inability to care for yourself and your space is a common symptom of depression. It was kind of her to clean, but her words imply she thinks he's just lazy. She explicitly notes that Wilbur didn’t expect her to clean, but that he waited for her to clean. This is weird to specify, as people with depression typically don't make plans to clean for long periods of time. She likely just assumed his inaction was a sign for her to do it, rather than something he struggled with and had no plans to do anyway. I don't think she was right for shaming his depressive habits, and I don't think he was right for dismissing her help. However, the comments he made about her cleaning very strongly imply that he never had plans to clean either way. This just reads as a choice to help out, not expectation or pressure.

Based on the evidence we have now, the points Shelby made just come across as her dating a mentally ill man and not being prepared for the challenges that come with that. Her family never met him, and he was very busy, so there wasn’t much outside opinion she could get. It's reasonable for her to feel neglected, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was intentional harm. It's important for both parties to get help, to communicate what happened and talk about their feelings. Wilbur stated he was committed to talking with her and addressing her concerns, while Shelby blocked him and refused to communicate, despite telling him she wanted to remain friends. All she's done since is reject his apology (even though he made a statement, not an apology, for legal reasons) and ignore his requests to speak. This avoidance to communicate is likely why the lines of consent and expectation were blurred in their relationship, as they've both expressed an inability to communicate.

This was not written to discredit Shelby's experience, I do believe she has trauma. However, you can absolutely be traumatized by relationships that weren't necessarily abusive. I've experienced years of PTSD from completely fabricated nightmares, and have trauma from repeated hallucinations of my ex. She’s not lying about her feelings- But between the contradictions, refusing to talk with Wilbur about an apology, and the insistence to "communicate” despite the fact that she blocked him, I can't support Shelby's actions.

I will always fight to uplift victims, and I am sympathetic of her story, but I can't defend someone who makes no effort to communicate or educate herself before speaking. Until either of them presents something that is beyond "he said, she said" I will remain neutral. I think they both deserve a chance to change and talk about this privately, and I will be waiting for a better response in the mean time. There was clearly miscommunication, and this was brought to us prematurely (shown by her contradicting statements.) I urge you all to look at the evidence and hopefully come to a similar conclusion. You can feel for someone's experiences and sympathize with their mental state without endorsing them. Stay safe, be kind, and don't jump to any conclusions. 🤍

"Shubble is not doing anything to punish the people sending death threats! She not tell them off!"

Also shubble:

What more can she do? Go to every account and tell both the Wilbur Soot fans and both her fans to knock it off individually. She literally didn't even ask anyone to do that. No one did.

I did this yesterday but forgot because tubbathon

//

NEW TALLULAH DESIGN!! FUCK WILBUR SOOT

Tried to make her more death family so I gave her a mumza style hat :)))

as an ex-mcyt/dsmp fan (can you believe it?), i am really disappointed in wilbur and his actions. the fact that they had a safe word, and he continued, that his friends came out of their shells and were willing to speak of their experiences with him around them and their friends…it’s upsetting.

+ his apology ?? absolute shit.

he was one of my inspirations in the form of music when their (lovejoy’s) first ep had came out and now all i want is to disassociate myself from all his content and any form of musical creation.

i hope many are distanced from him now. and i hope the victims, such as shelby, niki, even rue (tommy’s roommate), are safe now, and more joyful and free now that they’ve talked about the situation.

send love to shelby.

love, mildew <3

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING ABUSE MENTION⚠️

thought i’d come on here and say that if you still support wilbur soot after what he did to shelby, unfollow and stay off my page, i don’t want anyone here who supports an abuser

If ya'll didn't know... AhEm...

SUPPORT SHELBY

i'm so fucking pissed at W!lbur oml. not only did he abuse Shelby both physically and emotionally, but that "apology" was dog shit. he entirely undermines what happened, talking only about the biting and not all of the other shit he did, and he never once named her. i think that's what did it for me in that statement. he wouldn't even say their name, he made it entirely about himself. she is not "this person" she is not "my ex" she is Shelby, and he wouldn't even say that. his ace race bit was longer than that sad excuse for an apology. I can't believe i supported him for so long, i can't believe i actually thought he was a good person, i can't believe i used his messages about mental health and sexism and standing up to authority as good examples. fuck that guy and everyone who continues to support him. removing lovejoy and wilbur songs from my playlist sucked, but what sucks more is what Shelby and others close to him had to go through. Bilzo and Freddy both spoke about seeing him manipulate people close to them, and i hope that those individuals are okay. stand with victims of domestic abuse. stand with victims of manipulation. stand with victims point blank.

trishzerothree believe Wilbur Soot should be forgiven because he earned his career honestly and because he there comfort streamer

Seen people arguing with them about it and they keep making up excuses about it. Even blaming shelby

???

I think you asked the wrong person but yeah, Wilbur supporters are delusional, some even call Shelby an abuser

Wait

What happened with Wilbur?

Oof, I am sorry you gotta find out like this.

To make a long story painfully short and I do encourage you to do more research into it if you want more details.

Shelby Shubble revealed on stream that she had been abused by an ex-partner of hers in the past and it was heavily implied it was Wilbur, despite her not saying his name. A couple days later Wilbur came on Twitter with an apology so unbelievably shit and self centered that he reunited half the mcyt community and got basically everyone and their grandma super pissed at him. And now in the fallout a lot of people have stopped listening to lvjy and his music, he got kicked out of his own discord server and r/wilbursoot is now dedicated to Wilbur Wright instead

POV: *your watching the Wilbur Soot fans scramble an argument together, even though you know that if he was innocent he would of streamed by now with proper evidence (but we all know he hasn't got any)*

Hello my few and far between following.

As I'm sure everyone knows, wilbur has been outed as an abuser and did not take accountability for his actions but instead gave a lack-luster, disappointing, and disgusting excuse for an "apology".As such, I no longer support him or anyone who still remains affiliated with him.

However I've chosen to keep my own art up for the time being. But ofcourse I will no longer drawing him or any bursonas.

Support Shelby and always believe victims.

"why hasn't tommy responded" bro literally had surgery on the 16th