dream · @dreamwastaken
12th Oct 2020 from TwitLonger
I thought I would make a detailed post addressing past controversies of mine
I thought I would make a detailed post addressing all of my past controversies because as a large content creator they get brought up all the time, and I hate seeing it. As a human being I've grown a lot over the last 21 years I've been alive, and I feel like my most growth has been over the last year or so. Talking to fans from all different cultures, religions, races, and more has really widened my perspective on a lot of things.
As a large creator, people who dislike my content or me, or aren't well educated on who I am tend to make posts about past things I've said or make claims that I'm a racist or that I'm against LGBTQ+ or that I don't care about my fans and so on. I thought I would make this as a response to all of them, as well as give my supporters reassurance and ammo in order to stick by their beliefs and their support without feeling like a bad person.
It's a long read, but if you have any problems with me as a person, it's probably due to one of these things and I suggest you read them. If you don't and you support me, it's still good to read that way if anyone says one of these things about me you can know the truth yourself, and even possibly correct them, or at least just have an informed opinion.
1. Fidget Spinners
- During Sapnap's Love Or Host show I tweeted out "She has a fidget spinner get her the FRICK out". People are using this to say that I am ableist, and that it was attack on her for having ADHD.
I had no intention of offending anyone, and I deleted the tweet very shortly after. I have ADHD myself and I had no knowledge that she had ADHD or that that was why she was using the fidget spinner on the stream. I didn't think about the fact that that could be the case, I was just tweeting a lot of jokes and I thought that having a fidget spinner was a meme from many years ago. Since I read her post about why she had it, I learned and I deleted the tweet. I realize it was disrespectful but that wasn't my intention at all. Obviously, I would never make the same mistake again, and it was genuinely just a mistake that I have since been educated on.
2. Native American "War Cry"
- During a Dream SMP live streamed battle a few months ago, someone donated asking me to do a "war cry" and me and all my friends mimicked the "victory screech" from SpongeBob. People have since educated me that this type of war cry was offensive, and that it's appropriating Native American culture.
I had no intention of offending anyone, and before I was educated I had never known that doing that type of war cry was offensive. Initially I responded very poorly tweeting saying that it was just SpongeBob and to screw off, and I very quickly deleted my tweets. I realized that I responded very poorly and that I had to make a more proper response. So I live streamed, I apologized for it, and I explained my perspective. Since I have been educated I've also become much more in touch with the Native American side of my family and I really think the experience turned out much better for myself and overall made me a better person. I shouldn't have been so quick to defend my actions, and I've been careful to not make the same mistake since then.
3. I supposedly hate my fans
- I'm pretty sure this one originated from the "block list" where me and around 10 other creators blocked a bunch of people on twitter that we collectively deemed as "problematic". A lot of fans were upset due to this and very hurt.
This is something that really just didn't turn out as expected, there was a lot of flaws to the idea and it's something that I think every creator involved regrets. The intentions were good, but the execution was horrible and due to me being the biggest creator involved obviously I will probably get the most flack. I know some of the people that got blocked are still upset about it, and I'm sorry to them and anyone else affected. However, I love my fans and my stans, and I'm one of the few creators out there who actually sticks up for their stans frequently and involves myself a lot with the community. I have a second account to constantly interact with them, I have an art account to interact and give attention to the communities artists, I have a PO Box, and I send letters back to every fan/stan who sends me anything, and much more. I think that most people who spread this rumor are just mis-informed, or uneducated on how our community works. I love all my fans and stans and I think that our community is one of the most amazing communities out there.
4. "R word"
- Back around a year ago, A6D got into drama involving using the "R word". I defended him when he was getting attention for it, and I said that I didn't think it was a big deal.
In the gaming community for many years the "r word" was very normalized and I had no idea there was a problem with it. I didn't use the word myself, because I didn't curse much in general, but I did know a lot of people who did. I felt really bad seeing my friend getting attacked for something I thought was normal, and so I defended him. Since then, I was educated and I realized how the word had evolved over time and how it can be very offensive and hurtful especially to people who are neuro divergent. I never want to marginalize the struggles of anyone especially people that have gone through a history of abuse and neglect. I encouraged many people I've heard use the word to stop using it since then, and I have never used it. I realized back then that I made a mistake and that I shouldn't talk about things that I'm not educated on. I think that it's a good thing to encourage growth and education, and that's something that I really do my best to do. It's been almost a year since then, and I feel like I've separated myself from it.
5. Slavery joke
- Over a year ago I made a tweet of a meme that had a picture of a villager and said "stonks" behind the villager. It said "slavery" above the villager and was a joke about villagers being slaves. I believe it was a meme I reposted from the PewDiePie subreddit during his Minecraft series.
This is something that I recently deleted and that I tweeted out apologizing for. I said then that Minecraft is a raceless, genderless game, and that I had no intention to offend anyone with it. Obviously the joke was a long time ago before I had many subscribers, and I didn't think about it offending anyone. I just thought the word "slavery" meant when someone is doing labor for free, which is what villagers do. It was just a bad distasteful meme that I reposted a long time ago, and it's been deleted. I'm sorry for anyone that was offended by it, it was just a dumb joke that I didn't think twice about.
6. Cryaotic
- People are saying that I support a "pedo" by having my twitter username be "DreamWasTaken" and my avatar be a faceless guy with a smile mask. Apparently a user "cryaotic" went by "crywastaken" and also had a smile mask, and this person allegedly turned out to be a bad person.
I didn't know who cry was when I made my username on twitter, I just made it that because the username "dream" was actually taken. My avatar was made by my ex girlfriend and I had no idea it would turn into a mask at the time. There's probably stream clips of me saying I didn't know who cry was over a year ago. So this is just a misunderstanding.
7. Minecraft Squid Mob Vote
- During the Minecraft mob vote, I went crazy in support for the "Glow Squid". I tweeted out saying that I would follow anyone who votes for Glow Squid, and I retweeted the polls a few times in order to support the vote. People are upset because this was "rigging" the vote and a mis-use of my platform.
This is one that I didn't realize was as serious as it was made out to be. I was supporting the squid as a joke, as I had seen a lot of other creators supporting the squid and other mobs too. I took it too far and I regret that, but I didn't have evil intentions. I didn't really care what mob was added, I thought they were all kind of meh. I just thought it would be fun to support a "team" and try and make your "team" win. This is just another learning experience as I realize now that there's just some things you should be really careful about using your influence for and especially how you use it. I regret saying that I would follow people, and even really "campaigning" for the squid. Was just a dumb joke that got out of hand.
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Anyway, that's really it I think for all the "controversies" that I've been a part of. I'm sure there will be many more over the years, but I'm ready to learn from my experiences and become a better person. I will continue to learn, continue to educate others, and continue to promote happiness and equality on my platform. I truly do my best to use my platform for good, and I'm sorry to anyone that I've upset in the past.
Just to make it an outright statement: I am pro LGBTQ+, I am not racist and I don't think that any race is superior than another, I love and support people from all religions, and I support and love my stans and stans of any creator or individual including k-pop, other Minecraft creators, bands, musical artists etc. I love you guys and thank you to anyone who read this whole thing.
I know I've made shitty apologies before for different things and it's hard to find out my true views on things, so I thought I'd put my views all in one place.