Reminder: some of your favorite creators will inevitably turn out to be bad people, who have abused their power and innate privilege by abusing other people. But just because they’re your favorite creators doesn’t mean you have any right to dismiss the victims when they speak up.

Of course it sucks. Of course you’ve looked up to his art; of course your own art is, to a not insignificant degree, informed by his work. Of course you did not know how he treats other people. Of course, and of course, and of course.

But you know now.

You know some of it now—“some,” simply because for one or two people who speak up there are likely more than a few others who don’t feel as safe, which is obviously valid—and now you need to be much, much better than he (whoever the “he” is—no shortage in bad, abusive people).

Burn the temple. Shatter the icons. Do what you can to build something better—something that will make others feel safer than they would around the old one.

And, most importantly: remember that even your favorite piece of art—that one movie that changed your life, that one comic that defined who you are going to be—is not more valuable than the people hurt by the hand (or brain, or heart, or what have you) that created it.