Don't Attack, Create!

In a follow-up to March’s anti-AI attacks on the novel Shy Girl, the Mob goes after an animation creator. This time with death threats.

What happened to director Jorge R. Gutierrez in the last week of May 2026 is too important to ignore. It's the Shy Girl controversy on steroids, complete with death threats and racist attacks.

And here's the part everyone is glossing over: the mob that mobilized to "protect" animation artists destroyed a Prime Video animated series that would have employed animation artists and production staff. They killed real jobs. Real opportunities. Real paychecks. In an industry that is hemorrhaging both.

Let's talk about what actually got destroyed here. Because the narrative that the mob "protected animation jobs" is contradictory.

Punky Duck was a series greenlit by one of the biggest streaming platforms on the planet, Prime Video. It would have employed people. Storyboard artists. Character designers. Voice actors.

So what was the plan? Destroy a new show, chill a new funding program, and threaten the career of one of the industry's most distinctive voices. And somehow, through this destruction, protect animation jobs? That math doesn't work. You cannot protect jobs by eliminating killing projects.

The most effective thing the animation community could do right now is make more projects. More shows. More movies. More original stories reaching more audiences on more platforms. That builds the industry, demand, and careers.

It Is Nobody's Business How You Tell Your Story

This is a hill I am willing to die on: How you tell your story is your business, nobody else’s.

The anti-AI pattern is identical every time. The internet explodes; the creator folds and apologizes publicly; the mob feels justified; and then uses attacks again next time.

Every time someone posts "I promise to do better moving forward" under duress, the mob gets stronger. It learns that threats work. And somewhere, a show doesn't get made, a team doesn't get hired, and an audience never gets the story they would have loved.

Gutierrez said making a show this fast "feels like the most rebellious, punk rock thing you can do right now."

He was right. The most revolutionary thing you can do in Hollywood is refuse to wait for permission. The people who ran him off the project think they're the rebels. They're not. They are the gatekeepers, with torches instead of suits.

The next time you want to attack a creator online, remember freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. Thanks to the Constitution, you can say anything. However, threatening someone online is against federal law. And employers do not react kindly to their employees intimidating people. Think about it. Would you want to work with someone who had advocated harming someone publicly? Death threats are serious business and making them come with serious consequences.

The Bigger Picture the Mob Is Missing

AI animated movies and TV shows are already being created and watched all over the world.​

Just like readers, audiences don't care how you make your movie. They care about a good story. The mob screaming at Jorge Gutierrez on social media is not going to stop AI from becoming a standard part of animation production. It is only going to determine whether American creators lead that process or get left behind by it. And whether American animation artists have jobs, or watch that work go overseas.

Create Make Build

Every creator, whether you're an animator, novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, or a podcaster, the most powerful thing you can do right now is create. Not attack other creators. Not spend time online. Not worry about what AI is doing to your industry.

Build your audience. One episode, one chapter, one short film at a time. The creators who will still be standing in five years are not the ones who spent those five years attacking each other on social media. They're the ones who stayed at their desks, kept making things, and kept finding their people. The people that will survive are the creators that keep creating and building their audience.

The only people you have to answer to are your audience. Those are the people you serve. Everyone else is noise.

Don't let the mob be the new gatekeepers. And don't be one yourself.

Dive Deeper

For how to deal with negative press and online attacks check out the Dive Deeper section of this article.

Catch Up Corner

​Brainstorm Your Story with the Snowflake Method​

​The Hook: A Complete Guide for Screenwriters & Novelists​

​Loglines vs. Taglines: What's the Difference?​

Cheers,

Lindsey

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