Anth's predilection for kids, the catfishing, along with his racism was well known but overlooked for years, way before his firing because he was considered to be the funny one. People actually believed his version of events of taking pictures of the scaffolding lol. People hated Opie and pointed out all his flubs and "ruining the fun/Gregshells" every day. In fact, there was only one or two users who liked and or defended Operater.
There were campaigns to threaten cancelling SiriusXM if Anth wasn't rehired and there was even an in-person protest. Literally 3 retards showed up with placards, and one of them was Bobo.
Everyone assumed that Opie and the Worm would continue to do the show until their contract ended so Jim could go join Anth. Opie and Jim re-signing to a new contract was seen as a betrayal by Opie and not Jim because because Jim was still liked and needed access to celebrities.
ChildPoundMedia started with quite the buzz with Anth's ballwashers actually staying "for the price of a coffee I want to support Ant for the years of laughs". As we can see it went no where.
As
@Gay Faggot. said, Anth had the sub's full support after the firing and the roast truly was the turning point for "Antshells". It was
@captain_kamala (I am pretty sure) who found Sue's Venmo page that had a listing of a donation made by Anth, then all the MySpace pictures form the same hotel room and Sue playing with Anth's gun started getting posted. Anth posted on the sub to say that we were assholes, and then the guestbook shenanigans of Ro's funeral service drive him absolutely insane.
The $60k Chip Chipperson GoFundMe, and having Any Schumer on his advice show so she could defend herself against joke thieving were the turning points for the Worm.