Antis are contradictory as hell

One of the things taught in art schools is that not only is it good to use references, but that it's also a necessity, especially when you either don't know what an object looks like, or if you do know you're unable to form a concrete image of the thing in your mind

Antis seem to have no problem with this. Hell, most of them seem to take the idea of using a reference image as just flat out copying the image

AI, I think does something similar, (correct me if I'm wrong) but antis throw a fit that the AI is stealing other people's artwork

And here's another thing. I can use midjourney's style reference plus link to another image, and describe it to the best of my ability, but MJ has never spit out an exact replica of the image

So according to antis, copying and or tracing an image of say Sonic is totally okay and not at all stealing

Using an AI to create fan art of Sonic performing at a heavy metal concert, using an image of Sonic as a reference is stealing and you should be put to death

Like I know antis were never good at making sense, but holy shit