The Only Interesting Part of Depp vs Heard, Is People’s Reaction to It

For anyone that remembers all those years ago when this began. The general feeling four years ago, was in fact that Johnny Depp was the abuser.

For anyone that only took note of the case in 2020, this may come as a shock, but Depp was severely hated in 2018 with him even having to leave the cast of the film he was currently working on. I remember on all social medias Depp had become a villain, and many were saying how this has sullied their love of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It's understandable that this was the popularly held opinion at the time, due to the emergence of #metoo and all the other allegations coming out that turned out to be true.

This all changed almost overnight, when the Daily Mail leaked a phone call between Depp and Heard exposing her as being manipulative, and fully aware that she can use the #metoo momentum as a woman to come out on top if they were to go to court. The most damning quote of all:

"Tell the world Johnny, tell them. I Johnny Depp, a man, I'm a victim too of domestic violence, and see how many people believe or side with you"

With the initial reaction to Depp being so quick to condemn him and see him be destroyed, the reaction to this news was going to be just as violent, if not more when you add in all those MRAs that have been waiting for a woman to be caught out as a liar.

[blocked out a gore image of the tip of his finger sliced off]

People spent the next the next 2 years with this kind of energy when it came to Amber Heard, and rightfully so. She expressed that she was aware of how society typically sides with women because of their size compared to men, and the fact that so many men have been found out to abuse their partners in the past. Then when you add on the fact that she seemed to be abusive as well, in which you can see above what she did to him, then yeah, you're deservedly getting shit on for it. Even the people that propagate #metoo were angry at Heard, because of the damage she was doing to their cause.

Now, I'm not convinced that she's made it harder for real victims to come forward, as opposed to manipulators like herself. Though, I will say that I think the swing back was over the top and personally I don't care about Depp's personal life, and I didn't even know who Amber Heard was. So in any case, I typically don't care about what's going on with them, but I find the public opinion shifts very interesting. We've gone from 'I hope Johnny Depp is cast into the sea' to 'boycott Amber Heard she is garbage', and in my opinion, we're going to go back to something along the lines of 'Depp is abusive and bullying the real victim'. In fact, it looks like the swing back is about to begin.

This should serve as a good lesson for anyone who's too scared to voice their thoughts because they're not popular. Just look at these popular opinions above and see how they've flip-flopped back and forwards now. That should tell you that whilst you may feel your opinion is unpopular right now, it could be something you're praised for in the future. Argumentum ad populum is a fallacy, after all, and reality is only what people decide it is.