Depp-Heard incident once again exposes decaying collective mannerism

The Johnny Depp - Amber Heard trial is finally over, resulting an overwhelming victory for Depp, the internet’s new found men’s right icon and a symbol of hope amidst the ‘sweeping invasion of feminism,’ and shattering the last bit of credibility of Amber Heard, the most beautiful woman ‘scientifically,’ even though the tilte is as much absurd as it sounds.

The opening line is long, complicated, and somewhat mind-boggling on purpose; that is supposed to be a representation of the long and arduously complex trial - both inside and outside the court.

The hashtag JusticeForJohnny has a staggering eighteen billion views on TikTok, and its Amber Heard counterpart has eight million, even the stunning number of views looks measly now.

The trial has had the highest viewership for the last six weeks, and it tops some really important topics like Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the US Supreme Court’s attempt to criminalise abortion; and it took a mass shooting in a school to relegate the trial to the second place in terms of viewerships.

A perfect example of a lose-lose battle where the murkiness of all the details that have come out at broad daylight will keep haunting the two actors for a long time; and major studios will not be betting their money against them in the foreseeable future.

Long story short

However, the trial has exposed something very disturbing about us as, a collective group of people, and that is not what we were supposed to become.

To provide a brief background to the case: in May 2016, Amber Heard accused Depp of physically abusing her during their four-year relationship.

In October 2018, Heard published an op-ed in the Washington Post highlighting her own status as a victim of abuse. Depp sued her for libel, and she responded in kind.

Depp was among the biggest stars in global entertainment in that period, best known for playing Jack Sparrow in the hugely successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, went through a huge blow due to Heard's allegations, amplified by the ‘MeToo’ movement, which led to calls for him to be boycotted.

Depp was starring in the Harry Potter franchise films Fantastic Beasts as the antagonist Grindelwald, and he did a blimey good job depicting him in the first instalment Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but the popular voice was against the ‘alleged wife-beater’ and he was dropped in favour of Mads Mikkelson in the sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (well, Mads did a equally great job, so no point in hating him).

The mob did not stop, and the case got into the forefront of the MeToo movement, and at the height of it, Depp, too, had fallen from grace just like Kevin Spacey and Kian Lawley.

He had been dropped from the proposed sixth instalment of the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise; and that came out as a shock to the fans (well, not the ones who were burning him at stakes).

The wind turns

However, the whole case took a spin at its head this year, when the court began its investigation, and it found that Amber had been lying all along. Not one piece of evidence pointed at the allegation of domestic violence, instead, it established her as the abuser, and the evidences were a bit too graphic.

Now, Johnny has won the lawsuit mostly, gaining fifteen million dollars; while Amber won two million dollars for Johnny’s previous attorney who had defamed her. The internet is happy, the mainstream media is not, and according to the memers and shitposters, it costs fifteen million dollars for taking a dump at your partner’s bed.

Where we are failing as a common man

However, one thing has remained under the radar. What have we, as the common people, become?

Looking back in 2018, everyone was chanting ‘Boycott Johnny Depp,’ yet there was no proven crime. The actor was put on the crucifix, trialled by the media – especially the liberal ones. The collective conscience was against him.

On the other hand, Amber was bagging films and major roles with flying colours. She was hailed as the icon of domestic violence prevention. Toxic masculinity and patriarchy were ousted out the doors, and feminism was vicotorious, or so we believed.

Fast forward to 2022, the whole internet is united against Amber, the opportunist, lying woman who had deformed a man’s life. Team Johnny is now heavier than the population of Bangladesh, perhaps. He is praised, showered with love.

Because the evidence is showing that HE is the victim. ‘Believe the woman’ has turned into ‘Believe the man.’

The majority of the people jumped boats while he was winning. Amber is no longer a feminist icon, in fact, the feminists are trying to forget their support for her. She has done irreparable damage to the movement and domestic violence prevention.

Now, the women are more vulnerable just because one prominent feminist was a pathological liar who wanted to cash fame by burning her husband at stakes.

Street mobs, online mobs - where’s the difference?

Cancel culture and mob justice have become the online beating the pickpocket at streets. And it is alarming, at many layers. Jumping into conclusions and being woke is never the solution, people are not that good at heart, even though the mob is unbelievably gullible. For one extreme to another.

Amber may cry about her defeat being the undermining of the feminism and women rights movement, and may have her allies with her; and Johnny may be hailed as the popular folk-hero of men’s rights movement, the loss is ours.

Whether it is for the collective distrust at the victims, or losing the historic MeToo movement to a person like Amber, or emptying the barrel at the alleged wife-beater without any proven evidence, or simply to be taken for a gullible, conforming mass of morons.

We may all hate Amber or make memes with her crying face (which was an atrocious attempt to gain sympathy), we have unknowingly proven that deep down in our primitive parts of brain, we derive pleasure by seeing others ruin their lives, getting robbed of everything they toiled to build, and walking away with their heads lying low. Nobody won.

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