Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard predicted young male voters flocking to Trump

Yahoo

4 days ago

History will no doubt look upon the outcome of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard with the same skepticism now applied to O.J. Simpson's 1995 acquittal after charges of his killing his wife and her friend. The 2022 trial, in which Depp sued Heard for defamation after she made anonymous allusions to domestic violence in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, was a farce — by design. Depp hired publicist Melissa Nathan, who famously bragged she could "bury anyone," to seed social media networks with misogynist rumors about Heard, who had been 25 when she started dating the 48-year-old movie star. The New York Times later reported on Nathan's alleged tactics, based on court documents from a similar campaign against actress Blake Lively. The strategy, according to the Times, is "waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era," which succeeded when "online criticism of the actress skyrocketed."
The evidence in Depp v. Heard, in a sane world, should have favored Heard. His claim to damages was that Heard's op-ed led to him losing his lead role in "Pirates of the Caribbean." A Disney executive denied this on the witness stand, and Depp's longtime talent agent testified that Depp's erratic behavior was what soured his reputation on set. As Jessica Winter at the New Yorker wrote during the trial, Heard produced "a trove of text messages, witness statements, and photos of injuries — which, she says, corroborate her allegations of abuse." Depp had previously sued a British tabloid for calling him a "wife-beater," and he lost, even though British law favors plaintiffs in defamation cases to an outrageous degree. The judge described Heard's side of the story as "substantially true." Winter continues:
There are also Depp's texts sent before he married Heard—in which he calls her a 'worthless hooker,' jokes about how he'll 'smack the ugly c—t around,' and, at one point, shares a brainstorm with the actor Paul Bettany: 'Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will f—k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she's dead.' There's footage of Depp trashing a kitchen and audio recordings of him telling Heard, 'Shut the f—k up. . . . Don't f——g pretend to be authoritative with me. You don't exist.' Depp, to review, is the plaintiff in the defamation trial, and the one whom most of social media is rooting for.
As that last sentence suggests, the case ended up being tried in the court of public opinion, where the preposterous story that Depp was the real victim took hold. Instructions to the jurors to ignore the crescendo of support for Depp outside the courtroom didn't matter, leading to a $15 million judgment in his favor. It's not clear how much of the pro-Depp clamor was seeded by his hired guns, but in the end, they were pushing on an open door. As journalist Kat Tenbarge reported for NBC at the time, content creators for TikTok and YouTube found that spreading sexist rumors about Heard was like printing money. There was an immense amount of public hunger in 2022 to forget all the lessons of the #MeToo movement, and instead fall back into the comfortable belief that sexism is a myth, women just make up stories for attention, and it's accused men who are the real victims.This week is the third anniversary of the day that a jury favored Depp over Heard. Looking back, the whole situation can be read as a portent for the 2024 election of Donald Trump. The public outpouring of support for Depp reflected a widespread willingness to choose self-delusion over facing hard truths, especially about the dangers of male domination. For a lot of people, it's exhausting hearing about how many women are beaten, raped, killed, harassed, and otherwise oppressed. It can feel much easier to believe it's all just made up. It's simpler to believe that ours is a just system, even as men still hold the lion's share of power and money. It's comforting to imagine that men react to all their privilege with grace and gratitude, and ignore the reality where all too many abuse women because they can. Trump was selling the same message to his voters: Wouldn't it be easier to live in a fantasy where patriarchy is all kittens and rainbows? Isn't it easier to live in the lie than confront the hard truth?
In May, the gold standard for post-election analysis, the Catalist report, was released. It affirmed what preliminary reports had shown: there was a huge swing to the right among young men in 2024. "In 2024, the gender gap among 18 to 29-year-olds widened to 17 points," the report explains. In 2020, 55% of men in the youngest bracket voted for Joe Biden. In 2024, only 46% voted for Kamala Harris. Early exit polls were bad enough, but this data shows even more how much younger men have been bamboozled by the MAGA propaganda machine into voting against their self-interest on issues like education costs, future employment, and clean energy.
Much attention, for good reason, has been paid to the role that social media influencers, podcasters, and other online content creators played in this shift. Some present as apolitical entertainers, such as Joe Rogan, the Nelk brothers, or Theo Von. Others, like Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro, wear their right-wing politics more proudly. But all share a view that men are the oppressed ones in our society, supposedly denied their ability to bro out and be their full manly selves. And while some may be coy about who is behind this supposed oppression of men, realistically, there can only be one answer: women. Or, more specifically, what's harshing men's vibe is women claiming the right to be treated as equals and to be safe from male violence.
Claims that men are "innocent" in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt are rarely about a sincere misapprehension of the facts. Instead, it's an oblique statement of an unspeakable but widely held belief that violence against women shouldn't be a crime, especially for high-status perpetrators. We see this with Trump. He's been found liable by a civil jury for sexual assault and is on tape bragging about exactly the kind of crime multiple women have accused him of. His supporters are aware of this, but ultimately, they don't seem to care. They lash out at the alleged victims for speaking out, believing women have a duty to endure men's abuse in silence.
This also helps explain the unhinged rage that exploded across the internet at Heard. The more evidence she produced against Depp, the angrier the mob got. People desperately wanted to believe the charming actor whose movies they've enjoyed their whole lives is a wonderful guy. When presented with evidence to the contrary, it was just easier to shoot the messenger than grapple with the uncomfortable reality that the world is often more complicated and uglier than we'd like it to be. They wanted Heard to shut up, not because they didn't believe her, but because they did.
The far-right website Daily Wire spent an astonishing amount of money promoting anti-Heard propaganda during the trial, which confused many people at the time. The Daily Wire is a political outfit, so why would they care about celebrity gossip that doesn't seem to have any partisan value to it? But they understood that Heard v. Depp did benefit Republicans, especially Trump. The entire circus was useful for convincing people that it's okay to choose disinformation over the truth, especially when the facts make you feel bad. It all goes back to George Orwell's insight with the "two-minute hate" in "1984." Self-delusion takes practice. Defending Depp was boot camp for the real test: supporting the lie that Donald Trump would make a fine president.