Hanged. Burned alive. Drowned. We’ve all heard the stories, haven’t we? About the Witch Trials. About the women (and the men) tried for and found guilty of witchcraft in and around the 1600s.
We’ve all probably thought to ourselves about the mob mentality that would lead normal people to turn and forsake their own. Looking back, we might even think it’s something completely absurd, something that could never happen to us, let alone happen now, in modern day.
But it can and it is.
Thousands, if not millions, have found themselves caught up in the mob mentality that has caused, what at first glance seems to be, the entire internet to turn on Amber Heard, treating the very public defamation case brought against her by her ex husband as nothing but meme fodder while she recounts harrowing details of sexual abuse and physical violence. A modern day victim of a highly public, highly disturbing witch hunt.
Well known by now as the ex wife of actor Johnny Depp, Amber Heard famously filed for a TRO with a visible bruise on her cheek, ahead of their divorce in 2016.
Her allegations of domestic violence were greeted with shock. Even then, she was not believed. I recall seeing a lot of people denying that the allegations against such a beloved actor could ever be true. There was no way Johnny Depp — even with his well-known chequered past including heavy drug use, trashing hotel rooms and attacking paparazzi — could be capable of such violence. The narrative that Amber Heard was “blackmailing” Johnny Depp was being introduced to the media almost immediately, alongside familiar buzzwords like “gold digger”, “manipulative” and “whore”.
“Let’s start with the truth — the cold, hard truth. When a woman comes forward to speak out about injustice or her suffering, instead of aid, respect and support, she will be met with hostility, skepticism and shame. Her motives will be questioned and her truth ignored.” — Amber Heard, 2016 letter addressed to her “silent sisters everywhere”.
Despite Amber’s own friends coming forward to say they witnessed the aftermath of an incident in which Depp threw a phone in Amber’s direction with their own eyes, and saw the damage to her face after it hit her, they too were labelled liars and part of an orchestrated “hoax” against Johnny. The makeup artist who saw and covered up the bruising on Heard’s face before a television interview was written off. Those who spoke up in his defence, however, were labelled as brave heroes and best friends despite most, if not all, being on Depp’s payroll — while some said Amber’s witnesses were paid off to go along with the lies. The same reasoning was never applied to them.
When text messages between Amber and Johnny’s former assistant and friend, Stephen Deuters, appeared in the papers, the immediate reaction from Stephen was to question their authenticity. He labelled the texts as “doctored”, “fake”, another work of manipulation by Amber who apparently wanted nothing but money and fame.
By the time the 2020 UK trial against The Sun newspaper came around, Stephen denied saying anything about them previously and admitted the texts were real, however said they were apparently a means of “placating” Amber. These texts have since seemingly been buried by Depp’s team and so far have not been allowed to be shown in the current court proceedings in Faifax, Virginia — and you have to wonder why that would be.
“He’s done this many times before … and I always stay.” — text message from Amber Heard to Johnny Depp’s assistant Stephen Deuters in 2014.
Until recently, the allegations of sexual violence in the relationship between Heard and Depp were never publicly mentioned or detailed and, in the UK trial, she was given the decency to keep them private. However, during this current very public, televised live trial, Amber was forced to recount horrifying incidents of sexual violence in fairly graphic detail in front of the whole world, with the aftermath nothing but a triggering bog for those online to wade through. Certain details of Heard’s sexual violence allegations were taken and spread throughout social media, with many joking they didn’t see anything wrong with what Johnny Depp supposedly did and that she should have been “thanking” him, the insinuated reason being that he is perceived as attractive. Surely, no matter what side you may find yourself on, using specific details of alleged sexual violence that way is deplorable.
It often seems that you cannot go onto the internet without being bombarded with victim blaming rhetoric, falsities about abuse and trauma, or disgusting hashtags labelling Amber Heard a “psychopath”, “turd”, “an abuser”. Hashtags that are pro-Depp are being used to smear Amber’s name further with baseless accusations, misinformation, half truths and straight up lies. Online, people who have never even clicked on a single video or looked up anything to do with the case are being pushed like never before to consume it — specifically, to watch videos making fun of Heard’s testimony on the stand, her body language and expressions being picked apart while pushing misinformation and lies. Johnny Depp’s time on the stand was treated much differently — nothing but praise as he’s seen laughing, dramatically acting out his mother’s suicide attempt, and mocking a lawyer from Amber’s legal team who was questioning him. He even went so far as to mockingly question this laywer’s use of the word ‘megapint’ in an attempt to make fun of him — despite this being a word Johnny himself used during the UK trial, that Amber’s lawyer was merely quoting.
“I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms Heard by Mr Depp have been proved to the civil standard.” — part of Justice Nicol’s ruling in Depp’s 2020 case against The Sun newspaper.
Psychologist Shannon Curry met with Amber Heard for 12 hours for Johnny Depp’s team after “interviewing” at his home over dinner and drinks. She diagnosed Amber with two personality disorders and doesn’t believe Amber to have PTSD. Pychologist Dawn Hughes, testifying for Amber Heard, said that she does believe Amber to have PTSD and doesn’t believe her to have any personality disorders. She met with Amber for 29 hours and said she showed “very clear psychological, traumatic effects.”
Curry was believed without fail as her diagnosis of Histrionic Personality Disorder only validated the online mob chasing at Amber’s heels with their pitchforks, willing her to fall. Now she could be branded “hysterical” and “crazy” and this ‘diagnosis’ could be pointed out if anybody tried to argue. Hughes’ assessment was completely ruled out by these same people, who went on to bomb her online WebMD page with negative reviews in the wake of her testimony. This is a pattern as the same thing was done with the legal team representing Amber. Anything that doesn’t fit the narrative — anything that supports Heard — is simply cast aside.
Those who speak out in favour of Amber Heard online are dogpiled and cyberbullied by Depp supporters, calling them all sorts of disgusting names, mocking any personal trauma they may have mentioned, and sending them death threats. When these people restrict their reply sections, to protect their own mental wellbeing, they are laughed at, told this means they ‘know’ they are ‘in the wrong’, and called cowards.
It’s everywhere, it’s loud, and everyone seems to be falling for it.
The age-old story of a manipulative succubus who lured and tricked a grown man into leaving his long-term partner and their two children is one we have seen over and over again and there doesn’t seem to be any way to rewrite it.
Amber Heard did everything “right”. She did everything a victim is “told” they’re “supposed” to do. She documented various instances of abuse. She has witnesses. She left. It still doesn’t seem to be good enough. There is always someone waiting in the wings, lurking, ready to pull something out and scream “ha! gotcha! look! she’s a liar after all!” Most of the time, these are things that have been misrepresented, usually saying an image is fake or from a different year than it actually is, giving no proof of the things they’re saying. The internet then takes this and runs with it, and the posts debunking these things rarely reach viral status.
Most of the “Witch Tests” of old were utterly impossible to pass, like the swimming tests where they were bound and thrown into a body of water — sinking meant they were innocent. It also meant they often drowned. Witch’s marks were looked for on the accused’s body, though conveniently it was believed the marks could change shape, colour, etc — things like moles, scars, and birthmarks were labelled as proof of the witch’s mark. No matter what, the goalpost could always be shifted to accomodate the notion that they are guilty. The same thing is currently being done to Amber Heard. No matter what she produces, in the court of public opinion it’s branded a lie, fake, impossible — the goalpost keeps being moved further and further away and nothing will ever be good enough, in their minds, to call her innocent.
The hope that we, as a society, would have moved past this disturbing pack mentality has all but dwindled as we watch the mob move, snapping at the heels of the woman we march through the town square towards the gallows.
The message this sends to those watching is this — nobody will believe a word you say no matter what proof you may have, your trauma will be laughed at and delighted in, any injuries you sustained will be picked apart and called fake. If you do not look, feel, and act exactly the way that we want you to, we will not hesitate to sacrifice you the first chance we get.
