# Why all the hate against Amber Heard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545 "2022-04-27T14:23:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/61 "2022-04-28T17:00:40Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I find this somewhat reminiscent of stories where the narrative (and sometimes the reality) is “wokeness gone mad”, typically some college professor getting censured or fired or something like that. Stories that are similarly pushed with glee by those with an agenda. Yes, precisely. I don’t have anything to say to the rest of your post, as it doesn’t appear related to anything I’ve posted. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/62 "2022-04-28T17:02:54Z")
I didn’t intend to imply that any of that was a response or rebuttal to anything specific that you said - just subsequent thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/63 "2022-04-28T19:04:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m seeing tons and tons of videos of Depp being charming and vulnerable on the witness stand, and lots of reactions pictures of Heard looking mean or “bitchy,” but almost nothing that puts Depp in a seriously bad light, other than having some substance abuse problems. The plaintiff’s case goes first, so Amber Heard’s lawyers haven’t yet presented their case. That’s probably the biggest reason why nothing putting Depp in a bad light has really come out yet in terms of trial testimony. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/64 "2022-04-28T19:11:31Z")
I must admit, I was the same way when I saw her name. Regardless, I had to click on “don’t show me this shit anymore” or whatever the button is on Youtube because I was just innundated with Depp-Heard coverage. I’m glad the OP started this thread, because I checked a few days ago wondering why I’m the only person on earth who didn’t know about this trial, but there wasn’t a single thread on the SDMB about it. Every single Youtube thread is filled with comments that are 98% pro-Depp and at least borderline misogynistic. For all I know, maybe some of the Amber hate is warranted, but it’s really difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff, and I was hoping the SDMB might have some more level-headed coverage so I know what’s going on here, as I’ve seen plenty of footage that shows Depp being quite the asshole, as well. So now, I’m just turning it off, and don’t need to hear anything more about it until it’s done. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/65 "2022-04-28T19:35:22Z")
A lot of people who spend paragraphs telling us they’re not following this case seem to think Depp is guilty. What’s a woman got to do to abuse a man around here. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/66 "2022-04-28T20:18:08Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > A lot of people who spend paragraphs telling us they’re not following this case seem to think Depp is guilty. Are there? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/67 "2022-04-28T20:34:38Z")
I didn’t really see any. I was fairly confused by the unsubstantiated claim myself. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/68 "2022-04-28T20:43:04Z")
Also the case is not about Depp’s guilt. Ms. Heard is the defendant. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/69 "2022-04-29T00:19:02Z")
Oh sorry, it’s more of a form of JAQing off. I don’t follow the trial and I’m not saying it’s a conspiracy buuuuuuuuuut, why am I seeing all this pro Depp stuff? I’m not taking sides buuuuuuuut, why are these stories so slanted? I’ve lived in hole for the last decade buuuuuuut, why is Heard being shown in a bad light? A lot of these posts seem a little sketchy. Like an anti-vax message board. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/70 "2022-04-29T00:27:53Z")
That’s indeed been my reaction seeing my algorithm-curated Youtube feed. All the videos and their comment sections seem to be so strongly pro-Depp and anti-Heard that my Spidey sense is tingling. (Luckily, it seems like “not interested”-ing the offending videos has completely eliminated the content as of a few hours ago.) ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/71 "2022-04-29T00:30:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > All the videos and their comment sections seem to be so strongly pro-Depp and anti-Heard that my Spidey sense is tingling. You read the comment section of youtube videos? Masochist! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/72 "2022-04-29T00:31:47Z")
All the time. Most are not that bad. Depends on the content. I typically watch music videos, food videos, old C64 videos, sports videos, and the such. There’s quite often a lot of good content and stuff to read up on in there. In terms of breaking news, yeah, best avoided. And even with breaking news, there’s typically a bit of back-and-forth. With the Heard stuff, almost zero. All Depp all the time. The Youtube comment section rarely raises my blood pressure the way, say, a newspaper comment section would (until most newspapers axed them.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/73 "2022-04-29T00:37:18Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > But then, yesterday, I wanted to find an old movie clip to show to my kids. I opened my YouTube app and tapped into the search bar, and I was shocked and horrified to see, right at the top of the suggested search list, above my previous searches: _johnny depp amber heard trial clips._ Something I’d never looked for, something I never _would_ look for, something that has no basis for me as a suggested search. > > This goes beyond The Algorithm. This doesn’t happen unless it’s being pushed somehow. No. It just means that’s a very common search on YouTube, one that’s so common that the ranking overwhelmed what data they have on you individually. The thing about conspiracies is that, to make sense, there has to be something in it for the conspirator. Why would YouTube want to push videos that people don’t want to watch? Their whole goal is to keep you watching videos. Their algorithm is just all about trying to figure out what videos will keep people engaged. And a controversial video very clearly keeps people engaged. * * * It’s really weird seeing so many people on the SDMB assuming conspiracy. Why is it not far more likely that far more people sympathize with Depp on this? There are so many reasons why they would. They like him. They didn’t like losing him on various shows. They genuinely think the evidence points to Heard being the villain. People tend to expect the accuser to be a saint, so any proof they aren’t negates it. There seems to be little evidence that Depp has abused anyone else. I could go on. Both sides: the anti-MeToo side and the pro-MeToo side have a reason to be upset with Heard. Heard is seen as confirming the worldview of the former and as causing harm to the latter by making something uncommon look worse. I see no reason to believe it’s not just that the bulk of those following this side with Depp and/or believe the evidence shows Heard to be “the bad guy.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/74 "2022-04-29T00:46:33Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I see no reason to believe it’s not just that the bulk of those following this side with Depp and/or believe the evidence shows Heard to be “the bad guy.” I don’t think it’s conspiracy, per se, it’s just the overwhelming, sheer one-sidedness of it is weird. I mean, it’s obvious lots of people like Depp and there’s a lot of anti-MeToo people and MRA types out there. It’s just that’s pretty much ALL I see in the comment section. Why is (almost) nobody taking the other side? I believe I saw one poster say it, and they accused him or her sarcastically of being Amber Heard and shouted her down. It’s just unusual. Dude seems to be off his nut 24-7 on drugs and alcohol, and nobody is giving Heard the benefit of a doubt. Now I don’t say that she’s a saint, or that she’s not a vindictive person making stuff up to torpedo Depp’s reputation, but I would have expected at least a bit more balance in the peanut gallery back-and-forth. Or any real back-and-forth. Is she so transparently guilty? From what I’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t say that. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/75 "2022-04-29T01:03:11Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Is she so transparently guilty? From what I’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t say that. She is certainly responsible for making the accusations, the question is whether Depp is guilty of those accusations. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/76 "2022-04-29T01:24:35Z")
For forever this wasn’t on my radar, aside from hearing that Amber accused Johnny of being an asshole and they were fighting legally. It was just noise in the background, insert the “WAH-WAH” muffled trumpet sound of an adult in a Peanuts cartoon. It reminded me of similar accusations about Mel Gibson, or Alec Baldwin (before the _Rust_ tragedy). Stuff I didn’t pay attention to, whatever, I don’t read celebrity gossip, don’t care. Then my wife, who is generally to the left of me, who I’d usually expect to take a woman’s side in this sort of thing by default, she starts ranting out of nowhere about how pissed she is at Amber Heard and how she hopes Depp destroys her in court. I almost had whiplash from that. Definitely not what I expected to hear from her. She’d been following it, apparently (not a surprise, she actually does care about those things in ways I don’t) and I haven’t heard her this mad about a public figure since Donald Trump. So yeah, there is something different about this case. My wife is also pretty thoughtful and doesn’t jump to conclusions about things (except that she hates anyone who is playing against the Seattle Mariners) but in this case she is 100% on Depp’s side. It’s fascinating to me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/77 "2022-04-29T01:40:11Z")
Also, every time a celebrity I like gets hit with an accusation about something like this, and I give them even just the barest benefit of the doubt, it turns out that everything people were saying about them was true, or worse. Like, 100% of the time. Louis CK. Kevin Spacey. Bryan Singer. Al Franken. Joss Whedon. Every time I think, “Well, maybe…” or, “If you think about it logically…” or, “I can see how that might be misinterpreted…” Nope. I was wrong, he’s 100% a scum bag. Every time. And I really like Johnny Depp. I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve seen him in. And, of course, I know that all those other guys being douchebags shouldn’t factor in to how I react to Depp one way or the other, but fuck, man, I am tired of getting burned by these scuzzballs. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/78 "2022-04-29T02:00:24Z")
The BBC article discusses the trial and is balanced. Amber says one thing and does another. > [@](#): > > When Johnny Depp and Amber Heard reached their divorce settlement in 2017, Ms Heard publicly pledged to donate the entirety of her $7m pay-out to charity - half to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and half to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). > > But on Monday, ACLU executive Terence Dougherty testified that his organisation had received just $1.3m from Ms Heard, including $500,000 from a fund tied to Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk, with whom Ms Heard was briefly in a relationship. _Don’t count Amber out yet. Her side of the story comes next._ > [@](#): > > But so far one party - Mr Depp - has been more forceful, said Ryan Baker, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented clients in defamation cases. This is by design, he said. > > “Depp is up first so it’s not surprising that right now things are looking like they’re tipping in his favour,” he said. Jurors will probably hear a new story in the coming days when Ms Heard’s team takes charge. > > “At the end of the day, it’s a pretty big advantage for her side - they’re going to have the last word,” Mr Baker said. > **[Depp v Heard: What you might have missed this week](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61263794)** > > The court hears evidence of personality disorders, drug abuse and a relationship with Elon Musk. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/79 "2022-04-29T02:48:38Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > every time a celebrity I like gets hit with an accusation about something like this, and I give them even just the barest benefit of the doubt, it turns out that everything people were saying about them was true, or worse. To some extent, this is confirmation bias, as any accusations that make it into respectable publications have already been vetted to at least some extent. I’m sure there’s been accusations against other celebrities that didn’t pan out and didn’t make it into the public. And there have been public accusations that have petered out. Neil Degras Tyson and Lawrence Kraus both found themselves accused of predatory behaviors that when the full story came out, turned out to be unreasonable accusations. I’ll also point out that, while Franken certainly engaged in inappropriate and unacceptable behavior, wasn’t being predatory or abusive, and in the same vein, Wheldon was never accused of any sort of sexual impropriety, just of being an asshole to some of the people who worked for him. I’ll also note that you left out people like Bill Cosby, who, when the stuff first came out about him, I didn’t want to believe, as I was a pretty big fan, or Weinstein, who I probably wouldn’t have ever recognized the name, but I did enjoy many of the movies he produced. I’ve never much like Depp, and I would get far more enjoyment out of a movie starring Cosby produced by Weinstein than any movie starring Depp, except that I fully believe the allegations against the former, but have been given good reason to not believe the allegations of the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545/80 "2022-04-29T03:11:39Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Wheldon was never accused of any sort of sexual impropriety, just of being an asshole to some of the people who worked for him. He was accused of a lot of sexual impropriety. Not sexual assault, perhaps, but definitely impropriety. He was accused of having numerous sexual relationships with subordinates, sometimes in people’s offices while they were working. He was also accused of setting up a young woman with a job as an assistant to his own brother while he “wooed” her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-all-the-hate-against-amber-heard/963545.md?page=5)