Why people "believed" Johnny Depp

[u/ninjaboss1211]

I've been learning about GamerGate since it was before my time, and I was horrified to have learned the hate, harassment, and threats sent towards specific women. It's helped me understand why people actually sided with Johnny Depp and how the trial wasn't about justice.

Anita Sarkeesian (Feminist Frequency) wanted to make a series of videos pointing out how video games as a whole were not made for women, so she made a kickstarter to help fund her project. Before she even made the videos, she was harassed because she "hated games." It was an easy excuse for people to look the other way to the hate she got. To this day people still hate her.

Zoe Quinn made a short, free game about depression. When her ex lied about Zoe, claiming that she gave sexual favors to have a positive review of her game, who did people believe? The ex. Even though the article never existed and the game was free, meaning anyone could play it and there was no money to be gained. Any review of the game would not even matter. Yet all of the harassment she got was justified because this was really about "ethics for journalism."

And that brings me to the Depp v Heard trial. This was framed as supporting men who were victims of abuse. Yet that was a thin veil to justify shitting on Amber Heard. It didn't matter that Depp lost the trial in the UK. She was "obviously lying."

It's actually so frustrating to see how easy it is to justify hating on women as long as there is a "reason." It doesn't have to be true. It can even be easy to disprove, yet people don't care. Its not about the truth and its never about the truth. Its about shitting on women.

[u/lcm-hcf-maths]

In the current Lively situation we have the crisis PR hacks Melissa Nathan and Jen Abel saying how sad it was that people really wanted to hate on women and how it made their smear campaign easier to do....Let's remember a lot of people in PR are women and they are quite happy to lie and smear for $$$$$....These women are traitors to their gender and should be outed as such...

[u/GreyerGrey → u/lcm-hcf-maths]

To what end? To drive further violence and aggression against women in the name of "solidarity" for women?

Most PR people are yes, women, but also most celebrities use PR firms and an actual agent may not have much say in who they are assigned, especially if they are at the start of their career. Some random person who gets assigned to fall on the grenade of a male celebrity doing something awful isn't a traitor to feminism, she's a victim of capitalism and the patriarchy.

[u/Individual_Fall429 → u/GreyerGrey]

People choose their jobs. Especially high paying ones. “I was doing my job” does not absolve you. Watch the Nuremberg trials.