Take care of yourself after watching this, yeah?

This trial has been a constant source of disgust for me, it has been near impossible to avoid it no matter how many times I click “Not Interested” or unsubscribe from people taking advantage of it. Glad to hear someone with a conscience discuss this as a whole.

In Russia we had a similar case when an underage girl was raped at the party and the family of the rapist went on the national television.THE WHOLE COUNTRY was straight up denying the fact that the girl was raped and she even became a meme because of the way she spoke and dressed herself. So many people defended the rapist because he had "kind eyes" and the girl and her family were bullied so much that they had to change multiple jobs and living locations because they got attacked.The girls name is Diana Shurygina

As a dv and rape victim, who reported their perpetrator only 6 months ago, I was trying so fucking hard to avoid the trial but despite my effort to avoid it, I still saw the trial EVERYWHERE. It was such bullshit. What made it even worse is that the person who did this to me, and their family, are currently building a narrative in which im the "mentally ill psycho ex" and hoping that my abuser will get away with committing crimes. Trials like this, about this topic should never have been televised. I'm so scared now that nobody will believe me. I constantly have anxiety that I won't get justice, that he will get away with it. And seeing the trial, though the situation is different in that, was really horrible since its about dv. I hated the constant stream of misogyny from a lot of men, disguised as activism.

This reminds me of when my mum was complaining that refugees now would get a faster track to government sponsored housing and she wondered aloud why it wasn't given to native people here first to which I literally had to tell her "mum, they're refugees....". I explained to her how upset it made me that it's always framed in such a us versus them type thing while it's absolutely absurd that we are forced to fight with refugees over scraps.

“We’re all being served lies all day long and we all think we know better than everyone else.” That really hit me. We all think we’re on the good side, and that the other side is in the wrong. It’s just a tool being used to keep us looking at each other, blaming each other, not looking up and seeing why they’re doing. We’re all being lied to.

Really appreciate when people are honest about how vitriolic that pop culture madness can get. Especially since it's a defamation case and not a criminal trial.

I will never understand why it is I'm supposed to think Johnny Depp is a decent human being just because he was sort of funny in those pirate films

As a person who unfortunately lives in russia during a war started by, well, russia, i sure can see all the misinformation, clickbait and straight up lies spread out to boost engagement. Even opposition movement media is affected by it. Sad thing is: people do not tend to check their sources and even if you are interested in any topic you are literally bombarded with random info from everywhere, starting from innocent cat video channels ending with serious politics channels. It is exhausting.

At the end of the day, social media rewards horrible behavior and apathy. Measured research is considered “cringe”, caring is “cringe”, and authenticity is “cringe” online. The only thing that matters is engagement and selling your products. It’s why everything is awful on the internet nowadays, why create and fuel your passion when you can just say something inflammatory and then plug your t-shirts or mugs for likeminded people?

No matter what side you stand on, the vitriol I've seen online has been absolutely disgusting. It is one thing to maybe not believe Amber's SA story, but it is a VERY different thing to make videos MOCKING it. Even if you don't think she's telling the true, it is heinous to mock someone like that for clicks and views. And then there's the whole conspiracy side of things, like those videos claiming she was snorting coke on the stand. Totally ridiculous for anyone with a working brain. As if she'd do with a judge a few inches away.

I had their names and every hashtag I could think of muted on Twitter, and STILL I COULD NOT ESCAPE IT. It was vomitous. I’m considering talking about it on my show just because it makes me so angry and things that make me angry do tend to be topic fodder, but… ugh.

i really do despise the meme-ification of the depp/heard trial. i moderate for a twitch streamer and the chat rules are general "don't be a bigot, don't bring up controversial topics and downer current events, etc etc" type stuff, and we had to remind a chat member that the trial was in fact a controversial topic and not to make jokes about it. they did stop and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, i thought it was fine because everybody loves johnny depp," and i feel like that's pretty exemplary of your whole childhood hero bit.

In India, we had the same thing when a Mainstream Hindi Cinema Actor took his own life. Everyone became an investigative journalist and a source of video revenue.

The Amber Johnny case is so socially sensitive and it’s weird how people are making edits, re-enacting the trial and I have even seen companies making merch off “iconic” quotes from the trial. It’s just insensitive and reflects how social media has desensitised everyone when it comes to serious topics Edit: do you think these celebrities should have a jury? On your point about biases within the jury, it is hard to find a jury who will avoid social media or situations in which the trial will be mentioned. For weeks on end, I had my family constantly talking about it to me, even though I was not following the trial on social media. Think the case should not have been publicised whatsoever.

I always think of the saying "propaganda goes both ways." It's easy to see that the 'other' side is falling for propaganda and misinfo, but it's not so easy to see that in yourself.

I thought I was gonna watch a good video about Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial, instead I watched a GREAT video about social media, and how it can literally change our futures in the worst way, and I'm not even talking about toxicity. You're amazing!

one of the VERY WORST trend I saw with #that trial was WOMEN making videos reacting to Amber describing her s*x*al abuse. they were MOANING, making sexual suggestions. they were sick

This is the first even slightly related "Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial" content I've clicked on, and I have no regrets.

Real-time memeing about a domestic abuse/defamation trial was certainly some kind of low.

This analysis of social media was amazing. The blood thirsty nature of those who covered the trial disturbed me but people had picnics at lynchings so I should not be surprised.

There was a KZfaqr (not taking names) who talked about the inundation of content that can be displeasing but this person had no qualms making a spectacle out of the trial. Irony just died.

I became extremely sceptical of social media because during the pandemic I was having a hard time dealing with my mom, and I talked about it in private digital conversations and then later on tiktok there were a stream of videos of people complaining or joking about how toxic and abusive their moms were, and I was like... I never said my mom is toxic or abusive, I know the situation we're in is mainly because the both of us are highly stressed and this is not entirely her fault, and yeah, we started communicating better and going to therapy and we could figure it out, but I think that if I had carried on with what Tiktok was showing me, it would have been very easy to remain in conflict with her just because of an algorithm that feeds of the difficulties and the anger people feel

Never mind those fanatics were also in the comments of everything. I could be watching a cat video and I'd see a comment saying how they wished the scratching pole was amber heard. The hate towards this woman was UNREAL. And her name is already being used by mysoginists to raise doubt against victims

I am a clinical psychologist and have just been disgusted by this whole trial. I know a bad BPD diagnosis when I see one, but the general public takes these at face value. Dr Curry looks well put together, she is the first to make a claim and essentially it is the one many people already want to believe. But to people who know how a diagnosis works? 14 hours with just a clinical interview and 2 tests and that is it? That is enough to claim someone has BPD to millions of people? You would interview people normally over months. The average amount of of tests used are 15. But the biggest issue is the MMPI-2 results. Dr Curry says she had heightened symptoms on the BPD profile. And alarm bells are already ringing...What is heightened? Why not reached the criteria for clinical diagnosis? Because we later find out from Dr Hughes her highest score was 56. There are 10 scales and to be diagnosed she had to have scored 65 on the 3 related to BPD. The mean score for a healthy adult is around 50 for the scales (48-54 range among them). The standard deviation is 9, so 68% of people would score between 41-59. So 56 would fit within the first standard deviation, so it is slightly above average on one scale. Heightened to me would be maybe between 59-65 at the least, in the top 14% but not clinically significant. But you still would not diagnose BPD with those scores. The average for someone diagnosed with a personality disorder is a lot higher than 65 as well, 65 is the minimum score and she had to have 3! Dr Curry can't claim it was because Amber was downplaying symptoms because this test includes a K-scale which corrects for that and then the scores would in the correction also have to be above 65. So to summarize, the test Dr. Curry used to diagnose her debunks her diagnosis. There is no way she should have been publicly diagnosed as that and people eat it up. But try to fit this into a tiktok or tweet and even if you manage you would likely still be attacked by fans of Depp. But remember, just because you are on on side, doesn't mean you have to accept everything from them even when they are not truthful.

Hi Verity! I'm from the Philippines and I mostly agreed with what you were saying but I'd like to add a caveat to your ending statements. The fact that Facebook comes free with our internet and the fact that most people are realizing that there's a cheaper way of having access to information makes the SIFT model or what I think is essentially individual responsibility difficult to implement. People who spend all day working (arguably under unfair wages) to provide for their families would not have time to actually think about what social media is doing to them. Thus, SIFTing is a privelege that only those with time, money, and access to the internet beyond Facebook can afford. It would be unfair to ask people to just stop when social media has become a viable way to spend your free time. For me, the solution is truly to touch grass and engage with those who are different from you. Social media creates biases within us against anyone who thinks otherwise and thus just ACTUALLY talking to people changes the way you think and is already against the mode in which social media functions. Unfortunately, when you live in a place with a young democracy with authoritarian tendencies, this only serves the elite. I don't disagree with anything you said but I think this is a perspective needed when we talk about social media because it truly has affected how the state functions for us and let me tell you it is absolutely terrifying to live in the Philippines right now when what you want to pursue is truth. Thanks for reading.

as someone who studies sciences at uni and has citations drilled into me for anything I wrote it baffles me that most mainstream news sites don't have citations on their articles, even for super long researched pieces. and the surprise I get from people that I have citations on my own website, not only can people double check me, and see my sources, it also means that they can go and do their own further research if the topic interests!

Oh my God. These are the new fairy folk. They're not technically "evil" just amoral, they don't care about anything but themselves. If you eat the food in fairyland you'll never want to leave, just like clickbait sucks you in and you can't stop scrolling AND time passes faster when you're in fairyland/scrolling. They produce nothing of value and must steal from the real world for resources, just like a parasitic fairy world. Holy crap you've helped me crack it! Ok, I'll watch the rest of the video now. Edit: I can't stop with this analogy, if we accept their gifts, it gives them power over us, there are always strings attached, they never tell the whole truth! And listen, I've watched as people I love seemed to be replaced by a changeling.

This is why I love tumblr. It has misinformation as everywhere, but it tries to monetise itself differently. So, there are a lot less ads I see and virtually no influencers

I am so excited you're talking about this. I avoided most content regarding the trial because people were talking about it with such vitriol. Can't wait to see your take on this whole insanity.

The best call ive ever made is never getting tiktok and deleting my twitter.

This is sich a depressing topic, but thanks for bringing attention to it. We spend so much of our lives in these digital spaces, yet think so little about how they're structured.

Seeing videos talking about this trial on the internet made me start thinking about how normally, this would be handled privately and away from the news. Then I felt almost voyeuristic, so I just ignored all coverage until I heard it ended, and continued ignoring it after. I think seeing a fancam of Johnny Depp randomly appear in my recommended broke me a little. It was… weird.

My favorite thing is how I am very far left, but I enjoy a lot of hobbies typically engaged with by more right leaning nut cases (Table top war games, Anime, and Shooter Games) The algorithm literally wiffle waffles weekly about what it shows me. It will be like, "You are an atheist and played Call of Duty a little bit ago... do you want this propoganda for the US Marines?" then the next week it is like, "Okay you spent 4 hours watching CJ the X rant about capitalism and you just watched the Owl House... do you want some ads for Pride Flags?"

Really clever video and good points! Just want to add that this was a CIVIL trial, not a criminal one. It was a civil, monetary defamation dispute. It wasn't about justice - but it was made into that in the public space. It was never about punishing and deciding who is right or wrong in this private matter of a toxic relationship. The SoMe space is reframimg the whole thing with the "Justice for Johnny". It's about whether this one rich person defamed the other person, which relies on the domestic violence allegations yes but that was not the core of the case. We are missing the nuance when passing criminal judgment on a civil case.

I remember posting an article on my Instagram story about how the media demonized Amber Heard and the obvious parallel with Medusa (the rest of my account was just my art). But I still got someone messaging me that because I had posted an article saying that no matter the outcome of the trial the way they destroyed amber heard in the media was not OK ; they couldn't follow me anymore, which was hallucinating.

I've recently been debating whether or not I'm autistic and all of a sudden TikTok is trying to tell me I am. Like undoubtedly. Most of my FYP is just "signs of autism" or "silly autism things".

So, I had a connection to the case as my significant other worked for the law office that was representing Heard. There were Depp fans showing up at the office building, harassing the receptionist, leaving false google reviews. It was scary. The whole trial had me in a constant state of anxiety, because we didn't know how far these fans would go and if they would hurt anyone.. thankfully that didn't happen, but it was INSANE.

I was lucky to find people who talked about the trial with a sense of compassion and knowledge of the law. It wasn’t entertainment, it was educational for me. I don’t understand how people can meme about something they haven’t even watched.

If all you're getting out of this video is the Johnny Depp trial, you're completely missing the big picture of what this video is trying to say

tiktok is the absolute worst for this because unlike other social media sights, it doesnt give you any tool to filter and its entirely algorithm. i had to stop using it after noticing how much it would change my mood and how I felt about things. it started off being dumb but it got to the point where it identified my as mentally ill and wouldnt stop sending very triggering and upsetting "relatable" content to me. still i was spending hours on there and I had to log out to free myself

amazing video, it feels rare to find people that recognize the Heard-Depp trial for what it is, no matter who the actual guilty party is. The online exploitation and inflammatory vitriol felt like society was regressing in order to lavish in the "spicy drama" of... domestic abuse. I felt so frustrated and I could hardly vocalize it without people thinking I'm an abuse-sympathizer when that's not even what the issue is. The fact anyone felt like they could "help" Depp is really just daunting.

Wow, I'm glad someone made this video. I looked up news coverage about the trial and was bombarded with Amber Heard hate videos in the recommendations, really disgusting stuff.

Ive been talking about this with my roommate who hntil recently was a real "i won an argument on Facebook today" type guy. Id gotten off facebook a year ago because i was noticing the way it was chsnging how i look at my neighbors and family and friends, as well as larger issues. It commodifies serious issues and topics into team sports that memes can be made about to keep you scrolling through ads.

I found it really weird how this case was treated like a TV show ,this is not acting ,this is a real life case abt assault,no one should protect any side of it ,it was a really weird phenomenon in the internet and I hope it ended

An excellent break down.

I can't get over how almost identical the Filipino journalist, Maria Ressa sounds to Ursula K. Le Guin. Her intonation and cadence are so similar, it's uncanny. She's incredibly well spoken too. Amazing and well researched video as always 👏🏻

Thank you for not ending on a hopeless note, I have been trying very hard to disconnect from social media lately to the point of deleting the few media accounts I do have just to take a break. But I know eventually I will need to go back, and it feels to overwhelming. But keeping these tips in mind mind help honestly.

This was a remarkably nice and calm watch despite the devastatingly hopeless implications of the content. Maybe it's your voice, I don't know.

it was so. so. so impossible to avoid hearing about that stupid trial. i went out of my way to avoid it, even when it was still a small thing. everything i know about it was against my will and i still know so much about it. also i am VERY pro small website local/small/niche social media

I love the way your citations show throughout the videos. It makes it so easy when I want to know more about something :) i’d love to see more of that online

I posted one comment asking people to consider that the narrative has been affected by misogyny and had to block like 20 people after

It's so easy to lapse into believing something from a seemingly well informed source. Like I remember watching a otherwise quite well done video essay on the historical queer panic defence. But it listed my country as still having this issue. Even though I remember celebrating the law being repealed in parliament, in like 2004/2005. I even checked with my gay friend who works in corrections just to make sure I hadn't jumped timelines by accident.

the first real nuanced commentary ive seen on main youtube. finally. thank you for bringing up how first world techboys affect the global south.

I'm so glad you talked about Myanmar and the Philippines and Google and Facebook racing to provide internet to Africa, it really puts the issue in context and I just wish more analysis of all kinds of things had the perspicacity to include people outside the anglosphere and in the global south. And like as awful as the trial coverage was, the genocide of Rohingya people really does deserve to be in the center of conversations about misinfo on Facebook.

I watched the trial itself out of professional interests (I work with male and female victims of domestic abuse) and it annoys me that since that KZfaq keeps offering me videos about Miss Heard and about Mr Depp. I am still actively feeding the algorithm with other things to get rid of those videos that promote gossip and hatred.

The word “advertising” 10 mins in was cut in half by ads and honestly I’m not even mad, it was satisfying

My colleagues research this, and there is consistent no evidence to support the existence of filter bubbles. It's rather these echo chambers that are provable on certain platforms. Apparently the guy who first wrote about filter bubbles and made it an high interest topic to research (Pariser) was already very unclear in his definitions of the concept and so it's just incredibly hard to prove that it exists.

literally muted every single word related to them on twitter and i still could not escape them.... honesty this whole case disgusts me cause not only people are treating serious domestic violence case as a form of entertainment, people are also seeing johnny depp as some innocent guy when in reality he did some questionable stuff and has history of aggression

"I feel like I have to process every one of the world's problems everyday" is very very real :')

as someone who works in social media and advertising i'm so happy you talked about this, more people need to know how scarily venerable we make ourselves online and how easily we believe what is fed to us.

I just deleted my Instagram account for good, using only YT as a social media and videos like these just makes me even more secure of my decision

This hits home! Instagram is my primary social media outlet and everyone I interact with on there has either refused to post about the trial or has posted minimally and correctly identified how messed up it all is. I idiotically thought TikTok would be the same and commented something like “yeah Heard is cringe and I don’t like her, but what Depp did was really messed up” and the vitriolic responses I got were so detached from reality I was truly shook. This trial was very similar to the OJ Simpson trial in many ways and it’s really sad to see we haven’t learned anything since then, the public reacted in exactly the same way.

This trial has been weighing on my mind for a while now even though i tried to avoid it as much as possible. The public reaction to this trial made it clear to me how unequipped the general public is at dealing with issues of domestic violence. Both my mother and I experienced DV from my stepdad so when I saw the ridiculous expectations, standards and judgements the public put on Amber Heard (the accuser in this case) during this trial, I was mortified that if I was ever in the same position and did a nervous smile, looked too relaxed or made eye-contact in a manner that the public didn't find appropriate, that would mean I must be lying. A relative of mine who had a social media presence also recently went through a very public divorce on social media where her husband posted videos accusing her of abandoning their family and children. Their audience immediately started attacking her after which she uploaded a video making allegations of abuse. I know that she (my relative) has been confiding in my mother for years and saying that her husband has been physically, financially, verbally and emotionally abusive and unfaithful to her so I have grounds to believe her that she has been abused because she has been talking about it privately to family members for years before these matters became public. And in a community like mine where being an abuse victim is considered a blemish on the family name, there is no reason for anyone to willingly put that label on themselves. She gave a very detailed account of abuse in her marriage and many people in the comments changed their tune afterwards. However, there were still some people including his colleagues/friends accusing her of lying and many mocking her of being "Amber Heard-lite". This was very disturbing knowing that in this case, the abuse was very real. I may not know the details of Johnny and Amber's situation, but I definitely know in my relative's case and it's horrifying knowing that she has people who don't even know her discrediting her experience and calling her nasty names. I have reflected a lot and what I feel now is the court of public opinion is just not the right platform to discuss issues on domestic violence. It is unrealistic to expect everyone to have a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of domestic violence because not everyone goes through it and not everyone has the emotional maturity to understand it whether it be due to age or plain immaturity. Although a good number of people will give you their support and understanding, almost half of the audience will either be suspicious or outright discredit you because of their own biases even if you definitely went through domestic abuse. The fact that domestic abuse victims are already psychologically vulnerable makes me think it should be handled away from the public some of whom will likely attack the victim. You cannot and should not expect justice from the public and it is in your best interest to detach yourself emotionally from people's opinions of the situation. Now I do not personally know either Johnny or Amber, but I saw a recording made by Amber showing Johnny yelling, slamming cupboard door, breaking objects and eventually throwing out the device she was recording with. People on the internet were discrediting this evidence, stating that he was not exactly hitting her or that she seemed like she was staging the situation/instigating it or that because he didn't break her recording device and only threw it, that means he can't be that bad. People do not seem to understand that abuse is not just physical. Even slamming doors or punching walls due to anger towards a partner can be threatening to the partner's mental wellbeing and safety. I do not have any other comments on their case because I did not watch it and I do not feel entitled to an opinion because i do not know either personally and i understand that both of them are going to do their best to paint themselves in the best light. My only hope is that whatever the truth is, whoever is suffering whether it is one or both of them, they are safe and they have people close to them who are supportive of them as they work towards their recovery because when I tell you, going through a domestic violence changes your psyche and it takes years to achieve a sense of normalcy. It's been years since i left my home but i don't think I have recovered fully yet either and don't know if I ever will. It will always be a part of me and my history. But i try my best to live a fulfilling life and have met many amazing people who have enriched my life since. And while on the topic of evidence, people do not seem to understand how difficult it is to collect evidence because you cannot predict when violence will occur and in that moment, there is usually no time to grab the phone and start a recording. I lived for 3 years under abuse and as much as i tried I couldn't collect undeniable evidence because my wretched stepfather knew to speak in a very low tone so that the neighbours couldn't hear his voice. It would usually be him threatening my mother while i was in a different room. A lot of the abuse was psychological, e.g. throwing urine from my little sister's potty on my clothes dried outside, playing loud music at midnight by himself while i had exams, making threats of murder outside my door, teaching my little sisters to throw their soiled diapers at me. These events took place out of nowhere and there was no time to prepare to take a recording that makes sense to someone from the outside. Although the physical abuse was not daily or even weekly, the threat was always there and there was no time to be prepared to take a recording of physical violence either. Because courtrooms operate based on evidence, I have been wondering if even the courtroom is the right place to settle domestic abuse unless there is an imminent threat to someone's safety. Regardless, the consequence for perpetrators are that harsh aand there is the fear that they will come after you once you accuse them or leave them. Because of people misusing the legal system, it is not the most reliable either. At the moment, to me, the most a domestic abuse survivor can ask for seems to be physical safety and support to recover from their trauma. The public cannot give you that. And may be the courtroom can't either. I hope that you are lucky to have close ones who are supportive and that you find the strength to get past it and eventually move one to a different stage in life. In countries like England, there are a lot of charities who are happy to support you and provide transitional homes/financial support if you are committed to leaving the situations. Unfortunately, a lot of victims find it difficult to leave because of their children etc. or other responsibilities so I know it isn't always as simple. I have come across 3 different relatives who suffered domestic violence in the recent past and my friends know a lot of people in the same situation too. It is all too common. Luckily, I know of survivors who have left that environment with much courage and now live a beautiful and fulfilling life. So there is still hope. If you are going through something like this, try your best to get evidence or get someone you trust to confide in and preferably witness abusive incidents too. If you're lucky, the legal system may rule in your favour. But regardless, prioritise your safety and mental wellbeing and make necessary arrangements to get safely out of the situation. I hope it works out for you and wish you good luck. I understand that I might sound too hopeless and if anyone thinks I am wrong or there is reason to have more hope, I am happy to listen because I am desperate for it. I'm only human and I can be mistaken or miss a point of view. But I just wanted to get this off my chest and haven't found many platform where people are having thoughtful discussions about this issue.

This video is incredible, and I really want to send it to my mom, as she's proved VERY susceptible to misinformation of late. Unfortunately, she's 1. Conservative and 2. Incredibly transphobic, so I doubt she'd even bother to watch. ...God, this is depressing.

I'm extremely disappointed in myself for how I got into that Johnny Depp trial. I let it literally control my life because I neeeeded to see updates. I now just don't look at what a celeb is doing anymore unless it's new music or tours from my favourite artists because being so invested and bothered about the life of someone who doesn't even know I exist is fairly sad.

whenever i'm reminded of the sheer lack of accountability social media companies have i get so tired. great video, though.

Omg an actually informative video about a relevant topic which isn‘t just a video essayist giving they‘re basic as opinion in 30 minutes. No but seriously, thank you. You guys deserve a lot more followers

One of the worst things about the trial was watching how so many content creators took advantage of the situation for their own gain. I'm not talking randos on tiktok or twitter, I'm talking big streamers from all over the world. Ludwig, Rubius, they all watched it live on twitch with an audience of thousands every day. Some of these audiences are mostly composed of impressionable minors, and they watched this trial through the lens of a very biased creator that likes to spew borderline neonazi ideology every chance they get. It's all very scary and it does feel hopeless. I'm glad to see you envision a brighter future, and I wanna believe that there's still a chance for it. But right now, how things are going, I'm not sure I'm capable of that anymore. I just wanna crawl under a rock and die there.

Just got back from the doctor and the tech in the blood lab had “Justice for Johnny” on the wall in bright green. Kinda inappropriate, no?

When I first heard about this situation, probably last year or 2020 not sure, my first instinct was to believe Depp. The reasons being: 1. Well he is the only one I know of and his image is good on tv so he must be telling the truth. 2. I felt like I had to say I support him otherwise people (men) will think all women (including myself) don't believe male dv victims. 3. I watched some videos of Amber where she had a resting bitch face and read articles about how she did evil things towards Depp. 4. Everyone on twitter was supporting him so I thought it must mean that he is on the right side. So yeah, social media and mob mentality does influence your views. At a certain point during the trial I had realised that thankfully.

Thank you so much for covering this, you can hardly sigh anything against Depp and you get SWARMED by stans on twitter. I just stayed off of TikTok bc I was hearing how disgusting it was from friends and family who were ingesting the content.

Ughhhh I soooo miss the old internet days when people had their own personal websites! So much fun and creativity.

I didn't watch a single video on the trial and yet I know so much more about it than I wanted to

For me personally it is kind of terrifying to think about all the problems that come with the advancement of technology and how dystopian things are getting, so it makes such an enourmous difference in my mental health that you approach these topics in such a grounded, non-deranged, non-fatalistic way, reminding your viewers that there are potential solutions and alternatives and ending in a more positive, but never unrealistic, note. Thank you so so much!!

in my opinion, the case should not have been publicized

A culture of citations, yes! Love it. Great video. I abandoned social media (except KZfaq) about five years ago, but I still think about this stuff all the time, worried for the effects on the minds of my neighbors and peers. A while back, I learned the details about Facebook's involvement in Myanmar with horror. I believe all of Facebook's c-level executives should be held accountable for crimes against humanity. Thank you for addressing issues with internet infrastructure in the global south, in places like the Philippines and other nations, where Facebook IS the only internet. We know misinformation is bad in the West, but it can be even worse in nations that are trying to develop. The constant spread of false information is one of the most pressing concerns in the world today. It infects every aspect of our lives. But we *can* be proactive. We can invest more in education, better media literacy (such as using the tactics you elaborate on near the end of your video), write better laws combating the invasiveness and monopoly of tech, and to be more conscious of our own usage. !! Thank you for all the citations, I definitely want to watch this again and look for some of them

I've consciously started to avoid it because it turned into a sort of culture war. Instead of maybe trying to find the Truth (as much as it was possible) people joined one team and started to cheer their fav person Memes are fun but it's a serious shit. No matter who was the victim

I can’t be special about this: the hateful stuff on social media was addictive at first but now I use my phone & social media less than ever now. My brain has tied social media with bad emotions so it’s hard to even bring myself to open social media. I feel like facebook isn’t thinking about the long term because this has to be happening to a lot of ppl

”It feels… a little bit hopeless”; putting words to what I’ve been feeling for so long 😞 I didn’t know how much I needed this video until now when you’ve made it, thank you so much ❤

THANK YOU I watch trials for fun and this entire thing was a train wreck, both sides were a mess but the treatment of Amber was heinous, no matter what you believe. The way grown ass adults were pulled into calling Amber names like children while citing things that were not legally viable drove me up a wall. People have forgotten how to see a situation without completely dehumanizing the person they see as in the wrong.

i appreciate how you brought up the philippines’ misinformation problem, it’s one of our biggest problems especially this year

I think it's really interesting hearing what different people's experience see things about the Jonny v Amber trial I know people saw no memes or content except when they opened the news as well as people who were bombarded

this was a kind of brutal watch. i had to keep pausing it to take in the sheer calamity of the problems shown.. i can only imagine how soul crushing a lot of the research was (so i thank you for your work) and more still how overwhelming it must be to be one of the front line journalists/activists like Maria Ressa.. Jesus. well i guess it would feel good to be working tangibly towards a solution. instead of drinking in the horror ever day and having to spit it back into a bucket like a wine taster..

Thank you so much for making this, definitely going to be sending this video to a bunch of folks!! You strike such a good balance between informative and thought-provoking, while also injecting your personality, and moments of entertainment and levity, without either undermining the other, which is honestly such a delicate balance, so hat's off to you!

One silver lining is I see more and more people quitting social media. It's small minority but I genuinely think it will grow. Why? Because it's killing our mental health. We need real interactions not FOMO over our friends "perfect" life (and my perfect I mean carefully curated) I've made it it a point to try to hang out with actual people more often. Going for a drink, going shopping, out for brunch. It all feels so much better than doomscrolling and I think a lot of people feel the same way. Plus with all the whistle blowing on the danger of misinformation I think people are slowly starting to wise up and just leave it behind, I think we may be starting to see the if not the death than the shrinking of social media. I don't think it will be fast in fact I think there's a good chance that it may get worse before it gets better but I can see signs that people are blocking their ears to the sound of social media's siren call.

"am I convincing? ✨", Yeah, you're one of my favorite YT creators. 🔥 I wish I had this researching skills, with all the information and misinformation spread in the internet, I just... Feel that I can't. That it's overwhelming, I tried to avoid all of it, and ended up shutting my phone for days, as long as needed. People like you are a spark of hope for me in this neo world that I'm willing to understand.

Yeah I remember watching like 4 anti-Amber Heard trial videos on KZfaq when they started getting heavily pushed, and even with very little investment in either celebrity, and with the full awareness that trial was being covered in a biased manner, it was just so intoxicating to watch. Not just trial coverage, but "best of Johnny Depp's therapist owning the courtroom" or "most devastating Amber Heard moments," etc. With Supercuts of the most quippable, memable moments from the trial.

I love how the most sheep-like people are the ones who say 'don't be a sheep!'

I want to leave you all with a quote I included in a paper on True Crime that, to me, summarizes why Amber never stood a chance, no matter guilty or innocent: „Questions of ‘guilt‘, ‘innocence‘ and social justice fade into the background as reactions to the […] criminalized woman play out in the arena of ‘loving’ and ‘hating’”. (Tanya Horeck, Justice on Demand, p. 120). A woman on trial will always trigger a gut response, not a logical one, and will allow more bias and projection into an affect-driven response. Social media of course exacerbates this effect.

I'm so happy people are talking about this case as if its an actuall case filled with awful events, not just a one sided meme about how stupid Amber's dog stepping on a bee was. This should be interesting. (love your videos btw)

even withouy knowing anything about their relationship abusers don't target rich popular strong confident older men who don't have a single weakness to abuse

I'm always grateful for how this channel doesn't END with Horrible Truths. There's always a "forward" to activism already set up, to programmes designed to help people help ourselves. News doesn't "end" with after a Factual Presentation: it goes home with us, whether we're aware of it or not. The vague psychology of "depressing news is depressing" is probably why television news always has at least one "breather" piece. A cute baby animal or some "local" tomfoolery. The kittens are cute and all but a namedropped cast of currently working activists? Citations included? Surprisingly more empowering.

johnny didn’t do good stuff, amber didn’t do good stuff. i think they need therapy.

I thought "let me just click anything while I eat my lunch, I wont pay attention anyways" now I feel like I've been shot in the knee and my life will never the same. Thank you for the informations!! I knew a bit about many of those things but never saw how they connected to each other!

26:30 this is exactly what infuriated me about the trial. It sets up all victims of domestic violence, such as myself, to face even more skepticism and criticism of their experiences than they ALREADY did. It told us women only use these accusations to ruin the livelihood of good men, and it tells us that if Amber Herd was lying whose to say the next person isn't. It just destroyed the credibility of DV survivors and disadvantaged them in a court system that already does not stand up for them. Johnny Depps case has nothing to do with social justice, and everything to do with perpetuating the status quo. But the argument that surrounded it told every man and his dog that it was CHALLENGING these social norms when it was doing nothing but perpetuate it. It told people who genuinely care about survivors of Domestic violence a twisted narrative that only served to disadvantageous other victims in the future.

It’s scary how much influence/power social media has. It’s a subtle version of the Matrix and just as dystopian. Great video!

I love your sense of humour! I'm able to watch a video about a potential soul crushing tech dystopia, but like I don't feel the isolated doom and gloom that comes with it. Thanks for the tone / framing and sense of humour in this video!

it was really fucking weird. no matter how much i blocked videos related to the trial, i kept getting those reccomendations

The biggest problem with paying is that the companies would likely take the money and make money on ads because that's more growth