This podcast is a worthy listen for those thinking about what pushback to cancel culture and character slander may ultimately look like in the future. It focuses on the Johnny Depp - Amber Heard defamation trial and asks “what does this mean to the future of “me too” accusers. It’s a pertinent question in an age of fire first, ask question later and for a much more robust discussion of one of the extremes on this topic, I point you to a recent Bari Weiss guest post on the firing of a Princeton professor.
In the Depp-Heard trial, I paid very little attention. I truly don’t care about the infighting of two actors any more than I care about seeing pictures of your vacation: if I’m forced to watch, you can have 2 minutes, otherwise I’m very busy thinking about myself, thank you very much, and I have a tee time to get to…. So, like everyone else I heard the most salacious details and I’m sure defaulted to some deeply seated pre conceived bias, but ‘The Daily’ episode made me think perhaps I should pay more attention to the result of the trial, as it does a great job of laying out the two sides.
Without stating where I landed, I will say the last 5 minutes is the most worthy listen. Effectively, it discusses the beginning of the #metoo movement and it’s power in leveling the playing field of “less powerful women” vs. “more powerful men” in enabling them to be able to come forward and accuse someone of misconduct. But accusations are very different than actual misconduct. I want to be very explicit here: there is much misconduct in the world that is egregiously wrong, but where is the line when words become violence and when there is no recourse for the accused to have any opportunity for vindication. Too often, a mere accusation is a Public Opinion Guilty plea and the accused’s life as they knew it is over. When that happens, the playing field isn’t level.
Should you listen, might I suggest you do so while driving to fill up your car. It’s only going to get more expensive as you fund the war in Ukraine with your hard earned tax dollars AND massively increased energy prices. Maybe one day, politicians will explain what exactly we are doing there arming citizens with AK-47s and missiles while we debate who should own guns in this country. We got 99 problems, and the Ukraine isn’t one.
Exactly DRW... Great write up