Monica Lewinsky, who rose to fame after then-President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with her, recently shared her thoughts on the ongoing Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial.
Lewinsky, 48, wrote an op-ed in Vanity Fair about the trial and provided one poignant thesis statement: “We are all guilty.” The former social pariah turned TV personality and activist said she understands the “guilty fascination” we all feel for watching the circus courtroom show, but that doesn’t necessarily make it right.
The problem, she argues, is that social media has turned the way we consume the trial on its head. Instead of the trial as a whole, we’re getting instant takes and outrage-feeding content.
“(We) have become so attuned to this narrow, cynical cycle of social media encounters that we consider the trial not tragic or pathetic, but as a pure car wreck: accessible, tawdry, and immediately gratifying. We dispense with critical thinking and substitute the cheap thrill.
“Such scattershot consumption hasn’t allowed for real comprehension. Instead, we experience only apprehension, knee-jerk outrage, and titillation. It’s like going to the opera and reading a couple of translated supertitles but not understanding Italian. And despite whatever else this is, it is a soap opera.”
She noted this means that we’re watching the trial through the “distorted shadows” of friends but also weirdos. The other issue is that we feel we have a “right” to watch the proceedings play out, which in its essence is a dispute between a formerly married couple.
“This blurring of public figures and private lives can do a number on us—as bystanders, as an audience. We end up being torn between our parasocial relationships with celebrities (we identify with them; we pretend that, gee, we actually know them) and our need to see public personalities taken down a notch or two—and taken down publicly—so as to make our wounded selves feel better in comparison.”
Perhaps the most damning indictment from the op-ed is Lewinsky’s claim that it’s dehumanizing us as a species.
“In the end, the ways we have contemptuously co-opted the trial for our own purposes are a sign of how many of us, the social-media-mongrelized, have continued to devalue our dignity and humanity. (Forgive me if I climb up on my high horse for a paragraph or two. Having been on the receiving end of this kind of cruelty, I can tell you the scars never fade.) I’m certainly not here to tell you not to watch the verdict or not to have an opinion. But what is too much?”
This means that no matter what happens, “we are guilty,” Lewinsky said.
The actual verdict for the trial is expected soon, as the jury is currently deliberating.