The black hole of human nature

There was some excitement, at least amongst astronomers, of the first clear images of a “supermassive” black hole in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy taken by eight telescopes around the world and combined to produce this image, which is 27,000 light years away; the “hole” is about the size of the orbit of Mercury around the sun:

 

A black hole is the end of life of a massive star many times larger than our own sun, in which after its nuclear fuel is used-up, there is no energy left to prevent gravity from collapsing upon the center mass of the star, which is crushed into nothingness, yet infinitely dense; imagine a billion people crushed inside a single city block, and still more could be fit in for eternity for as long as there is something that its gravity can ensnare.

There are some aspects of human nature that is like a black hole, such the capacity to create a false reality and continuously feed into it a steady stream of falsehoods to abet a "positive" image that expands outwardly until the gravity of truth eventually forces the person’s true character to collapse upon itself, to the point that all anyone can see is the dark void in their soul.

CNN and the networks are thus not preparing the public for the possibility that Johnny Depp might actually win his defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard, because the mainstream media is unwilling to unbind itself from gender victim politics which fears to recognize a reality that it pretends does not exist, since it might open up a real discussion on domestic violence committed by women against men.

Monday’s cross examination of Heard by Camille Vasquez was, to put it bluntly, an appalling display of one person’s monumental conceit and arrogance when confronted with the false “reality” they have used to cover up their own guilt. According to the LA Times

Among Heard’s claims were that on separate occasions Depp broke her nose, split her lip, kneeled on her back and hit her in the face so many times she lost count. Heard also admitted that she couldn’t recall a time when Depp wasn’t wearing heavy rings on all his fingers.

Then Vasquez presented photo after photo of Heard, taken on the days after all of those alleged incidents. In them, Heard showed no signs of bruising, swelling or any injuries whatsoever.

The actor also said under cross-examination that she had no medical records of any of her injuries because she didn’t seek medical attention for any of them, even after she allegedly was raped with a liquor bottle that resulted in bleeding from her vagina.

Vasquez noted that Heard took a lot of photos of Depp sleeping, but had no photos of him consuming or even possessing cocaine.

But it was on the issue of the $7 million that Depp agreed to in their divorce settlement—the only money Heard claimed she wanted—that was supposed to be transferred to the ACLU and a children’s hospital, when Heard most revealed her true character and her capacity to lie and invent a false narrative. Heard was repeatedly asked if she actually did donate the money Depp had paid her, and each time she audaciously turned to look the jurors in the face and stated “yes”—which was a baldfaced lie—adding that she “pledged” the amount, which is not the same thing as actually paying the amount, which she had 13 months to do before Depp filed a case of defamation against her; more to the point this was never her money to keep to begin with, but she kept it.

Vasquez refused to allow her to get away with these lies, eventually forcing Heard to admit that she never gave any of her own money to the charities, which had a double-meaning: Heard was revealed not to be the altruist she pretended to be, and contrary to her claim she didn’t want any money from Depp for herself, in refusing to allow him to pay the money directly to the charities in her name, it is now clear that she always intended to keep the $7 million for herself, since it is apparent that she is the only “charity” she knows. 

And oh by the way, Heard's "androgynous" makeover and clothing makes her look more like the abusive "tough guy" the Depp team has been portraying her as, as if her arrogant demeanor when confronted with the facts hasn't already done that. When the topic of her 2009 arrest for domestic violence against a woman identified as her wife came up, Heard again lied about the incident, claiming she never abused anyone she "loved." Even if that begs the question if she is saying she was abusive toward those she didn't "love," the implication is that all Heard had left when confronted with the fact of her own abusive behavior was to deny it or twist into her own fractured "reality," and hope that the jury would ignore it all.

Testimony today revealed that Heard claims to have a better memory while high on drugs or in one of her mental states (which she repeatedly accused Depp of being in) than the detailed account of a man who “collected” her from a club, and the audio recordings of Heard’s vile verbal assaults on Depp must be “heard” to be believed; not he, but she called him many ugly things. She lied repeatedly about the context of text messages she sent him; she calls him a "monster," but we suspect that what she means (since he left at the first sign of "trouble") is that he is making her feel "bad" about herself. In another message, however, she “promises” not to “fight” if he just comes back home. All this can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peOBoiUnKZs

Audio continuously reveals Heard’s testimony to be false, while the only photographic “evidence” Heard provided to “prove” physical assault was a barely visible “bruise” to her cheek which several witnesses testified that they had not seen that day; it was suggested that either makeup had been applied to make the appearance of a "bruise", or the photographs had been “enhanced” with saturation to appear more “red.” As I noted a few posts ago, Heard’s true character was going to be exposed, and while she will still attract diehards unwilling to admit that a woman can be an abuser, the truth is pressing in on her dark soul.

Like lying and denying to protect oneself from the truth, the human capacity to hate is also like a black hole; it can be all consuming and reach a point of “density” where no human empathy can escape. We saw this in the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, NY in which a young white male with a grudge against black people killed 10. This is more evidence that white-supremacist extremism represents the greatest threat of domestic terrorism in this country.

Although the El Paso mass shooter's hatred of Hispanics predated Donald Trump’s presidency, Trump's rhetoric accusing Hispanics as being “rapists,” “criminals” and “drug dealers,” along with the support of white nationalist “politicians” like Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene--who were seen here shouting “Build the Wall” during Joe Biden’s State of the Union address…

 

…enabled and ignited an already poisonous atmosphere of hate in which killing is seen as no less "moral" than what motivates Muslim suicide bombers, although the Buffalo and El Paso killers didn't have the "guts" to "complete" their murder-suicide "pacts."  

The New York Times noted after the El Paso massacre that “Mr. Trump has filled his public speeches and Twitter feed with sometimes false, fear-stoking language even as he welcomed to the White House a corps of hard-liners, demonizers and conspiracy theorists shunned by past presidents of both parties. Because of this, Mr. Trump is ill equipped to provide the kind of unifying, healing force that other presidents projected in times of national tragedy.”

In The Atlantic, Peter Nicholas wrote that “Consoling a nation calls for empathy and eloquence; Trump hasn’t shown much capacity for either. Presidents often use scripture as a balm when people are hurting; Trump seems little moved by religious faith or feeling. Part of a president’s job is to be a unifying figure in times of national crisis. After 30 divisive months in office, Trump could be past the point where he can take on that role,” while historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was quoted that Trump was incapable of rising above partisanship, more interested in “solidifying” his radicalized base—which we saw on January 6.

What we saw on that day was the “black hole” of Trumpism: fascism, anarchism, white nationalism and nativism all collapsing into a one spot to overturn an election by violence, with no shred of what makes one human left to keep it from recognizing that this is a nation of many people, not the cult of one man's black hole of a heart. The fact that many people still think this man should be president would suggest that this country is collapsing into a moral black hole, should it take that route again.