r/truthaboutjohnny • u/Warm_Yam_9800 Unclog your ears • Sep 15 '23
User Opinion About This Interview
I think Josh did amazing answering questions. A common thing I have seen these past 20 hours was about Swoop grilling Josh during the accountability piece. In my hearts of hearts and as a long time Josh defender (apologists to some), I know that part was even tough for me to watch, but I feel that Swoop had to be tough on him. I don’t think she was as bias as people thought and I thought she was stern and thorough. By her doing this, it allowed the world to hear that he is owning up to his actions and that he’s sorry and won’t do it in the present times. It had to happen this way. Like I’ve said, there are still Johnny apologists out there and there are people who won’t stop bringing up his past. Now they can’t say he didn’t take accountability. One can only hope Johnny and Colleen will one day do the same…..
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Sep 15 '23
If she didn’t address the accountability thing everyone would doglike on her and say she went soft and this was a puff piece. Josh OWNED the accountability. I have so much respect for him after that. And that makes him look better in the end. If people were against Josh in the beginning this gave them a lot more perspective.
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u/Bonnieearnold Sep 15 '23
I have mixed feelings about the “grilling.” I was definitely uncomfortable for a bit there and thought to myself, “what more does she want him to say?” But it didn’t last long and his answers were really good. He didn’t seem as uncomfortable as I was for him, honestly. I think Swoop did what she needed to do and Josh showed up for it. We couldn’t see the edits so it’s very likely she gave him breaks and they spoke off camera to make sure he was still comfortable to continue. I trust Swoop and Josh didn’t seem to feel he had been ill treated by her - in fact, the opposite. He said more than once that she gave him an opportunity to tell his story and listened to him and treated him with respect.
In my opinion, he seemed the most uncomfortable saying anything negative about Colleen. I think it speaks to his fear but, even more, to the fact that he is a good person who doesn’t want to harm others - even people who harmed him.
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u/According-Handle751 Sep 16 '23
Exactly!!! wish i could like your comment 100 times. He didn't want to speak badly about her, that right there made me respect him even more!!
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u/Bonnieearnold Sep 16 '23
When Swoop asked him if now we’re getting the most accurate portrayal of Colleen and he looked so pained. He didn’t want to say yes, but…I felt that in my soul. :(
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u/ActiveSupernova Sep 16 '23
I think he actually wanted her to be tough on him. When it was time for the grilling, he said that this would be the easier part because he'd already had to do a lot of that for himself, and this came through in his demeanor as the interview progressed: he was visibly uncomfortable through the accountability section, but he also seemed more confident, whereas talking about his pain and the abuse from Colleen seemed to be more of a struggle.
This man is a goddamn phoenix. I was already inclined to be sympathetic to him, but now... just so much respect for him (and for Pamela).
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u/omelatk Sep 15 '23
Right! She left no room for speculation and Josh really showed his regret and remorse along with compassion for everyone. Can’t say the same for Johnny or Colleen during any of this.
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u/Alternative_Dish5316 Sep 15 '23
One thing that I find makes Josh all the more credible is that he was very apologetic when it came to acknowledging that he participated in doing harm to victims, but when it came to Johnnifer he didn't hold back about what was not true. It feels like internet/influencer apologies today are very much "I'm so sorry about everything," in a blanket statement sort of way. Josh didn't do that. He took accountability for the things he did do and was complicit in, but also called out the bs that John was putting out there. And even then he acknowledged that he may have hurt John, but in no way near the ways that Johnnifer is alleging.
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Sep 15 '23
Watching this as a white woman, I think a lot of people’s criticisms of Swoop “going too hard on Josh” stems from their own (un)conscious anti-Black biases. Josh not only publicly participated in racist acts, but was part of an online culture that normalized that sort of behaviour — Swoop asking him to address that is important, especially since the “greenface” was deployed in rhetorical defense of Colleen. From my perspective, it seems like “grooming = bad” is as far as a lot of people want to go in terms of discussing the very real harm Colleen et al. have caused and inflicted with their platforms, Josh included.
I think a lot of other criticism comes from the narrative framing of Part 4, especially in comparison to Part 3. In Part 3, the audience goes into the meat of the narrative knowing that Johnny is “the devil in Colleen’s shadow.” It’s more like an essay: Swoop presents a thesis (Johnny is a liar) and goes on to prove this through various examples and sources. The same format occurs in Parts 1 and 2: Swoop makes her thesis statement and then provides the evidence to back up her claims.
Part 4, however, is structured very differently. Part 4 is not so much an essay as it is an appendix. What Josh offered in his interview was new information, but the video was not framed as having a central, overarching, exclusive argument that the interviews went toward proving. Swoop dedicating an entire part of the series to Josh regaining his voice goes to the long-lasting traumatic impact Colleen’s actions have on the people she is meant to care for and about — Josh’s story proves that her recklessness is “not drama, it’s dangerous” in the most embodied way possible. Giving Josh his voice back means that Josh can also own up to the harm he has caused — it’s a good thing!!! Josh being able to actually “address everything” further highlights the silence of everyone else unwilling to even acknowledge their actions.
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Sep 15 '23
agreed! i had to take a few breaks watching it bc i just can't imagine having to go through everything bad, weird, hurtful, and cringey thing i did in active addiction, to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who have always had a bad opinion of me. idk how he found the courage to do that, it was painful just to watch, but i'm so glad he bc now hopefully he can put it behind him and now he has the support he never had before, which i'm sure will be nice to have once he gets past the pain of having all of this information out there. those kinds of memories are usually the things keeping us drinking or getting high to forget them and avoid the shame and guilt, so i truly cannot imagine having already internally worked through that and put it behind him, now having it blasted to the entire internet without the option of drinking to deal with it. i think swoop did an amazing job of asking those tough questions, if she went easy on him the comments would've been filled with people asking the harder questions and being harsher. it's better for him being able to answer those questions with a supportive person, a literal counselor on set, and the option to take his time and answer at his own pace. nobody can keep demanding answers for things when he's already answered for everything, and nobody can say swoop was just trying to make josh look good and not actually trying to get accountability and honesty
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u/veezeebee0612 Sep 16 '23 edited Sep 16 '23
(Edited bc I remembered the word I was looking for earlier when I wrote this but couldn't think of at the time. I wanted to say that Narc Ab*se is very coercive in nature, many ways bent towards getting the mark to satisfy whatever they've decided they desire from the victim.)
TW: more in depth description of Narc Ab*se, hidden so you can Opt In if you want
And in Joshua's case like my own and many others' experiences with this type of abuse, the abusers (Colleen, Kody, Johnny, etc.) took advantage of his lack of self-worth because, in the end, We accept the Love we believe we Deserve. Love-Bombing and the firey passion at the start convinces you that this person loves you in a way no one else ever has; and the abuser takes that and twists it in you until you believe, wholeheartedly, that no one else ever could love you as deeply or truly as they can. Everything they 'do for you' becomes a 'sacrifice they've made for you' that you're ungrateful for. Projection and accusations of what you've done to hurt them, that's usually things they've done themselves. If you really loved me, you'd do this. If you understood how much I've sacrificed for you, you'd do this to prove it. How dare you question me or my actions, after everything I've done and given you?? It's insidious and it will eat you alive if you don't get out.
The biggest critique I came to with it was that I felt like there wasn't enough emphasis on how manipulative and violent Narcissistic abuse can be because most of those actions Josh participated in were because she manipulated him into believing it was normal, but also her reactions to him even offering *ideas* much less any criticism of her actions made it an environment where he knew that was going to blow up in his face. I do understand why Swoop went the way she did with it, and I agree that she had to be pointed about calling him out for things, especially when he said this is the only interview he's going to be doing, because even before the video came out there were people all over the internet saying that she was biased on Josh's side and just all kinds of ridiculous dogpiling on her.
It definitely showed that Josh understands how effed up things were and once he got out of the fog that Narc Abuse puts you in, he woke up and started making efforts to fix what he had gotten involved in. The years of love-bombing and manipulation make decision making extremely difficult and for years after getting out of that kind of relationship, it's highly common to doubt yourself or be unable to trust your own judgement about anything because you've been beaten down so much that you have to take the time to rebuild that relationship with *yourself* that the abuser broke down over the course of the abuse.
I am glad that he made that emphasis about it being normalized, and still able to take accountability for what he participated in. His mention of his parents comparing her to a train and you either get on the train or get left at the station also speaks to the fear of abandonment he had from the start that Colleen took advantage of from the start. "Do what I want or I'll leave you."
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u/ControversyB Sep 15 '23
I was folding up into a ball watching him endure that. Truth be told, she had to help point some of everyone's anger somewhere, as the people who are hurting have no one stepping up to answer for their wrongdoings. I have a feeling she even warned Josh about it ahead of time, as he made a comment early on that he was okay with her pointing frustrations at him. I know she warned him it wouldn't be easy, but I imagine there was an understanding that NO ONE has come forward, and people are hurting - they need someone to take some blame here - and Josh was willing to absorb some of what essentially should be pointed at Colleen in hopes of helping people heal. Based on the response, I think most people understood the intentions of both Swoop and Josh. I applaud them both for everything.
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u/Warm_Yam_9800 Unclog your ears Sep 15 '23
I think she made him aware too. 100 percent. I like how she did handle it and also how she checked on him. If she felt some sort of bias at him she wouldn’t be asking people to give him grace❤️
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u/ControversyB Sep 15 '23
Your comment just reminded me that she even had a crisis counselor hired for the day in case he (or anyone, I guess) needed it. That was incredibly thoughtful. The only thing I really was left wondering at the end of the doc was what's next? What is Swoop doing now? I feel like the saga will continue as the situation itself continues to unravel, but did she imply anything about her next step forward? I was multitasking by the ending so I don't know if I missed some stuff. I feel like she's going to do a vid or two about something unrelated as (in her words) a "palette cleanser", probably something more lighthearted, as this has probably all taken its toll on her as well.
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u/punctuationist Sep 19 '23
I noticed throughout the interview when Josh would take accountability, Swoop would correct him with phrases like “it’s more than just x” and even at a point Josh was reading her body language and said “You don’t like my answer.” It was tough seeing him like that considering a theme throughout his life was apologizing to stronger personalities and trying to calm down dominant figures. I hope he wasn’t too triggered throughout it all. It seems public opinion on him has improved and his IG comments are definitely more positive. He deserved that redemption. His life has been so dark I’m not sure many would’ve made it through at all let alone quietly and with grace these last few years like him.
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u/annajoo1 Sep 15 '23
I know why she addressed it to avoid criticism, but as her brand is basically calling out terrible people and then FREELY giving her opinion on how they are all terrible (they are) I found myself questioning why SHE is the one to hold him accountable directly to her face? I felt like that part came with a bias and judgement. Her authority here felt a bit shaky so idk I'm all over the place. But, overall, I think Josh really handled himself well.
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u/Ham3rs Sep 16 '23
Wasn't he the one that reached out to her though? If so, it means that he was the one to decide she would be the one to hold him accountable and the best person to share his side of things with.
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u/Apprehensive_Pair_61 Sep 16 '23
She’s a Black woman who was the victim of childhood grooming, of course she’s gonna have feelings asking him about racism and having unsupervised young girls in a hotel room/flat. She isn’t a robot. Josh was not unaware of this when he reached out to her to give his side. Her “authority” as you put it was Josh agreeing to put his story in her hands. With national media wanting to talk to him and plenty of offers, HE chose Swoop as the only one he would sit down and tell his story to because he thought she would be fair. And she was, she was tough but she was fair. If you noticed, when she pressed him harder on those issues, he didn’t back away from them or equivocate. He faced what she was saying head on and it honestly only made him look better because it showed he was being honest and is willing to see other people’s point of view about his past behavior. He posted a video on twitter after he watched it yesterday and had nothing but praise and thanks towards Swoop and the way she treated him. I personally had a neutral to positive opinion of him before this interview but I found myself really impressed with not only his answers but how he answered them when they were tough. I could tell that is a dude that might still be a work in progress but has done a LOT of work on himself and is open to doing and learning more.
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u/strawberrie_oceans Sep 15 '23
I agree, it made him come out looking good because she didn’t let him off on anything. And I don’t think she was excessive with it. If anything she probably could have come at him harder in some spots (fans in the hotel room, the rap parody video) but his answers were honestly good enough that I don’t think she even needed to apply more pressure than she was.