this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
0 points (50.0% liked)

Casual Conversation

1652 readers
259 users here now

Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.


RULES

Casual conversation communities:

Related discussion-focused communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
0
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

I remember at the time, lots of people being on the fence and didn't know what to believe.

Where do you land now, after all this time?

all 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The public will never know for sure.

He was a very broken person, in many ways. That doesn't prove or disprove that he did anything illegal or immoral.

Some of the ways he acted? They seem questionable to most folks, myself included. But through the lens of his emotional and psychological issues? They could have appeared harmful but actually been harmless.

For example: Is it weird for an adult celebrity to have pajama parties with kids? Yes. Is it harmful if it was, in fact, only a pajama party? Probably not.

Michael Jackson is a complex figure with huge cultural import. That doesn't change the fact that he may have been a problematic individual.

In some ways, he may have been less harmful than other historic figures. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't question the possible bad things he did.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

One thing I keep hearing as a bad thing is that multiple kids have attested to being invited to sleeping in his bedroom.
I just want to point out that his bedroom was the size of a normal middle class house.

I'm not weighing in one way or another, I just want to hilight that this anecdote on its own doesn't indicate anything beyond a sleepover.

But yeah, the heart of the matter is that we don't know, and never will know.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

I don't know but the most compelling evidence in my mind is the personal stories from Macaulay Culkin. Culkin was about as broken as Michael Jackson for similar reasons and I think they had a legitimate bond because of that. I tend to believe Culkin when he says that Jackson's odd behaviors were not a result of ill intent and that Jackson didn't hurt children.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

I don't know what he did and cannot claim to, but I'll say that if his accusers are right, they have a funny way of showing it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I feel like we'll never know