I see it too. It is impossible to describe how popular he was in this period: he and his brothers were on tv constantly, plus making records and doing Vegas and international tours and promos and whatever else anyone wanted them to do. In the US in the early to mid 70s you literally could not go a week without hearing or seeing a reference to the Jackson 5 and especially Michael.
But what we didn’t see at the time is that he and his brothers were effectively slaves, with their dad signing them up wherever he could make a dime out of it while the kids just worked and worked and worked, plus they had to be nice to everyone, could never let their guard down, could never just be kids, could never really personally enjoy any of the money everyone else was making off them at the time. They weren’t even allowed any creative say in their earlier records: it was a shut up and sing situation.
So in this picture, Michael was exhausted and his father was still running his life, a relationship he always called physically and emotionally abusive in later years, as did his sister LaToya.
It doesn’t excuse whatever he did later in life, but he looks a bit sad and tired probably because he was.
IDK maybe MJ was an oddball and probably a little nuts but when they raided his house, his porn collection was in a locked briefcase in the bathroom and it wasn’t creepy. Just normal porn magazines. So that tells me that if he was around kids and probably not a normal way, he was at least locking his porn and kept it from the kids
Yeah, that’s why I worded it the way I did. For myself, I don’t know what to believe; I just figured if I didn’t at least nod to the allegations someone would assume a position for me anyway.
And whenever the subject comes up, I can’t help but reflect that there is an absolute fuckton of cash involved no matter which direction the truth travels, and the legal burden of proof for historic child abuse claims varies wildly from state to state.
In MJ’s case, there are a small number of potential litigants, a massive amount of cash, people who stand to benefit no matter which way the wind blows, not a lot of objective proof for or against, and all of that in a situation already made murky just by the way survivor memory works. In a situation where an offender is very rich, the legal situation can get insane. And I think we’ve all seen some of that with MJ, with accusations and retractions and family members and settlements.
So I just don’t know, but if I had to give a verdict I’d say not guilty. Not just for that but also for what @Art3mis said as well.
There’s another reason too. IMO, the one characteristic that never changes in sexual abusers, especially pedos, is the extreme arrogance of entitlement. If you’ve ever had to deal with one, underneath all the tears and excuses and manufactured outrage they literally believe they have the right to that kid’s body.
But Jackson didn’t seem self-aggrandizing or entitled at all, especially not about children. Rather, as Art3mis pointed out, MJ was legitimately protective of the children around him.
And given everything he had to say about his own upbringing, he knew for himself what abuse was, and lived the hell of a survivor himself in a number of ways. It just seems more unlikely than not to me that he’d visit any kind of that same survivor hell on the children around him. As you said, MJ locked up his porn: a predator is far more likely to leave it laying around in the open deliberately, to passively normalize the idea of sexuality through the environment for any passing child. That doesn’t mean MJ couldn’t have done it in other ways, but it’s definitely not the typical “I need to find a way to coax this kid into this unwanted activity” predatory behavior.
But either way, for better or worse, I grew up with him. In the first half of the 70s in the US, you literally couldn’t turn on a tv and not see him. This is not an exaggeration. He was on every variety show, every performance show, even talk shows, and specials. Oh god so many tv specials, lol. But he had an incredibly sad life in so many ways, they all did.
I really havent done a deep dive or anything but as someone that performed as a kid and faced a lot of abuse, i believe the folks that say he was providing a safe space for the kids in a hostile world. Going against that culture in hollywood is certain to ruffle some feathers enough to spread rumors.
Macaulay Culkin and Corey Feldman seem to defend his friendship in a way that suggests he was a good friend to them. Feldman seems to not shy away from spilling the beans on the horrible things that happened to him but he defends MJ, so maybe that says something.
Honestly feldman’s defence is a big part of why i believe it. Tbcf, i was raised on mj, so i already didnt want to believe the rumors but it really just comes off as hollywood vitriol
Michael was about 17 here. I feel like he has a sad smile, especially compared to Bob’s
I see it too. It is impossible to describe how popular he was in this period: he and his brothers were on tv constantly, plus making records and doing Vegas and international tours and promos and whatever else anyone wanted them to do. In the US in the early to mid 70s you literally could not go a week without hearing or seeing a reference to the Jackson 5 and especially Michael.
But what we didn’t see at the time is that he and his brothers were effectively slaves, with their dad signing them up wherever he could make a dime out of it while the kids just worked and worked and worked, plus they had to be nice to everyone, could never let their guard down, could never just be kids, could never really personally enjoy any of the money everyone else was making off them at the time. They weren’t even allowed any creative say in their earlier records: it was a shut up and sing situation.
So in this picture, Michael was exhausted and his father was still running his life, a relationship he always called physically and emotionally abusive in later years, as did his sister LaToya.
It doesn’t excuse whatever he did later in life, but he looks a bit sad and tired probably because he was.
IDK maybe MJ was an oddball and probably a little nuts but when they raided his house, his porn collection was in a locked briefcase in the bathroom and it wasn’t creepy. Just normal porn magazines. So that tells me that if he was around kids and probably not a normal way, he was at least locking his porn and kept it from the kids
Yeah, that’s why I worded it the way I did. For myself, I don’t know what to believe; I just figured if I didn’t at least nod to the allegations someone would assume a position for me anyway.
And whenever the subject comes up, I can’t help but reflect that there is an absolute fuckton of cash involved no matter which direction the truth travels, and the legal burden of proof for historic child abuse claims varies wildly from state to state.
In MJ’s case, there are a small number of potential litigants, a massive amount of cash, people who stand to benefit no matter which way the wind blows, not a lot of objective proof for or against, and all of that in a situation already made murky just by the way survivor memory works. In a situation where an offender is very rich, the legal situation can get insane. And I think we’ve all seen some of that with MJ, with accusations and retractions and family members and settlements.
So I just don’t know, but if I had to give a verdict I’d say not guilty. Not just for that but also for what @Art3mis said as well.
There’s another reason too. IMO, the one characteristic that never changes in sexual abusers, especially pedos, is the extreme arrogance of entitlement. If you’ve ever had to deal with one, underneath all the tears and excuses and manufactured outrage they literally believe they have the right to that kid’s body.
But Jackson didn’t seem self-aggrandizing or entitled at all, especially not about children. Rather, as Art3mis pointed out, MJ was legitimately protective of the children around him.
And given everything he had to say about his own upbringing, he knew for himself what abuse was, and lived the hell of a survivor himself in a number of ways. It just seems more unlikely than not to me that he’d visit any kind of that same survivor hell on the children around him. As you said, MJ locked up his porn: a predator is far more likely to leave it laying around in the open deliberately, to passively normalize the idea of sexuality through the environment for any passing child. That doesn’t mean MJ couldn’t have done it in other ways, but it’s definitely not the typical “I need to find a way to coax this kid into this unwanted activity” predatory behavior.
But either way, for better or worse, I grew up with him. In the first half of the 70s in the US, you literally couldn’t turn on a tv and not see him. This is not an exaggeration. He was on every variety show, every performance show, even talk shows, and specials. Oh god so many tv specials, lol. But he had an incredibly sad life in so many ways, they all did.
I really havent done a deep dive or anything but as someone that performed as a kid and faced a lot of abuse, i believe the folks that say he was providing a safe space for the kids in a hostile world. Going against that culture in hollywood is certain to ruffle some feathers enough to spread rumors.
Macaulay Culkin and Corey Feldman seem to defend his friendship in a way that suggests he was a good friend to them. Feldman seems to not shy away from spilling the beans on the horrible things that happened to him but he defends MJ, so maybe that says something.
Honestly feldman’s defence is a big part of why i believe it. Tbcf, i was raised on mj, so i already didnt want to believe the rumors but it really just comes off as hollywood vitriol
yeah, but a glorious fro
It sucks being white not, only will I never have hair like that but as a white person I’m not allowed to as much as I’m not allowed to have dreads.