Is there a single viable claim against him?
From what I recall it was parents trying ton get money and nobody confirmed he abused them, even McAuley Cullen.
Comment on Anon defends Michael Jackson
13esq@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Anyone who thinks Jackson wasn’t a pedophile is willfully blind.
Being a great artist doesn’t stop you from being a very sick man. His upbringing certainly is an extenuating circumstance, but it doesn’t change the nature of his relationships with young boys.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
13esq@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Leaving Neverland g.co/kgs/8Bqcp49
I watched this not just with an open mind, but like many others here, with the mind that people were colluding to extortionate money from Jackson. This completely changed my mind.
I mean, I get it. If one of my favourite artists was accused of being a pedo, I’d defend them and say the claims can’t be proven etc. In this case, I think it’s safe to say that whilst he wasn’t a full blown child rapist, that he clearly had an attraction to young boys.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
I can’t stand MJ music so he is far from an idol of mine.
I just haven’t seen any evidence or convictions to claim he was a pedo. Even in this documentary, that I’ve seen a while ago.
13esq@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t believe that you watched both parts of that documentary and still thought that nothing untowards was going on.
Dasus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
In this case, I think it’s safe to say that whilst he wasn’t a full blown child rapist, that he clearly had an attraction to young boys that went much further than just fantasy.
What with the whole Wonderland, seems like it, yeah.
However… was that attraction sexual, per se?
. Being a weirdly childish dude who wants to play with children seems way less worse than pretending to be a weird childish dude in order to rape kids.
13esq@lemmy.world 2 months ago
At the end of the day, we’ll probably never know and many people argue that he should get the benefit of the doubt unless proven otherwise.
I think not only was his childhood was repressed, but also his sexual development and I’d be absolutely unsurprised to find that his attraction to young boys was partly, at least some of the time, sexual.
BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 2 months ago
There are probably just as many people coming out to say they accused him just for the money than people actually accusing him. I’m not saying he’s innocent, but i’m pretty sure i know him just as well as you do. Maybe you are willfully blind because you just want him to be a paedophile
Rakonat@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t really care for his music and his behavior was immature at best (all can be chaulked up to his father.) but I’ll believe evidence of his misdeeds when I see it. Every single accusation was walked back and admitted to be pressured by parents or lawyers for an out of court settlement and every investigation, including by the FBI found zero wrong doing. If he had inappropriately touched a child we’d have some evidence about it.
x4740N@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Some accusations are also doubtful due to the use of sodium amytal
Doom@ttrpg.network 2 months ago
Nah I don’t think he did. Two reasons
Every accusation is super weak and some get walked back. Michael Jackson suffered from toxic masculinity, he wasn’t allowed to play with children because he was a man. Society is the issue there.
Second reason that sells it, Macaulay Culkin, Hollywood fucked this dude up he’s literally talked about it and he says Michael was legit.
13esq@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Macaulay Culkin saying that nothing happened to him doesn’t mean nothing happend with any other of the young boys.
petersr@lemmy.world 2 months ago
His father was a complete piece of shit and treated him horribly and also he was never really allowed a proper childhood.
So I have heard some people argue that perhaps he was not a pedophile, but rather just really mentally ill, partly believing to be a kid that just wanted child playmates. Still wrong for an adult to act like this, but perhaps there was no sexual misconduct.
Not sure what to believe and perhaps I just don’t want him to be a villain, but I would like to hear if there is some concrete evidences.
HeartyOfGlass@lemm.ee 2 months ago
The thing is - there is no evidence of sexual misconduct. He’s been investigated by just about everyone from local cops to the FBI since the early 90s, and despite the outcry there’s never been evidence. Considering how our justice system dealt with another high-profile figure’s history of sexual abuse, I have to believe something concrete would’ve turned up by now.
Inappropriate? Absolutely. Illegal? Pedophilia? Doubtful. I mean, provided we genuinely believe in “Innocent until proven guilty” ideal…