I’m old enough to remember him as the King of Pop, but young enough that I can’t remember him not being a weirdo. I respect the music, but was never a fan. (For context)

To me it always felt like he was trying to reclaim his childhood. His father was horrible to those kids and worked them to the bone. As a billionaire adult he was able to do ALL the things that every kid dreams of, like having an amusement park in your backyard, and a pet chimp. He shared his stuff with other child stars that he probably could relate to. I honestly believe he was just having sleep overs with his friends.

He was a deeply damaged, deeply odd man, and he definitely had no sense of what was socially appropriate, but I have literally no idea if he took sexual gratification from it all or committed any crimes. He was the absolute poster child for “reasonable doubt.”

Wouldn’t let my kid sleep over, though.

I don’t think so. Mostly because actual victims of pedos like Feldman and caulkin still insist that MJ was on the up and up. Additionally as far as I know, he’s only been thought of as a pedo because of accusations against him by a kid whose family has a habit of suing and accusing wealthy people of abusing their kids.

The waters have been muddied enough that I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure, but I think it’s certain to say that he had a pretty fucked up childhood, which meant that at the very least his behaviour as an adult was extremely strange.

I’m going to say I honestly don’t know but the guy was definetly messed in the head but I think he was a talent I’m not going to judge him because I really do not know (would I let any kid of mine sleep over him, no I wouldn’t but that goes for anyone else as well) .

Jimmy Saville on the other hand is hopefully in hell.

Did he do inappropriate things with children? Yes, definitely.

Did he do illegal things with children? I don’t think so.

I don’t think he deserves the hate. He was messed up in the head, but I don’t think he was a Harvey Weinstein or a Bill Cosby.

Considering everyone recanted an he wasn’t convicted, no I don’t think he did

I think he was just a weird and the media loves scandals

I think he’s probably guilty. Maybe 60-40

I don’t know, I just chalk it up to another L on the genius-madness scoreboard. We’ll always have some fond memories of before he went off the deep end.

The “Jesus Juice” thing, in retrospect, sounds very Cosby adjacent. :(

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-30131791.html

Ask Wade, there’s an entire documentary on this. He absolutely diddled children

I’m too young to remember Jackomania. In my politically moderate (by US standards) upbringing, he was the subject of many deeply racist, transphobic jokes, all juxtaposed with the child molestation thing. I dont really have any other memory of him, aside from the simpsons episode of him (made at the height of Jackomaia).

That all being said, any expectations I have were set by Talking Simpsons, and the fact that that is the only episode not on Disney+. The episode was very much made at Jackson’s insistence. He had an unhealthy obsession with Bart Simpson, and the episode itself was made with his intention to lure more boys in. It was very much selling the fantasy of being plucked from obscurity by Jackson-as-sexless-music-elf, and you, a little boy, could stay up all night writing the next pop hit. A few of his victims even cited the episode, and one detail that stuck with me was that Jackson would invite boys over with their sisters, as cover.

Jackson had a deeply traumatic upbringing in the public eye, and I cant imagine the fame or racism went down easy, especially when that venom was all he knew. But there is no doubt in my mind that he did molest little boys.

I take the allegations with a grain of salt. The “pedo panic” is turning out as being minimally different from the Satanic panic, the red scare, and whatever we had before Stonewall, in fact there are fears I’ve seen illustrated well that it won’t end in a way that suits anyone. Did it happen? We may never know, and to assume is always premature. Notice all such allegations have a formulaic binary mindset.