u/PradaAndPunishment

the evidence seems so convoluted.

from what little research i’ve done, it seems like the parents of the victims accused michael, and then when the kids grew up the first thing they did (or felt like they had to do) was go on talk shows & write books about how nothing nefarious happened, but then switched up again and said michael did molest them.

people point to a recording where a father is heard bragging about how much money he’s going to extort from mj as proof of innocence. but all this could mean is that the father cares more about money than justice for his son. people say the meds michael was on prevented him from getting erections, but assault can still occur outside of penetration.

on the flip side, people say why would a grown man sleep in bed next to children he isn’t related to, but mj had a pattern of eccentrics like hiring actors for a supermarket so that he could pretend to shop for groceries. they say why would he pay them off if he was innocent, but who wouldn’t pay to not have “pedophile” associated with their name?

on one hand, he was legally acquitted and the fbi investigated him for years and found nothing. on the other, why would the accusers make themselves public social pariahs for nothing? it makes perfect sense to me why a victim would recant. they’ll still battling it today.

i went to see the biopic last week (3/10, big budget behind the scenes music video) and even though though i thought it flattened michael as a person it still got me interested in his music. my friends and i were too young to have witnessed michael mania, but his music is unmistakably incredible. we’re getting together to listen to his albums this weekend but i also don’t want to financially support the estate of a child molester, and the idea that the art can be separated from the artist is a cop out to me.

is there more evidence in either direction? do you think we’ll ever know the truth?