HIStory - Listening to the song and album in 2025

R1chard said:

Are you saying one implies the other?

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No, of course not. But these people are drawn to the song because they completely misconstrued the lyrics. These people think the song is somehow on their side simply because THAT LINE. And now the press, reporting on the leak of these Telegram logs, are reporting about them using the song and using it to attack Michael, calling him a bigot. And they are thus reviving this blatant manufactroversy, which was all done solely to stir controversy when it was clear what Michael's intent and meaning was.

Toxic34 said:

No, of course not. But these people are drawn to the song because they completely misconstrued the lyrics. These people think the song is somehow on their side simply because THAT LINE. And now the press, reporting on the leak of these Telegram logs, are reporting about them using the song and using it to attack Michael, calling him a bigot. And they are thus reviving this blatant manufactroversy, which was all done solely to stir controversy when it was clear what Michael's intent and meaning was.

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Conclusion: people are dumb, will always be, listening to the song once or reading the lyrics would clear up everything.

Annoying af? Yes. What can you do about it? Basically nothing.

Here's an excerpt that Variety has regarding the lyrics and the manufactroversy from Dan Beck's new book:

The way that album has become so relevant today is eerie. In my opinion, HIStory is the crown jewel of his artistry.
Years ago I used to say - I still say this in some way - that the difference between MJ and Janet/Madonna/Prince is that MJ never really broke out of his pop formula after Thriller and I never felt he really branched out of what he did in Thriller (or Off the Wall). While the other 3 were always reinventing themselves and being super sociological and anthropological and indie and avant garde and everything. That doesn't mean I don't love Thriller, Bad and Dangerous. But HIStory? Still follows the same formula to some extent but it does something really crazy with it. As a body of work it is more relevant today than any Prince/Madonna/Janet album. They have one song here and there about the state of the world (Janet's State of the World) , but not a FULL album, filled with anger, that speaks about all the problems of the world today, and it feels like these problems have reached an unimaginable level that we never thought in 1995. He created an album for mass commercial success, and at the same time it's such an introspective album on his state of mind at the time, and on top of all that, from the onset to the last song, it speaks of all the shades and hues of the dark turn humanity has been taken to. They Don't Care About Us was used in the BLM protests. People still go out and sing TDCAU in protests (not talking about the neonaz1s). This is the kind of thing an artist should stand for. We're finally reaching a point of no return on the environment and it's very clear to everyone that the extreme climate events are much more common - Earth Song. Palestinian children are being murdered, tortured in a senseless genocide - Childhood, Little Susie, History. The mainstream media mask fell off and people realized how much they twist and lie on everything - Tabloid Junkie. Corrupt cops, corrupt government, dictatorship being installed all over the US and they trying to bring that dictatorship into other countries for corrupt reasons - Money, DS and They Don't Care About us. Every day we make our history.