I've deliberately taken myself away from the internet for the past few days and I feel like it's really given me some perspective. Over the last few weeks I've literally been obsessing over this whole ordeal and it's consumed so much of my energy. During the last few weeks I've been trying to guage everyone's reactions on social media and the whole process has been overwelming. Reading so many conflicted opinions caused me to lose sight of my own belief as doubters were calling in to question the integrity of fans and being "complicit to child abuse" by showing support. I felt that I was being judged and made to feel ashamed of my stance, which is strange as I never encountered these feelings in 2005 (possibly due to my young age at the time).
Since then I've had some time to re-group my thoughts and I feel like I'm in a clearer head space. Facts are firmly on our side and in actuality - nothing has changed in recent years. Knowledge is power and I've really empowered that concept in recent days. These allegations have dogged Michael throughout the whole of my fandom and I'm not going to allow a one sided manipulative documentary cause me to abandon ship. I'd be a hypocrite if I did!
Most surprisingly the fall out of the documentary hasn't been as bad as I had anticipated. Of course, I'm not naive in denying that MJ's reputation will suffer, but at large it will remain somewhat intact. We've had the luxury of being able to celebrate MJ's legacy recently and I think everyone is feeling exposed as the allegations are resurfacing, causing emotions to run high.
I've categorically decided not to watch the documentary and I have no desire to watch it in the future. Some doubters may argue that I'm shying away from the "truth" but I refute that. It's apparent that this documentary is intended to be extremely provocative and pry on emotional vulnerabilities given the subject matter. There is no balance available and you're being force fed an agenda, and quite frankly, I feel the unnecessary lurid details are deplorable.
I personally think it's a bad idea for any avid fan to watch this documentary as it risks destroying your own personal image of Michael for good - regardless if you go into watching it as staunch believer in MJ's innocence. I've saw many fans fall victim to this already which is incredibly sad. To repeatedly engrain idea's into someones mind is undoubtedly going to have an impact. This is Reeds intention and it's clearly been effective for some which is why people have self declared cancelling MJ.
It's interesting to note that those who have had an invested interest in MJ appear to be the more influenced by this documentary, whereas the casual spectator has been very dismissive of it in general. Contrary to what the media report, and are forcing us to feel, the general public are simply not buying this charade which is incredibly reassuring.
I have an optimistic outlook on this and I firmly believe that the tide will soon turn on the creater and partipants of this abomination. We'll just need to play the long game.
But just to reinforce what others are saying. If you're starting to feel massivley conflicted it's time to take a break!