Datsymay...I am going to try to put it nicely to your opinions or anyone's believing similar things or dropping to the wrong conclusions.
You have no right to belittle Michael's feelings (or his family's) just because you feel you can smell B.S. I will not criticize anyone in the family, I'll give you some facts, instead of opinions and tell it a bit blatantly, so you can understand:
1. Joseph Jackson did expose his children himself to various clubs with strippers in order for them to perform and become famous, including to people that drink, swear and be violent in places as those like "this beautiful blonde girl...who was actually a disguised man with oranges in the front" (not reproducing this quote entirely correct, but from my memory of Michael's words in "Moonwalk". Oh, and what does him drinking from time to time, saying a few words here and there and reading porn have to do with that? He saw things that a child wasn't suppose to see from that age and was "blowen away". Does he have to say all those things publicly somehow to make himself more human? Noobody called him a saint. A better man than most, yes, though. And...As far as I know, he does not harm anyone with these and does not make a habit of them, so this a random remark. He would even hide him drinking wine or sth like in Coke cans that on the planes, due to nervousness, so children should not see him. But I digress.
2. Joseph Jackson did call Michael "big nose" as well as his brothers, and he felt ugly and belittled because of this, so he would hide and not look people in the eye, because it was already a soft spot for him to deal with, (even though it should not have, as he was always beautiful) especially when you go through your puberty-adolescent stages, which doubles insecurity and tension => so where did the name-calling to his siblings derive from?...You guessed. And is he the only sibling doing that to his brothers? Maybe when pigs will start flying. Especially in a time when a self-insecurity was developed with age, instead of it being healed. I am going to say it again, most of those name-callings (I explained more on this in a first post of mine in the "Janet on Joe and half-sister" thread) were affectionate ones, especially cute ones as "Donkey" or "Bozo" and the like. Besides, Michael apologized for them anyway and stopped with them after his adolescence or later, as Janet herself admitted. many other people never do so. Many children beat other children or their brothers, other people retaliate on other people or their family violently, he never did that, and Janet and la Toya would also call him the definition of non-violence or sth to that extent.
3. Instead of offering him assistance and help for his insecurities, they became so developed, and even plastic surgery intervened. Don't belittle the man's feelings after all the tears he cried and the swollen eyes he had sometimes when performing (i.e.: for instance, "Ben" at the Sonny and Cher Show"). But I digress again, I suppose. And Just because you read from Michael's own members of his family what they say about him, that is fine, as long as they happen to be in his mind or heart too; it is not like everyone has to know clearly how to interpret him or understand and empathize with him, even if they lived with him.
4. Again, I will resort to those already becoming annoying phone tapes in 1991 for the continuing incredulous ones who call him a liar (with respect to most of the things he says about his personality and childhood). You said you haven't heard him speak in those, especially about his childhood; you can live in denial all you want, and you probably would choose to call him a liar even after hearing them, but he can't be possibly lying in there either. And you don't have to listen to them, no one has to. But keep in mind once more about everyone's level os sensitivity, which is different. Yes, Joseph did whip his sons in order to discipline them and protect them from being impolite, carefree and the like as well, I agree, but many actions contradicted with this discipline, as I have shown above.
5. Joseph and / or the Corporation made them lie every once in a while about certain things: as Diana Ross actually discovering them, about Michael being 1 or 2 years younger, about them celebrating Christmasses and Birthdays, about them being a "tight-knit" family (I quote Michael in here, and the sources of that time), he dismisses the truth in all that again..where? At point number 4, of course. So, this little white lies thing from time to time is an influence stemming again from his childhood and out of the fear of completely being open about things publicly. And I believe he said I don't know how many times about the courage to forgive other people, and he forgave everyone.
6. Remember he has Vitiligo; Vitiligo can either run in the family or can be formed in circumstances as extreme stress and the like. Whatever the causes, it can even go to affect someone's psychology and sensitivity. These things have both sensitivitized Michael and made him strong and reasonable, like a blessing in disguise, I don't know. He reached to the point of taking it out on himself many times or by means of art, he saw things that were not even in there or in himself and other people would only judge him without trying to heal or help him somehow, and it was, probably, too late, anyway. No particular point to prove in here, but it is one serious issue, and I know it is controversial, so I'll leave it to that. But, hell, anything to put out some justice sense upfront.
7. Joseph and his brothers used to have sex with girls even before him and his young brothers or in a near room where he would listen to everything, while he was suffering in silence and trying to both protect the privacy of his father and the utmost respect and love for his mother. What an enjoyable situation that must have been. You have no idea about his feelings on topics as those, but I can hint at how he sighed and reflected on stuff like that in those damn tapes. Again, call him a liar for sighing.
8. About this love for horror movies and scarying others: again, you have provided a weak argument. Did it ever occur to you that short movies like "Thriller" or "Ghosts" and other songs like these are to exorcise his demons of fear he has collected as a child and throughout his life? The many personal and public fears he was submitted to, the impact theymay have caused, the frustration he had to let out somehow.You said his father used to scare them with appearing on the window and stuff and made that a trifle out of that...Maybe that was a trifle, but you'll need to know that Michael felt traumatized by stuff like that and would call him "Monster Man" with some cane and stuff secretly...where do I know this from? Again...those bloody tapes others need to not believe. Does Michael really want to scare people? No, he chose to express his fears and resorts to art instead of venting out to people and punish them. A really visual idea from all this is the self-torture in the "Ghosts" short film he does, when hitting his head to pieces to the ground. Call him an exagerator.
9. La Toya, in a 1972 column from the TcB magazine, I believe, used to say Michael's mother would sometimes chastize him or make him go to his room to "recover" from laughing, so yes, she would also discipline her children; but he always called her an "angel" and felt somehow always saved by her, hw would cry with her looking at children with flies around their mouth and empathise with each other, so don't put Joseph and Katherine in the same boat here. even if she defended Joseph sometimes, one has to protect their family publicly from time to time.
I know there are more arguments I missed, but my time is up...and once again I had to resort to prying into people's private world to make a point, because some people choose to protect their iron opinions and minimize the extent of certain actions and even the actions themselves, merely because of attributing situations as these to other families, children and situation. Smelling B.S. in the wrong places is wrong. Yes, Michael became such a strong, resilient, forgiving person and so many great things. But you know what? He has mostly taught and disciplined himself (with a great deal of influence from the Bible, his mother, children etc.) and life's experiences and could come through things other people could have only escaped by means of either death or suicide and the like and cultivated his faith.
I am wasting a lot of precious time here to explain things other people refuse to take into consideration, as they think they know better. But I won't let people claim things they have no real idea about and are rushed with opinions or analyse things wrong. And quite frankly, they might think whatever they wish, it's not like they could touch or bother Michael anymore. He rises above all **** as always, anyway.