Re: The "Leaving Neverland" Rant & Support Thread
Hello, longtime supporter here. I really wanted to reach out with my thoughts/ feedback to the reactions of many here after this latest salacious twist but having been non active on forums since mj's death I had to wait to post here. I wanted to share this in the trials and tribulations section in the post about asking tough questions. And also an overlap with the resources thread. I've been far away from the fan activism side and honestly surprised its still going strong so many years after 2009 ..so while I believe MJ here and in my own scale vehemently defended him in 2003, I do want to share that I have a slightly different perspective with regards to my response to the latest situation here. I have not had the time to research this but my experience of fan activism back then made me feel like mj fans pretty much set the precedent for any kind of disparate but global show of support for a cause. And so it's no surprise that the army is out there again, many in the front lines.. but there is this structure to social media and I feel like its dictating too much. And I'm getting a sense of cacophony to all the support, I can only imagine to an outsider it heightens the experience. The messaging to proclaim mj's character as opposite to the current lurid claims is too fragmented. To those of you feeling so much physical and emotional stress from defending online, don't do this to yourself, losing sleep/going without food. Yes, the situation is terrible, you want to fight etc but let not this response become a machine that eats you up. Taking care of yourself, your sanity your health and your family needs is equally important. There are many things mj said that made a strong impression on me and are just sitting there in my head ready to play. One of them is, that children shouldn't have to compete with the evening news to get your attention. Right now his name is on the news but don't lose track of your priorities or responsibilities. Just a reminder to those who may be too engrossed, don't mean to be preachy. Please don't expect the estate to behave like fan, it's healthy to forget they exist.
I'm not ablo be as organized, efficient or careful with my typing here so please excuse anything amiss.. before I continue, I want to point to
& emphasize the super insightful points made by a user 'kilrahi' in the trial & tribulations section..
This all boils down to who you believe. Different from who you believe in. Nothing else matters. Not the court documents, not the proof, not the pictures etc. Because that is the world. It is dualistic in nature. There has been this Dr.jekyl & mr.hyde insinuation about mj for a long time now, as a fan you need to realize & accept this dictate of society. So... Who do you believe? It's the only question that you need to be able to answer without pause. Again .. The question is not " who would you rather believe?" It is simply, "who do you believe?" You have to start from there and acknowledge if you are comfortable with how you got there.
That's really the only one to answer. Because there are others to get mired into, like ' if mj were alive and said no, I didn't ask safechuck or this mom anything, I didn't call' would you believe MJ? Did anyone save verifiable phone records? Are they reliable? There will always be some rabbithole but the question at the end is always is this true? So the only thing to ask is, who do you believe now?
And to answer that question, you need hear from both sides.
They said, he did this. You need to hear from the other side. And you haven't. So, you may want to believe them, doesn't change the fact that you unfairly did not hear from the other side. So all the people 'believing' them, are doing it knowing but not openly acknowledging that they haven't heard the other side.. It is for them to question why they need to believe only one side to come to a conclusion. This isn't your regular metoo story. The accused is non existent now, no chance of hearing his version. A basic social and legal tenet of human interaction has been abandoned. This needs to be highlighted. I did read one or two articles about this but this shouldn't be given the wide pass that it has been given.
This is the biggest flaw in this a/v production parading around as a documentary. Mj fans need to re-strategize and make a trending hashtag of it. Every place it is called a documentary should be called out with a good hash tag decrying that description. For that matter, I feel like mj innocent hash tag doesn't work that good. From what I've been reading, one of the pro mj people said 'mj's no innocent but he didn't do that'. So I think #ibelievemj would be a less fan-ny / more real world hashtag that more people will get behind.
Now regards hearing from the other side... Mj is not around. Again, this needs to be highlighted like crazy. How many thousands of news articles on this subject? Do any of them actually mention the words 'late' Michael Jackson? Do any of them mention " Michael Jackson died in 2009 "...
There is this perpetuation of an idea that this person still exists, it's a very convenient use of a nice less explored corner of psychology here, but it plays well into the notion of business as an entity. Basically all these radio DJs not wanting to play his music, removing his statues, removing his name... You think for a minute they care about anything other than losing $$$? If you don't uphold the principle of letting someone defend their name, don't talk about any principles thereafter to me. DJs will be worried about losing advertiser support, so let them do their boycott thing. If you like your mj music, you no longer need the radio to listen to it.. it's 2019. Don't be so worried about the symbolism. Less symbolism is good for a true legacy. Mj made good use of the visual image to reach a wider audience but it doubles as an eroding agent in time. A more iron clad reach he had was his voice. So..coming back... How can mj speak for himself? He is dead. But I'm sure he left some recordings..
I have heard mj say he wanted to be a voice for the voiceless. And now he is there one without a voice? Let mj be heard. In social media & on TV. Instead of regurtitating the news & responses, and RTs.
Please chill a bit with the video montages, the rebuttals, the infographics - family, fans, friends. Everytime an mj supporter goes on air, instead of speaking, can they play a clip of mj speaking? A more unified response where the one voice that needs to heard is given airtime. That may be a far more effective protest of this entire shock and awe strategy used by the accusing team. A way of celebrating mj's legacy is to cut down the amount of airtime this terrible narrative gets. Mj name in the news shouldn't be synonomous with buzz words of child abuse. Supporters need not feel pressured to engage in a conversation they are not comfortable having. I can only recall how shocked I was at Oprah's question to mj in the 93 interview whether he was a virgin. I could never respect her because of that. There are still some people in the world who don't want to speak about everything and it's ok.
It would be great to have easy access to a compilation of short audio clips of mj .. one I'm thinking of is his denial in the Diane Sawyer interview. "... That's a nut, go to the guy down the street, that's not Michael Jackson"
So my rant is coming to an end, sorry I'm one of those I have big ideas but can't stick around to do anything more. That's just where I am. Hope this helped some with the trauma they are going through. That's what it is. I rmbr reading on cnn in 2003 " what should we tell our children" and I was enraged. The article went on with some psychologist tips .. I say it's about time the tables turned. What about all the trauma faced by supporters of mj? Where is the responsible, sensitive reporting calls in that scenario?
It's all double standards, all the time, as an mj fan I have learned that very very valuable lesson.
