Michael Jackson may be dead, but the accusations of sexual assault, rape and paedophilia against him have very much come back to life.

That’s largely down to Leaving Neverland, the new two-part documentary series that has aired over the past two days in the US.

Many of the considered reviews online speak about how shocking and detailed the accusations are, and it takes a hardcore Jackson fan to walk away convinced that the King of Pop isn’t guilty of some form of child abuse.

Clearly, the world is full of such people, and the protests against the documentary by Jackson ‘Truthers’ have even reached the Great Wall of China.

In the age of #MeToo, and the realisation that those who speak out about abuse have been victimised for so long, we are inclined to believe those whose lives are turned upside down by coming forward and speaking out against the powerful.

Not everybody shares that view, and there are thousands of videos on YouTube seeking to discredit the allegations against Jackson.

Here’s one of the more popular, which comes from a chap called The Rageaholic. His channel has close to 200 000 subscribers, and the video is nearing the 150 000 view count at the time of writing.

Make of this what you will, but I’d suggest someone gets out of their mom’s basement at some point in the near future:

In case you’re wondering where Part One can be found, he uploaded it back in 2016.

Here’s the thing – for decades, Michael Jackson’s extensive network used their considerable financial and legal clout to silence those who sought to speak up against him.

Now that these two men and their families have gone into great detail about their alleged abuse at his hands, and that cannot be buried, efforts turn towards discrediting them as witnesses.

And yes, they have testified in the past defending Jackson against claims of abuse, but times have changed, and victims of sexual abuse are now increasingly emboldened to speak out.

Not that we make it easy for them.

It’s what happened with Christine Blasey Ford when she spoke out about Brett Kavanaugh, it’s what happened with the first few women who came forward about Bill Cosby, and it’s what Harvey Weinstein’s team continues to do to his accusers.

At some point, we might want to face up to the fact that we’re not very good at showing basic decency to alleged victims.

A final thought from Vox:

 It is easy — far, far too easy — to dismiss the testimony of survivors of assault as “looking for attention” when you read about it in the newspaper, or just catch a short segment about it on the news, or see a headline on Facebook. Indeed, Jackson’s estate’s lawsuit against HBO alleges that the film and its subjects are “out to profit from [Jackson’s] enormous worldwide success and take advantage of his eccentricities,” and that he is “an easy target because he is not here to defend himself.”

Never mind that false reports of sexual assault are rare, or that the reasons survivors often do not come forward right away are well-known and documented. Assuming that survivors are speaking out in pursuit of their own fame and fortune is still an incredibly common response to those who allege sexual harassment or assault, particularly if it happened many years prior.

And it’s especially prevalent when, in retrospect, it seems as if everyone must have known what was going on, or likely going on, but were willing to ignore it because a powerful, famous man denied it and offered proximity to glamour, fame, and opportunity in return…

You could watch Leaving Neverland and still choose to believe that Robson and Safechuck’s stories are elaborate webs of baldfaced lies designed so that they can benefit, in some way, from a brilliant, troubled dead man. Many doubtless will. But you’d better pause to take a long, hard, unsparing look inside first.

Indeed.

[source:vox]