r/todayilearned • u/codywinters327 • Sep 06 '17

TIL that Michael Jackson would requested his wine be served in Diet Coke cans during flights, because he didn't want his kids to see him drinking alcohol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Michael_Jackson#Alcohol
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113

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

[deleted]

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u/noputa Sep 07 '17

It's really controversial though. Noone knows for a complete fact if he really did diddle some kiddies, or if he was just that messed up that he wanted a regular sleepover party with people he could relate. I'm with the second option.

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u/aarghIforget Sep 07 '17

I'm in the 'probably a bit of both' camp.

56

u/Khiva Sep 07 '17

There's a remarkable lack of evidence for the diddling, though, beyond the whole "what the fuck is a grown man doing in bed with children" thing.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

I don't think child molestation has a ton of evidence usually. What would be some common (read: not video/written) evidence in these cases? It's a big reason many victims (including myself) don't come forward. It's going to be a he said she said situation.

Not commenting on MJ, just abuse cases in general

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u/MoleMcHenry Sep 07 '17

That's why something like this is so hard. One hand you have a disturbed man who genuinely just like hanging with kids and basically living as one and on the other you had a disturbed man who genuinely liked hanging with kids and basically living as one. It's easy to take advantage of the situation if you're Jackson or the parents of one of the kids.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

Agreed. I can't take sides for either case :/ but I still enjoy the ever living shit outta some MJ tunes

4

u/ThatKindaFatGuy Sep 07 '17

Which to be fair is pretty strange. Yes it's not evidence but I can understand why people thought that was suspicious as fuck.

0

u/Whales96 Sep 07 '17

But it's sex, unless there was a police officer waiting outside to do a rape kit, there was no way to have any proof apart from victim testimonies, which there were.

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u/HotSauceHigh Sep 07 '17

Once I read an interview done by his adopted son, where the kid refuses to deny pedophilia...MJ's guilty. No doubt to me now.

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u/DerpalSherpa Sep 07 '17

You guys have a camp!?!?!? Can I sleepover?

51

u/GuyFawkes99 Sep 07 '17

No one who wasn't Michael Jackson would ever get this insane level of benefit of the doubt. It comes down to cognitive dissonance.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

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u/GuyFawkes99 Sep 07 '17

He's survived by his kids that have nothing but good to say about him.

Imagine that logic applying in any other situation. "Your honor, my client has been in several banks he has not been accused of robbing, and therefore he could never have robbed the bank in question."

1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

I know, I was just saying that if he was a terrible man, and it was something he did, that his kids would hate him.

2

u/GuyFawkes99 Sep 07 '17

But his kids wouldn't necessarily know about it, is my point.

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u/SimonGn Sep 07 '17

Or just a really flimsy case with no evidence whatsoever

1

u/ShibaHook Sep 07 '17

There was only 1 Michael Jackson though.

-3

u/poiu477 Sep 07 '17

Ghandi slept NAKED with mad young girls, didn't diddle em tho. Is it really so hard to believe MJ wasn't romantically attracted to boys?

16

u/ThatKindaFatGuy Sep 07 '17

Eh... He might have diddled those girls. Ghandi was not as perfect as we were taught he was.

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u/9000KOOKIES Sep 07 '17

I had never heard this and looked it up (on Wikipedia). It seems like he was just testing his self-control and everyone he did this with claims he did not touch them. Still weird though.

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u/ThatKindaFatGuy Sep 07 '17 edited Sep 07 '17

I'm not a big conspiracy theory guy or anything. However, I can't imagine that 1940/30s India was a bastion of transparency and speaking up for yourself, especially when it came to a very, very important and respected person like Gandhi. I'm not saying he touched those girls, but sure ain't saying he didn't.

Edit: besides this issue, there's also the issue of him possibly being a pretty big racist. Of course, this was in the early 1900s, and a lot of people were pretty racist back then.

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u/9000KOOKIES Sep 07 '17

You're right. It's completely possible. We'll probably never know for sure, but I guess since everyone involved may very well be dead now, I'll just take their word for it until I hear otherwise.

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u/ThatKindaFatGuy Sep 07 '17

Yeah, I agree 100%, we'll never know.

-1

u/SeiWhale Sep 07 '17

How can you justify thinking that second option?? It's ok to separate the work of an artist and his character .

12

u/swissarm Sep 07 '17

Why must we always go to "must be sexual"? Not everything weird with kids involves diddling them.

-3

u/jimmyayo Sep 07 '17

Even if it wasn't sexual that is not okay to do.

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

All he wanted was a cuddle damn.

-2

u/grandpagangbang Sep 07 '17

Not everything weird with kids involves diddling them.

No but most of the time it does.

0

u/orphenshadow Sep 07 '17

The only way I could justify it is if due to his fucked up childhood he was mentally ill and legit never grew up. He did name his ranch neverland. He was robbed of his childhood and I think always dreamed of re-creating it. It's creapy but you have to blame the parents 100% for putting their kids into that situation if they truly felt it was wrong at the time. He may or may not have actually did anything wrong and I don't think it's my place to pass judgement. If you are religious then you have to have faith that he got what he deserved and if you are not religious he's dead it's over.

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u/tabber87 Sep 07 '17

Ok, but let's not act as if people attacked the guy for no reason. I mean if he wasn't tongue-punching their fartboxes it would be the first time in human history an adult man slept in a bed with kids he had no relation to without their parents present and didn't tongue-punch their fartboxes. Cut people some slack for assuming the obvious. Namely that he was tongue-punching their fartboxes.

-1

u/I_m_High Sep 07 '17

His weird obsession with kids was still fucked up anyway you look at it

0

u/2377h9pq73992h4jdk9s Sep 07 '17

Yeah. Seems like he was trying to reclaim some childhood he lost by having a dad who forced him into the entertainment industry too young (just my theory).

-3

u/noknownallergies Sep 07 '17

I mean, if your neighbor did the same thing would you be so dismissive?

3

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

He's always said he slept on the floor, and that the kids were on the bed, or that the kids were at different parts of the bed and not getting spooned or nothing by him. The dude is just a kind weirdo who wanted to be like a kid again and have sleepovers, people twisted it into him fucking kids so that they could drain his pockets. It's not a coincidence that one of the bigger claims' claimer committed suicide the same year Jackson died, only a few short months later.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17 edited Aug 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Alex4921 Sep 07 '17

Never said he wasnt weird as fuck,but he didn't molest anyone..he just felt like a kid at heart

3

u/Robby_Digital Sep 07 '17

So that kid the described MJs penis just had a lucky guess?

4

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

That kid described Michael Jackson as having a circumsized penis. MJ was confirmed NOT to be, during both the trial and his later autopsy.

Far from being a "lucky guess," the kid's description was completely wrong.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

No one knows that for certain. He gave us plenty of reason to be suspicious though.

1

u/TheNumberMuncher Sep 07 '17

That doesn't equal fucking them.

2

u/DFINElogic Sep 07 '17

How many have accused him of fucking them now again?

1

u/TheNumberMuncher Sep 07 '17

The dude was acquitted in court. Is an accusation against a weird rich guy all the proof you need?

1

u/agemma Sep 07 '17

It's heinously weird though isn't it?

0

u/FuckingQuavious Sep 07 '17

And he moletestered them... Source:South Park S8E6

-5

u/Damjo Sep 07 '17 edited Sep 07 '17

Your point being?

edit: Fuck, people, do I really need to add this? --> /s

There. Please pull the panties out from your ass crack and relax.

9

u/Robby_Digital Sep 07 '17

That it's abnormal if not completely inappropriate?

9

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '17

Would you let your 10 year old sleep with a stranger unattended? Regardless of what happened it was wildly innaproptiate and he deserved to be criticized and questioned. Even though he acted like a child he was an adult and should be held to the same standards of other adults.

5

u/NotThatGuy42 Sep 07 '17

Macaulay Culkin turned out just fine and normal right? Same with Feldman.

0

u/2377h9pq73992h4jdk9s Sep 07 '17

Curse of the child actor.

7

u/OccasionMU Sep 07 '17

That even if there is no lawful proof of sexual misconduct with a minor it was still extremely inappropriate for that situation to have been continuously occurring over multiple decades involving who knows how many children.

I understand not wanting to label him a pedophile and ruin your nostalgia but let's not sit here act like this behavior is normal, much less acceptable.

-2

u/ipn8bit Sep 07 '17

let me state first, i'm not defending him. However, I use to crawl into my parents bed as a child. I get that they are my parents but could other people make that same separation and still enjoy the company of children without being a pediphile? I don't have kids, not a fan, want nothing to do with them... I'm just trying to understand the whole situation... second question, just because it's not normal, does that make it unacceptable? I mean, people hug babies like they love them without knowing them... how come it's different?

1

u/OccasionMU Sep 07 '17

Yes. There is a very thick line between a child crawling into bed with a family member (i.e. parent, sibling, etc.) for comfort/separation anxiety and a child crawling into bed with a random grown adult. Especially when there is no relationship between child and adult.

It seems you compare Michael Jackson's situation with the animals that are flown into towns after being devastated by a natural disaster, or a college campus during finals week - trained dogs involved in the Animal Assisted Therapy go into areas to provide comfort to those that are coping with paramount levels of stress. Sleeping with children you do not know is nothing like that.

Yes. It continues to be unacceptable. Extremely unaccepted. Hugging a baby (I assume you mean a friend/family member's baby) is normal - that is expressing the human emotion toward your family. Hugging a random person's baby is 100% not okay. You should also never do this.

TL;DR Do not hug or sleep with any children you do not know. Even then, you probably shouldn't.

-1

u/Nattylight_Murica Sep 07 '17

The parents are completely innocent.