For as long as I can remember, I've gobbled up any MJ information I could find. He was like a rare unicorn. Yes, there's TONS and tons of video of him now but his actual appearances on TV were few, post Thriller. We'd go months if not years waiting for our next MJ fix. It was always a special and magical event when we finally saw him. We always were left hungry for just a little more.

With that said, there are a few things that we just decided to ignore. Things that I'm seeing with more mature eyes that are tainting my views of Michael. Some aren't even in the documentary.

-He DEMANDED that a kid be allowed to go with him on tour. I think it was during the time of Dangerous. He wanted to take this kid from his family and got mad when they refused. He threatened the family with his layers. This wasn't either of the two from the documentary, either.

-He somehow always attached himself to the "kid if the moment". From Emmanuel (Webster) Lewis to Macaulay Culkin. Whatever kids America was fascinated with, they were hanging with Michael.

-He never really had any public relationships or relationships at all. Just these weird obsessions with people like Brooke Shields, Elizabeth Taylor, or Diana Ross. His two weddings were just...weird.

-He had drug addictions. Just like a kid, right? He had gone to rehab many times and he was smart enough to "doctor shop" for the ones who'd give him what he wanted instead of the ones who would give him what he needed.

-He straight up lied about not knowing what "skin bleaching" was. He had the creams that would give him that effect. Yes, he did have vitaligo. He also lied about his surgeries. He claimed he only had two for breathing issues when there were actually over a dozen.

-We say "Poor Michael didn't have a childhood" but he had several siblings. Like 8 or something, off the top of my head. Some older and some younger. They grew up in the same household. Michael didn't go solo until he was in his teens. If Michael didn't have a childhood, they didn't either. None of them turned out like he did.

-I HAD a childhood. It only lasted a small amount of time. Michael wanted his childhood to last for DECADES. That's just greedy. And despite being a "child", he would make some really adult decisions like buying into Sony, the Beetles catalog, etc. S

-He had so many accusers. Maybe some had questionable motives but damn. Staff, family, "victims", security. All of them just wanted money after seeing the people before them fail time and again?

-Some of the things in the documentary require a truly creative and evil mind to even come up with. Safechuck even had a collection of rings, including a "wedding ring" that Michael gave him. Things like that, things like the hotel rooms, buying a home for his parents after court--there has to be a paper trail, right?

-He paid a rumored $20-$25 million to his accusers. That should have been a more than adequate amount to pay for a defense if he was innocent. Especially with the money he had at the time. Why did he cave? Did he think he could lose? What did they have on him? Even in the doc, they defended him saying that "proved it was just about the money".

-Michael's response to being accused was just like that of Gary Glitter and R. Kelly--a message to the public saying "They just want money! The truth will come out. I'm the victim!"

-Wade and Safechuck's alleged experience seems awfully familiar to that of the Netflix doc "Abducted In Plain Sight".

-According to his doctor (this may be false), Michael was chemically castrated at an early age to protect his voice. He couldn't do the things he's been accused of. But he sat right there and smiled when his wife said "We have sex. It's the best sex of my life!"

-Not 100% sure if it's true but I saw online that too much time has passed and neither man can get anything from the Jackson estate. Meanwhile the two are hated by MJ fans, Wade's father is dead (Michael related? Who knows?), Safechuck's mom has been virtually kicked out of the family for her part in all of this. This is winning? Yeah, they could make some money from all of this controversy. Books, etc.

My wife said it in a way that made sense. Michael made us fall in love with him when he was "normal". We loved him so much that when things got weird we just accepted it without question. Everyone was a fan. That's how he works. He probably did the same to those kids. Before they realized how weird things really were, they were already in deep.

I don't know. I've had a lot of time to think about it. I'm not keeping a closed mind on this one. I hate that he's not here to defend himself but his history is just sketchy. We're smarter these days than we used to be...but then we still have people who think the earth is flat.