Yeah, that's why I worded it the way I did. For myself, I don't know what to believe; I just figured if I didn't at least nod to the allegations someone would assume a position for me anyway.

And whenever the subject comes up, I can't help but reflect that there is an absolute fuckton of cash involved no matter which direction the truth travels, and the legal burden of proof for historic child abuse claims varies wildly from state to state.

In MJ's case, there are a small number of potential litigants, a massive amount of cash, people who stand to benefit no matter which way the wind blows, not a lot of objective proof for or against, and all of that in a situation already made murky just by the way survivor memory works. In a situation where an offender is very rich, the legal situation can get insane. And I think we've all seen some of that with MJ, with accusations and retractions and family members and settlements.

So I just don't know, but if I had to give a verdict I'd say not guilty. Not just for that but also for what @Art3mis said as well.

There's another reason too. IMO, the one characteristic that never changes in sexual abusers, especially pedos, is the extreme arrogance of entitlement. If you've ever had to deal with one, underneath all the tears and excuses and manufactured outrage they literally believe they have the right to that kid's body.

But Jackson didn't seem self-aggrandizing or entitled at all, especially not about children. Rather, as Art3mis pointed out, MJ was legitimately protective of the children around him.

And given everything he had to say about his own upbringing, he knew for himself what abuse was, and lived the hell of a survivor himself in a number of ways. It just seems more unlikely than not to me that he'd visit any kind of that same survivor hell on the children around him. As you said, MJ locked up his porn: a predator is far more likely to leave it laying around in the open deliberately, to passively normalize the idea of sexuality through the environment for any passing child. That doesn't mean MJ couldn't have done it in other ways, but it's definitely not the typical "I need to find a way to coax this kid into this unwanted activity" predatory behavior.

But either way, for better or worse, I grew up with him. In the first half of the 70s in the US, you literally couldn't turn on a tv and not see him. This is not an exaggeration. He was on every variety show, every performance show, even talk shows, and specials. Oh god so many tv specials, lol. But he had an incredibly sad life in so many ways, they all did.