I’m sure everyone and their mother and grandmother and great aunt and puppy have an opinion on the Michael Jackson case. Yesterday he was completely acquitted of all of the charges against him, in case you are living on Zeta Reticuli.

As for my take: I think this case pretty much highlights all of the most disgusting aspects of human nature.

First, in child molestation cases, from what I understand, it is rather common for the molested child to not really be able to accurately recall the incident — even if it happened multiple times. Kids, in general, make things up in order to deal with trauma or things that they don’t understand. The jury noted that the prosecution couldn’t really create a timeline of the events — perhaps because the kid himself couldn’t really create a rational timeline? After reading Mysterious Skin I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue.

Second, Michael Jackson is a sexually ambiguous and racial ambiguous person. Of course he is going to be a target of criticism. If you ask someone what type of a person Michael Jackson is, 11 out of 10 people will say, “He’s a freak.” Of course he’s going to be a victim (yes, sorry for using this word) of accusations of the worst kind — he is an easy target. Since he blurs the boundaries of gender and race, which we tend to assume are static definitions, he makes people uncomfortable and therefore we need to continue kicking him down.

Finally, child molestation is, by far, the worst accusation to throw at someone. It seems, to me, that it’s a little too convenient to make such accusations against someone as freakish as Michael Jackson.

All that said, I’m not sure what happened. I’m not sure justice was served. The whole thing — every aspect of this case — makes me sick. What outcome do I think would have been appropriate? I really don’t know. I just know that this case is all around bad.

(On an unrelated note, I just recently heard his song “Off the Wall” and I totally love it.)