Word of the Week…

Mournsturbation (n) The disingenuous outpouring of affection after someone of questionable merit dies. [context]

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Written by alphabitch. Posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009, at 12:57 am.
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12 Responses to “Word of the Week…”

tildy said:

Doesn't look disingenuous to me, from the news clips. All of the MJ outpouring is a testament to music's power in people's imaginations and lives. MJ was an imaginative symbol of very powerful and positive cultural forces.

Also, in interviews Jackson talked about child molestation ("wrong", "sick", "just not who I am", "dirty", "I would poke out my eyes before hurting a child") in ways child molesters just… don't. Ever. (And I've done the research.) And he was acquitted. Yeah, so was OJ, but do we readers of news reports really know that the system didn't work in this case? I don't think there's any way we can be sure.
26th June 2009 at 4:50 am | permalink |
alphabitch said:

Disingenuous as in a ton of people who were perfectly happy to make jokes about him a week ago suddenly flooding iTunes to buy Thriller, and eulogizing him on Twitter, etc.

No, not everyone is disingenuous about it, but a hell of a lot of 'em are.

And I'm sure if more child molesters with public performance training got the opportunity to be interviewed and/or do press conferences, a lot of them would turn out to be excellent liars too.

But really, no, there is no way to be sure. Maybe they really WERE just innocent slumber parties, and he was even fucking weirder than anyone gave him credit for… which would be almost more disturbing than the alternative.
26th June 2009 at 1:09 pm | permalink |
tildy said:

Ah, right. A lot of people probably feel guilty for playing along with the media feeding frenzy. Many commenters on various sites said some version of "We destroyed him for being different"…
26th June 2009 at 10:05 pm | permalink |
MattG said:

Sweet
28th June 2009 at 5:44 am | permalink |
Becca said:

See also "grieve-a-thon."

Last night, while walking past the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square (I was on my way to the Mozart concert), there were dozens of people defacing the facade of the National Gallery with messages to the circus freak.

When I left the concert 2 hours later, there was a group of about 50 huddled around a picture of Michael Jackson with a candle, singing songs (badly), and the public defacement was really starting to get out of hand.
28th June 2009 at 8:40 am | permalink |
grimbles said:

That's the bit I really don't get. Someone who does fun, lively street art that brings a bit of colour to bland city streets gets arrested. The moment someone famous dies, people could probably get away with blowing up a bus so long as they said "We love you Michael" while doing it.
28th June 2009 at 6:43 pm | permalink |
alphabitch said:

@tildy: That kind of crap makes me ill. He actively pursued fame, he actively pursued surgical self-mutilation, he apparently did not actively pursue mental health support. "We" did not destroy him. He chased down his own destruction.

@Becca: Seriously? Leaving cards & flowers and shit, or actual graffiti? *shakes head*

@grimbles: Imagine if he'd died before the kiddie-fiddling trial… yee gods, he might have made Princess Di's death look ho-hum afterward.
29th June 2009 at 4:00 pm | permalink |
Becca said:

Seriously. Actual graffiti. Pictures here.
30th June 2009 at 10:38 am | permalink |
alphabitch said:

@Becca: I suppose crossing my fingers and praying for an onslaught of riot police armed with firehoses probably wouldn't help… Fucking jackasses.
30th June 2009 at 5:03 pm | permalink |
Becca said:

@ alpha: When I walked by later, there was a police van on site and a few PCs walking around looking very agitated. Unfortunately, no firehoses or tear gas.
30th June 2009 at 10:34 pm | permalink |
Becca said:

Returned to the scene of the crime today … the facade of the National Gallery is now boarded up while they clean the defacement off the building.

Fucking vandals.
12th July 2009 at 1:56 pm | permalink |
alphabitch said:

Christ, how fucking pathetic.
14th July 2009 at 12:11 am | permalink |