Throughout my entire childhood and youth, one story about Michael Jackson flourished. It was repeated so often that it almost took on the character of natural law - that he didn't want to be Black. That he spent fortunes trying to "become white". That his transformation was an expression of self-hatred and betrayal of his own origin.
It was said with mockery, with moral superiority, and with an almost gleeful certainty.
He told people about it back then, but no one believed it. Today we know that he suffered from vitiligo - a skin condition that gradually removes pigment from the body. We know that he covered it with makeup, gloves, bandages and creative solutions, because he lived in a world where his face was the object of global obsession. We know that he struggled with his self-image in the entire world's spotlight. And we know that he didn't have social media, where he could speak directly to millions without going through editorial gatekeepers.
Once the narrative was set in the system, it was nearly impossible to shake.
And they lied and lied and lied and lied.
So they could sell magazines.
But the interesting thing isn't just what happened to him. The interesting thing is what it reveals about us.
Because a narrative can be planted by media. It can be amplified through repetition. It can be wrapped in insinuations and half-truths. But it can ONLY gain power if we are willing to believe it.
And the question is therefore not just how much of what we're being served has actually been turned upside down - but why we so easily accept it when it has. And something inside wants to ask questions - but we refrain because the lie touches something in us that feels good to participate in.
There's a particular mechanism that activates when a human being shines brighter than the rest. We celebrate the talent, we worship it almost religiously, we project our longings into it - and the moment it becomes too large, too incomprehensible, too elevated, we begin searching for the crack. Not to understand, but to reduce. Because if the genius is actually damaged, self-hating or morally flawed, then balance is restored. Then we don't have to confront the distance between what we could be and what we are.
Beautiful "balance".
It's not new. Mythologically speaking, we've always crowned and crucified in the same movement. The one who is lifted up must also be torn down. Not necessarily with direct lies, but with that form of persistent distortion where a complex truth is simplified into a caricature, and where repetition eventually does the work alone.
The difference today is merely the tempo and the scale. Back then there were editorial rooms and TV stations that functioned as gatekeepers. Today it's algorithms.
The information war is no longer centralized - it's distributed. Any narrative can be amplified in seconds. Any nuance can drown in a sea of memes, clips and angry comments. We're no longer passive recipients - we're co-producers. We like, share, comment, and in doing so we give the narrative oxygen.
It raises an uncomfortable question -
Is it actually those in power, the media and the algorithms shaping reality - or are they merely mirrors amplifying our own appetite for the fall?
What on earth is this force in us that would rather believe in self-hatred than in illness, rather see hypocrisy than pain, rather tear down than attempt to understand?
Perhaps because truth is often less dramatic, less satisfying. It requires empathy. It requires that we hold complexity. And it's far easier to reduce a human being to a narrative than to hold their inner struggle.
The story of Michael Jackson is therefore not just a story about a superstar with a skin condition. It's a case study in narrative power. In collective psychology. In how easily reality can be turned upside down - and how willing we are to help keep it there.
And it's worth remembering next time we're served a story about a human being standing in the flames' light.
The examples are many in this time - who is being demonised completely out of proportion - and why?
The question isn't just whether it's true. The question is also why we so badly want it to be.
If you want my practical advice -
Work on stopping your (self-)hatred.
Turn yourself toward the Light.
Happy Saturday, friends ☀️
❤️🔥🪽
Sidenote - don't know if the image is real, but we know the disease looks like that, and invasively spread over the years. It's only used to make you stop.
