The greatest entertainer ever?

Hello world!

Spooky Octoberfest (and most of November) was officially a bust on the blogging front, thanks to a ridiculously busy month made especially ridiculous by my preparations for our workplace annual conference and then me having the audacity to go on holiday for a fortnight, right before the actual dates of the conference.

I had an utterly amazing holiday in California (with a nice trip to Nevada thrown in there for good measure) and there will probably be some updates about that during the next few weeks, as I desperately try to cling on to my memories of the trip, which are disintegrating at a thoroughly alarming pace.

However, I also have to admit that I have wasted a bit of time this month arguing on web forums. Yes, that is indeed time that could have been better spent blogging, or doing something else... anything else more productive. I know this. I try my best to avoid message boards - after all there is no such thing as real "debate" on them, only people who are so entrenched in their own point of view that they will never agree to the opposing argument, therefore rendering the discussion pointless - but every now and again, I get sucked in.

This time, it's been my turn to get inveigled in the digital spy message board and... dear lord... a discussion about whether Michael Jackson is the greatest entertainer ever.

Erk.

Let me tell you that this thread is 33 pages long. It is officially the thread that will not die. If you are reading this a year from now, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the thread is still going. I wouldn't be surprised if it's still going by the time our sun goes supernova. It's properly mental, so it is.

I should also tell you that I am not a fan of Michael Jackson. His sister more so, but even she's way down my league of favourites. I don't care if someone wants to pronounce him God, or the shittiest performer that's ever walked the Earth... that is their opinion and entirely up to them. Who am I to argue?

If only everyone felt this way. What has erupted on the thread is a rather bizarre (but nonetheless fascinating) contest to prove something which can never been proven. In one corner are the Jackson fans, spouting all the usual claims to MJ amazingdom. And in the other corner are music snobs, who for some reason have made it their lives' purpose to put Jackson fans in their place.

Now we all know that *some* of Jackson's fans are not the most well adjusted of the world's population. (And there was plenty of evidence of this on show in Los Angeles when I was there on the day the Conrad Murray verdict was announced, let me assure you). But we also know that these same fans are also pretty harmless. Vocal, certainly, but also harmless. In all instances, these people should be ignored.

But no, the war goes on and it's not been pretty. After 20 or so pages of drivel, I weighed in with a jolly call to sanity... "is Michael Jackson the greatest entertainer ever? Surely that depends on who you ask."

Needless to say, it was not well received. Surprisingly, it wasn't the Jackson fans who voiced their displeasure, but the music snobs. No, it turns out that they're so determined to prove that he is *not* the best that my argument with them quickly turned to whether or not opinions could be proven true or false [ME: they can't be proven and therefore no opinions matter, VS. THEM: they can be proven and Michael Jackson fans are bampots, therefore ours matter most, therefore Michael Jackson isn't the best.]

Yes, bugger lugs, I don't think he's the best either, but it really doesn't matter what I think, does it? Nor you, for that matter.

It's a similar argument I had with friends of mine one Christmas Day (ho ho ho), where, after a few drinks, my best mate tried to say that his opinion about Kylie had more validity than mine because I was a "superfan" and I was therefore completely biased. I honestly don't know how we didn't end up fighting that particularly very happy Christmas Day.

Since then, of course, the message board has degenerated into cheap insults and mud-slinging, people contradicting themselves every five minutes, all the while hoping to be prove themselves the biggest smart ass.

It's been kinda fun, actually. :-)