Dear Mr. @Frontback777, I’d like to ask you something in my next tweet if you would please indulge me, and this message will be to explain why I’m asking.

Not too long ago, you tweeted something at @LAMJ_SNARL, previously known as @mjviva and @ASMICHAELSAYSIT (“AMSI”) among a few other names -- telling him off a bit. I retweeted some of what you said. At the time, I only had a vague notion about you; that some said you were implying that you were Michael Jackson in your messages, but as I saw when I looked at some of your output, you never outright said you were, and this seemed to be the consistent defense by your supporters. I’d also found that you had set up a foundation of a long history of posting messages, one of which I recall seeing which dated back to 2006, so…

…with that long history and with a core of longtime appreciative followers who seemed to be happy enough to muse on the possibility that “gee, maybe it IS him,” while also seeming to be not so invested in the idea… I had regarded you as being a bit different from these other, much more overt, folks who seem to really be trying hard to direct people toward that thought.

You know my own main focus has been on AMSI because he’s been doing something VERY overt, and despicably so. When I discovered him, he was saying loud and clear that he was indeed Michael Jackson. He posted what he said was “truth” about him; things which went straight against things Michael said publicly. Things like, that he never had vitiligo; that he had instead lightened his skin for “HollyWood.” He called Michael’s family “those shitty Jacksons” and even accused Joe and Randy Jackson of having set him up, framed him, for the molestation charges of 1993. He said he hates practically his (MJ’s) entire family, and even posted a long message called “Why I faked my death” which implied a lot of the blame went to his family (and some of it on financial problems), and oh, maybe the “Illuminates” had something to do with it, as well.

And I also focused on him because he had gathered a following in excess of 1,600 people who were listening to this crap, and there was clearly a story to uncover there when the person behind it became clear, too. AMSI endorsed a handful of “hoax investigators,” only one of whom embraced it – someone he’d never even had a conversation with -- @Dmovie27 (aka Steven C. Douglas, restaurant cook and flea market video seller from Detroit, Michigan – I always like to include that!). A person who claimed in 2010 that he felt a divine hand guiding him to “speak for Michael” through his videos on YouTube, after entering the believer community fresh out of a two-year stint as a groupie for a hate-spewing radical fringe-of-the-fringe element type web community. Maybe you’ve read some of my writings about this at http://hoaxcrispies.wordpress.com. At any rate, you seem to be aware of me and this little “crusade” of mine to expose this despicable person, and you seem to be among those who have appreciated and applauded those efforts.

In the time I’ve been doing this, I’ve seen a good handful of other fakes out there, and folks have told me stories about many who went before. I heard a story about one who was in a Tinychat who was asked by a woman if he could see her on her camera, and when he replied “yes,” she pulled out a knife and proceeded to slit her wrists. I’ve heard of one known as “HelloDearFriend” who was rumored to have up to a hundred different accounts floating about, which led to people being given a web link to buy MJ merchandise, who instead found their computers infected with malicious viruses. I’ve heard of one woman who was so emotionally invested in an early fake called ChemicalsRuse (anagram for “Michael’s Curse”) that she felt she was being psychically invaded by him – AND saw this happen again with someone else via AMSI. I’ve seen one woman who said her computer was hacked by a woman named Claudia who had often posed as Michael, and that woman fought back against that fake while she slowly lost her life to cancer – until her dying day.

I might not know the complete truth behind these stories, and maybe some of these fakes didn’t set out to do harm or even cause it unintentionally – but the consistent theme here is: They DO cause harm. Maybe they just get a kick out of seeing how many people will believe them, while enjoying the weird little power trip of having a devoted audience like that paying attention to them.

Or, maybe a few of them feel like the department store Santa Claus – “everyone knows” (one would fairly reason) that he’s not the REAL one, but he’s happy to help spread the joy, and if in so doing, he enjoys the warmth from the people lining up to see him, meant for the “original” Santa Claus… no harm done, right?

Life imitates art? Remember that old “Simpsons” episode where Michael voiced a large, white (or in their case, yellow) fellow named Leon who went around telling everyone he was Michael Jackson? At the end, he explained it was just because he found it made people happy. (Even then, the guy also spent a good amount of time inside of a mental institution!)

I’ve witnessed myself, and heard tell of many more, instances where someone tried to pose as this or that celebrity online. Usually the ones who find success at this, do so by hinting at it until they finally declare something like, “okay, ya got me, you were clever enough to figure me out!” This tactic is nicely spelled out in Souza’s blog post I shared again recently – the same one you re-tweeted, and reposted again another time. This method works mainly because the people who fall victim to it believe they WERE clever enough to pick up on all these little hints, and they create their own investment into believing it. This is like any good salesman’s tactic – help the victim, err, customer, believe that it’s THEIR idea!

As I’ve observed your feed, I’ve noted that your objective seems to be harmless enough, and maybe your intentions are of goodwill much like that department store Santa Claus. Where’s the harm, right? If you never do say that you’re Michael and people cultivate that idea on their own, that’s THEIR problem, isn’t it? Over and over, your defenders proclaim, “He NEVER said he’s Michael!” Well, that’s correct… isn’t it? Technically? Then why do so many people seem to be, you know, cultivating that idea nonetheless?

So I’ve had mixed feelings about regarding you as a “fake Michael.” You have a lot of people who seem to appreciate what you do, how you seem to leave them these little nuggets to ponder and discuss, and your overriding objective seems such as to spread positive messages about Michael, or in the spirit of Michael. You don’t follow people, so you seem to be clean so far as any idea that you’re DM-ing people “as Michael” since you can’t DM people at all. But understand please, that I’ve had a great many people asking me my thoughts about you, and I hesitate to want to “crusade” against you, too. You bashed Snarl, okay, you got a point for that! You support MJ, you get a point for that. You don’t seem to have some motive to build a cult or even to tell some different “truth” about Michael that seems harmful to his legacy, and you often encourage people to help spread the word that he was a good man. Point, point, point. Great! Why would I want to throw water on that?

And you’ve apparently been doing what you do for so long, supporting Michael in this way for, I suppose at least seven years now – maybe that’s to be appreciated and respected, too.

You’ve expressed appreciation to me as well, for being respectful to the believers, as a non-believer myself. But I’ll tell you, I had to do some thinking about the idea of embracing “believers” after a fashion, because I’m sure you’re aware that non-believer fans find the idea that Michael faked his death, frankly, offensive. The idea that he did so, implies that he ran away from his problems, and his fans don’t see him doing that. It implies that Conrad Murray is innocent, and as we watched that trial, we found out how very reprehensibly guilty he actually was. Even if he didn’t intend to kill Michael, he was what they called “criminally negligent” in his approach to his care – not just at that one moment, but in so many ways in the months prior. Many of the hoax theories even play out Murray as some kind of hero, while we “non-believers” (or “deaders” as I’ve seen us called), feel there isn’t punishment enough for the murderer who deprived the world of this great man.

So yes, that is hard to get past, because these “hoax theories” DO tend to imply so many things which offend our sensibilities. But as with anything, it’s also good to take a step back and ask: What is the motivation here, what is the intent? And to a large extent, it seems to be simply this: These are people who so dearly cared about Michael, that they can’t fathom the idea that he’s no longer with us; they knew what he had to overcome in his life; they knew how good a man he really was – they want him to have a “happy ending” somehow. He deserved one. These are people who are still in a community talking about him, appreciating him, practically every day, four years after he left us. These are people who always supported him and believed in him. I’ve talked with many of them, and I see that. When I think of it that way, I feel very protective of these fans, and don’t wish to see them being taken advantage of.

Giving someone “false hope” is very seldom worthwhile. Telling someone that “everything will be okay,” that’s maybe just human nature; we WANT to convey hope… but it’s only good if it serves a real purpose and isn’t offered to make someone feel better now, but let down later. Your “hope” – has to have real meaning and substance for it to do any good.

So I wouldn’t say most of what I’ve seen you do is bad. You entertain, you engage people, you offer positive messages… and I appreciate that. But I feel conflicted, too… because I’ve said many times that MJ would not be on Twitter or any social media, presenting himself, or hinting that it is him. If there was any chance he was lurking around at all – well, many say he would NOT be looking at the fan forums at all; but if he did – he would never tip his hat. Especially NOW, if he was actually alive and in hiding – it would just be too dangerous, and too insensitive of him to be playing around after so many suffered grief at his reported passing.

And so it’s that “hinting” thing you do. That’s what has people upset. Maybe you feel it serves some purpose, but I can’t really figure out any good justification for that. If you’re a Michael Jackson expert with stories, trivia and ideas to share – then you can gain a following from your repartee. But certainly you are aware that much of your following is because of… that hinting!

The “I never said I was Michael” can only go so far. It’s these little things, and even bigger things… like posting pictures of “yourself” showing your chest, partially bared – saying you are an African American man but showing pictures with very light skin tone, a build much like Michael’s, and those ever-visible black hairs draped down past your shoulders. I see that and can only go, “Oh, brooootherrrr!”

Harmless? Well, not completely. I’m sure you’ve noticed that there are increasingly more people complaining about your hints, and this is causing dissention and arguments between people; some who might otherwise be friends and enjoy the fellowship Michael would have encouraged. If what you’re doing is causing anger and frustration and general bad feelings between people… how can you continue to think it’s harmless? I observed with AMSI that he seemed to even relish these skirmishes between people. He seemed to ENCOURAGE them!

I haven’t thoroughly studied your output to make a big case, and I don’t really want to, nor feel it should be necessary. Why? Because I do have a feeling that you like to be regarded as a reasonable person who really wouldn’t want skirmishes and divisions and bad feelings which had “your identity” as a ground zero. This is why I’m writing to you today, so I can ask you a very simple question, the answer to which really ought to rightly put all of this to rest. And if you are a reasonable person who really does care about MJ’s fans – there should be no good reason why you would decline to provide that answer.

I’m not operating completely in the dark here though – because see, I’ve had a good number of people come to me, pointing at you, saying “Hey, what about THAT guy? Why don’t you go after him? He’s doing the same basic thing AMSI was – and he has more followers!” And someone took the time and trouble to compile a variety of things to make the case: http://debunkingfakes.wordpress.com/

But I don’t want to call you a fake, and I don’t want to ask you to get outta town. A great many people like you, and you’re smart and entertaining and you don’t seem to be carrying an intention to hurt people. I had hoped that “he never said he was Michael” was a good answer. But more and more, it’s obvious that it’s not – it’s more of a “technicality.” Maybe this stuff is just you “teasing” or being cute or what-have-you… but I’m telling you that more and more people are bugged by it. I’m hearing from them, and I see more of them complaining. Whose problem is that? Theirs? It’s getting to be quite a few people whose problem it is, then!

This is not about your right to say whatever you like on Twitter. This is about the appearance of being misleading – and hopefully you don’t want to be accused of that.

If you want to seem psychic or prescient or guru-like… I see no problem with that. You seem to want to be a leader of sorts, helping guide people along; offering comfort and happiness… well, great! I would just ask that you let your own whims guide you there, while not getting caught up in some idea that you need to “spike” your natural gregariousness with these cute little “clues.” If I can almost hear you saying in response, “Who, ME? Why, I never!”… well, I think you ARE smarter than that… and I’m asking you not to be coy right now!

Ask yourself: You’ve collected nearly 3,000 followers on Twitter. Are they there, listening to you, because they enjoy you and your scintillating personality – or are they there because they think you’re someone else, namely Michael Jackson? What would YOU want?

So I’m maybe preaching a bit and rambling even more… but I’m hoping you understand where I’m coming from. I can see what it is that people appreciate about you. I can see where you’re having fun with being something of a mystery, and of course I see no problem with you saying you’re “Front” and “I’m just me” or words to that effect. I see you calling out people when often it seems deserved. You’re feisty and people like that. And maybe you feel you’ve technically covered “the question” diplomatically and cleverly without actually stating one thing outright with no room for any doubt… and so mainly because there is division and there are arguments and people getting upset… I think it’s not unreasonable to ask you to please be completely definitive. And I apologize if I’ve missed it somewhere and you HAVE said it before…

So in the tweet I will post next, I will ask you that definitive question which will only need a single word answer. The possible answers would be either “yes” or “no” – and as I’ve said, the first is astronomically unlikely! The absolute answer to that question, as I said, should satisfy your detractors, simply because it WOULD be definitive. Not a coy answer, or even winkingly ironic; if you do answer this question, I would ask that you do so with 100% sincerity, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die, May-God-strike-me-down-if-I’m-lying; i.e., the truth that you will stand by, and that others will be able to rely upon.

Just one single word in a direct reply to my tweet asking the question, such that people can see the “conversation” – and if you would please do that, I think it will do a lot toward calming some folks down and quelling the controversy. Any other type of reply, or no reply at all, will not accomplish that – and I’ve also heard from people who appreciate you too – so I’m hoping that those people will not find your answer disappointing. I just really need to stage this question this way, to leave no room for doubt – it would have to be an answer that you’ll stand by and would not be able to negate or diminish somehow. That way, heck, if you actually DO look that much like Michael, you could post those pictures all day long and no one should be able to accuse you of suggesting you ARE him!

I’ve noticed a bunch of people wishing you a Happy Birthday today, and I haven’t seen you jumping to tell them they’re wrong. Well, maybe it IS your birthday anyway? That would be a kicker, wouldn’t it? Maybe you could clarify that separately too. But this is to say it DOES seem that you are enjoying that people have the impression that you’re MJ. But really, that is not right, to let people think that, if you really aren’t him.

So I’m trying to ask as nicely, as sweetly, as reasonably, and as respectfully as possible, while explaining the problem and offering what I think could be a really dandy solution. Because people are looking at me, wondering if I'm going to do or say something, after they ask me about you -- and I really don't think I should do anything more than to ask you that question.

If you really do, as you claim, care about your followers, most of whom I figure are MJ’s fans, I hope you will answer that question then… again, just one single word in direct reply – and I thank you for giving me this audience, and I wish you well. 

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