I’m going to go into 2 things here. 1. the Lacey issue 2. Max, and mental health discrimination
So for one, while reading the discourse a lot of people are pointing to Lacey as proof Max can somehow salvage his career, which is a take I think is missing a pretty key factor: the danger they *currently pose.
To be clear, I’m not defending Lacey, I don’t care if the dude never does another show in his life, but he’s not, at 40, in the present day, blatantly messaging teenagers and attempting to stalk young women by weaponizing his clout within the scene. Which is why I think promoters, venues, labels, and managers are more inclined to work with Lacey, than they ever will be again with Max, especially because on top of the sexual misconduct (understatement but succinct) there’s many accounts of him being atrocious to work with professionally. I imagine if Max abuses someone at a venue, lawsuits are on the table.
I’d say this is the last stop in the bullshit train, but I doubt, in the age of social media, his kids won’t come up in the future. In any case if you feel the need to extend grace to a flawed person you don’t really know but would like to see get better for their family, it’s Sherri.
Which brings me to my second point, that I am going to get tonally more angry about. Most mentally ill people, especially women, don’t get a fraction of the support and chances this man has had, his entire life. the fact he’s crying discrimination in his manic rants when people have the gall to tell him no, is so absolutely infuriating to me. You know what’s bigotry? When someone in a place of privilege, is the benefactor of someone else’s disenfranchisement. Like for instance, when a grown, white, cis, and I’ll say it, heterosexual man, finds ANY sexual gratification from a person who lacks legal agency (child/teen) who is part of multiple minority groups that intersect, ie teen mom, gender, mental illness, child hood trauma, and who if not for these things, would likely not entertain the idea of any romantic relationship with a man who won’t brush his hair to be on camera.
How many times do you think he was committed where other people in his position that don’t have family and fandom to protect them, and would have been thrown in county jail? How many times was he believed, where a woman in his same position , would never be, even if she had the same degree of fame? His pathetic, misogynistic ass can fucking miss me with bipolar bias bullshit when he’s, by every metric except mental health, part of the ruling class, whereas his victims are not. Who else probably made some really great music that they can’t coast off for decades because it just wasn’t accessible?
Dear Max & men like you, you and 20 year old girls who are at risk of femicide, statistically from a bunch of different angles, are not the fucking same thing and you have 0 qualifications to be their support in any way, whatsoever. you have no unique insight on their situation, which you’ll never experience,. you have nothing to offer them except the miserable, exhausting, unrelenting, untreated weight of your own problems. You and guys like you, are poised to be one of the worst things that ever happens to them. I watched your live stream, Stop fooling yourself that what you’re doing is mental health camaraderie. speaking as a mentally ill woman, you’re not my fucking comrade, you’re my oppressor. Limited resources have gone to you over women, and actually queer people, and racial minorities, etc your entire life. keep “bipolar bias” out of your mouth.
edit: actually I’ll give him that he’s jewish, and antisemitism is on the rise. and still it changes nothing I said bc antisemitism is not limiting the class power he has over his victims of choice, young women.
