Combating Michelle's Lies

At one point in time, Michelle Shocked was known in the music industry (and even respected by some). Many in society tend to equate celebrity status (even minor, has-been celebrity status) as something above us mere mortals, so when Michelle speaks, some give her the benefit of the doubt. People are less inclined to give the same benefit to critics or everyday people. I cannot convince you where to place your trust or your doubts, but I can present alternate points-of-view that run counter to any and all the claims made by Michelle Shocked. I strongly encourage readers to not only read the sections I'm quoting, but also view the full articles themselves, and even reach out to the authors of these articles, as they can provide additional feedback and context.

Radio talk show host and podcaster Nicole Sandler was among the first to rush to Michelle's defense, on Twitter, via blog, and on her own show. Michelle agreed to appear on Sandler's live podcast, but what transpired instead was an early (or continued) indication Michelle was suffering some sort of emotional breakdown. Sandler wrote about what happened:

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask her any of the questions I had hoped to, and didn’t hear her clarify anything... as she wouldn’t answer the phone when I called. And I tried. Repeatedly. When she did answer, she just read some of her "Open Letter" that was released.... If I remember correctly, she picked up a second time, but was obsessed with the delay between the phone conversation and when the sound came through her computer speakers that her paranoia took over. I tried to tell her to turn down the sound on her computer and just talk to me on the phone, but she began counting the seconds of the delay.... I really wanted to hear Michelle clarify what she was trying to say. Instead, she seems to be digging herself a deeper hole – and alienating the few people who’ve been attempting to help her. She lashed out at me in the final moments of the show, when she called back in as I was playing my favorite Michelle Shocked song, “Come a Long Way” – for the last time. I’m sorry she’s going through this, and I hope she can get some help...

Mentioned in Sandler's summary is writer Chris Willman, a longtime critic and entertainment reporter for The Hollywood Reporter, TV Guide, and Yahoo News. Willman wrote about Shocked's now infamous rant at Yoshi's, hoping she might set the record straight. He reviewed the audio of the performance, and that was, as the headline states, "damning":

Rather than explaining herself, Shocked says, "I’ve got a question for you all. It’s a sincere question. How are you enjoying reality so far? Sucks pretty much, doesn’t it?" She apparently looks at her phone. "I just got a tweet. It says 'Don’t come to San Francisco sayin' that shit.' Where do I go to say that shit?"

"Uh, Arkansas," a man suggests.

"Wow, that’s so weird," says a woman in bemused disbelief. "You’re so weird."

"It is weird," Shocked responds with a chuckle. "Yeah, it is weird. This is not my choice. After a few more catcalls about Shocked’s "reality" and cries of "Get her out of here," an announcer says, "I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for joining us tonight at Yoshi’s."

"You're pulling the plug? They’re giving me the hook y'all ... I still got game." ... she launches into an unamplified protest song about American values, which includes lines like "I seem to bring out the very worst in you" and "You yell at me and tell me it’s my treachery." At one point in the tune, she is shouting and hoarse.

The final kicker for those remaining: "I just want y’all to know that I didn’t ask for a deposit for this performance. And I have pretty good reason to believe that when I leave here tonight, I’m gonna be told that I did not give anyone their money’s worth. So now I would like to pass the hat and ask if you wouldn’t mind putting a dollar in for the folk singer, for the busker, for the street performer."

Minutes later, she was seen sobbing at the side of the stage, consoled by a few supporters, before she bolted backstage.

To his credit, (or perhaps detriment), Willman pressed on to try to offer a theory that perhaps Shocked had somehow perverted her own message. Even he wanted to believe she'd just misspoken:

Those who wanted to give Shocked the benefit of the doubt surmised after hearing the tape that perhaps she had meant to get around to a message about how fundamentalists and gays just all need to learn to get along. But with the fateful inclusion of the phrase that the opinions "are mine, too," she left patrons with a literal reading that had Shocked herself believing gay marriage would precipitate biblical end times. The "God hates fags" line didn’t make much sense in any theoretical context, even the ironic one her intonation might have indicated. And in one of the stranger cases of performer ADD anyone has ever recorded, Shocked seemed to have mistakenly believed she’d gotten to her point, while anyone else would have considered it a movie with a crucial missing reel that was all incendiary setup and no moral redeeming payoff.

Of course, Michelle's hate speech continued on Twitter, and she even regularly deals out verbal attacks at former fans, including those who attended the March show where all her present day troubles stem. Among those former fans is Anile, a woman who paid to hear a singer sing, but was instead preached at and insulted. Anile's account of the night contradicts nearly every one of Michelle's conspiracy theories:

I have no vendetta against Michelle Shocked. I just wish she would tell the truth. Michelle has chosen, of her own accord, to unfold this drama on a very public stage: Twitter. She therefore is disingenuous when she cries foul over others who follow and comment and hold her to the truth.

The truth is that I wish you all could hear the first half of the show. Michelle’s bizarre and uncomfortable demand that someone who believes in God come on stage to live tweet from her account, because she was going to need some Christian back up. No mention of needing an anti-Big Data compadre to have her back. Nope, she needed to know how many in the audience believed in the “invisible man in the room.” She then proceeded to talk to an invisible man somewhere in the audience, stage right, and ask for strength to do what she came to do. She said she was “terrified”  Why would she be terrified for a planned rail against Google? I’m not clear on that....

If the night was an orchestrated event to blast Google and Big Data, then why was Michelle talking about coming to San Francisco to authentically represent her Church community?  After all, she said “I shouldn’t say them, because it’s mine too”  And she invited the audience to jump in the Jesus game. What does Jesus have to do with Big Data? “This is one woman’s opinion…”  not about Big Data but about authentically representing her religious POV. When asked to clarify what she meant, her ONLY reply was  ”I believe the word of God is the truth”  and then she started reciting Bible verses in Spanish.  It was, and still is, truly strange. 

After Perrin Blackman wrote, at Michelle's behest, an ex-post-facto attempt to explain away Michelle's hate speech and subsequent lies, many responded. Among those was Kevin, who has taught film and recording at The Los Angeles Film School, who posted a blog on Google+ rebutting the stupidity of Blackman's article:

I was messaging someone else last night about the situation, and her summary put it better than any other I've read or heard so far:
 
"People paid to see Michelle Shocked, among them gay men\women. She told her paid audience God hates them and Jesus will end the world if they're allowed to marry. She emphatically stated those beliefs were hers... Then for six months on Twitter she continued insulting the LGBT community, also insulting black people, also insulting those who support gays and blacks..."
 
Michelle Shocked has since deleted more than 4000 posts from her Twitter feed, blocked more than 4000 followers from Twitter, and is desperately trying to hide from both truth and reality.... In the last six months, Michelle Shocked has lost her lover, her fans, her friends, her career, and other things the public will never be aware of. She sometimes says every word was intentional, then says she misspoke. She sometimes says she didn't mean what she was saying, then says she meant every word. She has blamed gays, blacks, Google, YouTube, and manufactured baseless conspiracies surrounding the media, big business, and God knows what else. She refuses to accept any blame for the pain she caused herself and others, and she lashes out at literally everybody who doesn't buy into her excuse of the day/hour/minute.

Once you've poured through those articles, there is the interview she did with Piers Morgan where she was only barely coherent and had to be politely shut up by a man who doesn't know how to be polite. Or there is the attempt made by Matthew Breen of The Advocate to secure an interview, only to have to contend with the limitations of Twitter at Michelle's insistence. San Francisco newsman Dan Noyes tried speaking to Michelle, which revealed the shady deal she tried to secure to get a comeback concert during SF Pride. In that interview, she didn't mention any wacko conspiracy theories, and she ended up bouncing up and down like Tom Cruise did on Oprah's show back in the day. Time after time, as Nicole Sandler indicated back in March, Michelle Shocked digs a deeper hole for herself. She's repeatedly been given the benefit of the doubt by fans and the media. Enough is enough. She continues hate speech to this day, recently using the hastag "#newfag" to insult and slur gay (and straight) opponents of hers on Twitter. Engaging in persistent Twitter abuse is one of Michelle's favorite things to do.