He appears to be recording himself shakily on a handheld cell phone camera, smiling brightly. This is the tweet attached to the brief video: “Coming soon!!!” It is widely believed that he committed the murders in the civil court the following year, and he was found liable for the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of the double murder and is a Hollywood legend and former football personality. When I was scrolling through my Twitter feed, I came across the first retweet of his contribution to the platform. It is amazing to see how things can happen in a particular moment, and it feels inevitable.
In October 2017, after being released on parole from a nine-year prison sentence for armed robbery charges, his ability to use the Internet and Twitter was generally hindered. However, now he is here, tweeting and making his presence known, which is quite crazy. It’s not a specific sense, but it’s almost like he made his way back to the scene in 2019.
In this era of our significant harbinger, the trial of this sensational murder man, O.J. Simpson, has become an ongoing reality show, seamlessly merging lived experience and entertainment. The multitude of sins that this brand may hide deserves respect in the public eye, as it shows how much truth matters in a world where truth itself has become a matter of less importance. If Trump could continue to tweet vulgarities and falsities at his whim, using the platform of Twitter as a bombardment of his pure barrage of personality, then it is no wonder why he found enough traction to propel himself to the Presidency. He is a star of reality-TV and a attention-thirsty businessman, but also a washed-up has-been.
He has amassed nearly eight hundred and fifty-eight thousand followers within two weeks on the tweeting platform. Perhaps, thanks to the brilliant dramatized television shows aired in 2016, one documentary and one show that enticed enough followers to follow him in the social environment of Twitter’s “Zone”-ish “Twilight”. Although twenty-five years have passed since the murders, it seems that Simpson’s recognizability and notoriety have held on.
“So may God bestow blessings upon you, and take good care,” he concludes with a friendly farewell, although the smile remains and only widens as he curiously, abruptly adds, “I have a small amount of retribution to accomplish.” He proceeds, almost chuckling, “This is going to be quite enjoyable,” before offering advice to his followers in a paternal manner, warning them not to be deceived by any counterfeit O.J. Twitter accounts. “Coming soon to Twitter, you will have the opportunity to read my thoughts and opinions on a wide range of topics,” he assures, his voice deep and comforting. With his enduringly handsome appearance and fit physique, he exudes the aura of a prosperous and robust retiree, relishing every moment of his well-deserved leisure. Palm trees and bougainvillea flourish, and the former N.F.L. Star is casually yet modestly dressed in a white button-down shirt and a blue zip-up sweater. In his initial video post, Simpson is captured in what appears to be the backyard of his personal residence within a gated community in Las Vegas.
Reversal, but that would assume a genuine separation of one emotional state from the other, the positive from the negative. The impressive aspect of these videos, however, is how these states are, for Simpson, identical: the pseudo-friendly all-American cheerfulness perhaps just as sinister as the thinly veiled threat that follows it. This duality also haunts Simpson’s other tweets, most of which are accompanied by videos whose atmosphere continues to fall somewhere between that of an amateur YouTuber reviewing various brands of windshield wipers and an aspiring school shooter recording his social and ideological grievances. In one clip, where Simpson is seen standing by a pool with two American flags (“Hey, Twitter world!”), He promises that people will no longer be able to “say whatever they want to say about me, with no accountability,” before implying that he will now be able to “challenge a lot of that B.S. And set the record straight.” He proceeds to give a sneak peek of his Twitter feed’s upcoming content, stating that he will discuss “sports and fantasy football, even politics,” and concludes by wishing “all my fellow-fathers out there, happy Father’s Day, and God bless.” Later, in an outing recorded before the second night of the Democratic debates, in what appears to be a casual sushi restaurant, Simpson, wearing a busy patterned short-sleeved button-down and an Apple Watch shining on his wrist, urges his followers not to heed the pundits’ opinions on who won the debate. “With your vote, you’re the expert!” He wholesomely advises. “Enjoy! Take care!” I would argue that this unsettling transition from affable dad to vengeful alleged murderer and back in an instant is similar to a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transformation.
After the disturbing “Leaving Neverland” documentary aired, which presented detailed accounts of alleged sexual abuse of child victims by Jackson, this video comes months later. It is at this point that Simpson casually pulls out a framed commemorative photo, which leads one to assume that he continues to believe Jackson’s claims of taking kids to his wondrous Ranch Neverland. The audacious video, especially posted on the tenth anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death, reads a tweet attached to the video, stating that Jackson and he worked together to establish Good Camp, a Times Cancer for kids. Simpson is seen wearing a white visor and a blue polo, golfing around with him on a golf cart.
Finally, through these tweets and videos, it suggests that we will learn the true story of O.J. Simpson, who really is and dispel the false stories and lies. In his Twitter bio, Simpson announces, “If you don’t see it, I didn’t say it.” Before the events of June last year, he was an American icon and a public figure who allowed us to see the human side of the athlete. In his vociferous declaration of innocence, he tells us that his innocence is as clear as the copy jacket he wears. In his book “If I Did It,” published in 1995 while awaiting trial, he gives a hypothetical account of how he would have murdered Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. In 2006, he pivoted to another kind of truth, flirting with the idea that he had a glimpse behind the coveted glove. This is not the first time he claimed to give us this kind of insight.
His business was simply taking care of his personal affairs when he allegedly stabbed his wife and her friend to death. He was playing golf at his club and celebrating Father’s Day privately by his pool. This guy is a generous and kind soul, as evidenced by his Twitter feed and his apparent hands-off attitude towards Simpson animation. I know that he was a generous and kind person before his death, but I didn’t know enough about his private life to debate it. It seems that there is some blowback, at least dimly, towards his video tribute to Michael Jackson.