AesopFan:

That’s why I added the qualification: “imagine killing himself in prison.”

I also wonder how terrified Smollett — a soft, pretty, gay guy — might be of prison life. I sure would be.

You mean besides some white prison official.

And yet, and yet…REDEMPTION is still possible. The Comeback Kid can STILL “conquer” his audience, emerge victorious. EMPIRE indeed! And one can actually witness that imperious, if cliche-ed mind firing on all cylinders; see the hackneyed creative juices coursing through his proud-victim’s veins…
…as he presents his breathless audience—taking his cue from the MASTER of the absurd—“The Jussie Smollett Hoax: THE SEQUEL!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8yZKMow0ME

File under: “All the world’s a…courtroom”(?)

Agree with your analysis except for this.
I think he is too narcissistic to put posthumous future glory ahead of potential live continuation of The Cause.
And I doubt anybody else thinks he would make a good martyr for the cause, because there is no obvious “fall guy” to blame for killing him.

buddhaha:

I have a few thoughts on that.

I believe Smollett’s primary motivation was not “selfishness” for fame and money as the conventional wisdom goes. I argue that he comes from a black power family and his hoax was to further the black power agenda.

Specifically, to support Kamala Harris and Cory Booker’s “Emmett Till Antilynching Act.” (Which passed a couple weeks ago.) Hence the prominent noose motif in Smollett’s hoax.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till_Antilynching_Act

Since his motivation was political, of course he continues to protest his innocence. He could easily have walked on this charge with a wrist slap, had he only owned up to the hoax, apologized and asked forgiveness.

But Smollett, in his peculiar way, has more integrity than that. If his godmother, Angela Davis, could risk imprisonment and even execution to conspire to smuggle weapons into a Marin courtroom on behalf of two black brothers, surely Jussie Smollett could hoax a race attack on himself, then maintain his innocence no matter how absurd.

Furthermore, I wouldn’t put it past Smollett, in the light of his suicide comment, to imagine killing himself in prison — if it got really bad — so he could be a martyr to the cause.

It’s good to lay the groundwork early.

However, Smollett’s hoax was flagrant enough and stupid enough to piss off a fair amount of Chicago’s progressive power structure. Note Rahm Emanuel’s response back in 2019 when the charges against Smollett were initially dropped.
_____________________________

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel strongly condemned the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office decision to drop all charges against Jussie Smollett, calling it a “whitewash of justice.”

https://www.thewrap.com/chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuel-calls-jussie-smolletts-dropped-charges-a-whitewash-of-justice/
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Rahm Emanuel was President Obama’s Chief of Staff, then later the Mayor of Chicago.

So I don’t take it as a given that of course Smollett will get off without jail time. I’m sure whatever happens will be less than he deserves, but he has taken some damage and more may be coming.

And why is he claiming that he won’t commit suicide? Does he have something on the Clintons? 🙂