As a professional person who is considered to be both a “conservative campaign operative” and a media consultant, my phone and social media pages are always blowing up when something distasteful trends.
Enter stage left the “Satan is infiltrating our culture” crowd.
Bear in mind that 98.9% of my friends, via Facebook and in real life, are mostly conservative Christians. Love them all. Love their values, morals and convictions.
Their recent posts concerning how every major mega-music success is promoting Satan are no new thing. These wild and dark images you post of these musical stars dressed in black and red with dark, foreboding stage lighting and ears and tails are not a new thing by any stretch.
Nor do I believe the devil himself is working through them to destroy our world as we know it. From Lil Naz X to (hope you’re seated!) Taylor Swift, all have displayed this dark imagery to lure audiences in.
Remember Megadeth, Black Sabbath and other such bands from back in the day? Dozens of bands have all followed this path at one point or another. It’s a money game and nothing more. Simply look at the demographics of which age group spends the most on music. I can assure you it’s not the boomers downloading Sinatra tunes by the millions.
Is it an infiltration of Satan into young minds to corrupt? Not at all. What it is, is “psychology-meets-mega-marketing” at its finest. By these bands (and Hollywood) appealing to the 13-21 crowd and appealing to their emerging rebellious stage in life, what darker and more rebellious can one get but to buck the system, jump on the darkest path available and “show the man” who can’t be controlled?
At that tender age I was one of those people reading Anton Levay’s “The Satanic Bible” at 17, and look at me now!
When my son was maybe 4 years old, I remember him rolling out of his older sister’s bedroom sporting his mom’s high heels, the sister’s tutu and rouge on his face. What I didn’t do was rush him to the nearest “Gender Change” clinic and chop off his goodies. I laughed, he laughed and that was the end of that. The next day he was slinging mud in the back yard and wrestling with the dog and pulling his sister’s braided hair. We all grow through stages, good bad and ugly, and the truth is, the vast majority of us survive.
Truth be told, I was far more disturbed by the whole scene staged via the Biden administration when Biden walked up to a podium on Sept. 1, 2022, bathed in dark, dramatic red lighting. Some headlines the next day read “Biden’s ‘blood red’ backdrop steals show in speech attacking MAGA.” In that speech, Biden went on to blame “MAGA Republicans” for everything from the pandemic to election fraud to raging crime in the streets. Of course he made it a point to note that “not all Republicans are radical.” Thanks, Joe, I feel so much better, maybe even vindicated a bit.
Talk about a textbook case of psyops at its finest. George Orwell was surely rolling over in his grave after that speech.
In music, theater, the arts and, of course, politics, Psychology plays a big part. It always has. Knowing what buttons to push on the human psyche and emotions can be the success or failure of any such endeavor. In the case of Biden’s Sept. 1 speech, it was designed to engender fear of “the big, dark Orange Man,” and in some cases, it worked. My phone and socials blew up then as well.
“Calm down people” was my typical response, and it continues to be.
Enter the Olympics! Christians were again outraged at the “Opening Ceremony” and the blasphemous staging of the “Last Supper.” Outrage? Yes. Solution. Turn off the TV and watch something else. It’s our only revenge. It was reported that this recent Olympics was the least-watched in history.
Awful music? Same solution. Change the channel. In the Digital Age, they know what we watch and what we listen to. They also know when we “vote with our feet” and bring our attention, and dollars, somewhere else.
In conclusion, to my Christian and Jewish friends; Have faith, real faith. We can’t change them and their assault on our youth and us, but we can refuse to participate — and that’s the best revenge ever.
Stephen Xavier is an executive coach and business consultant who resides in Apex.