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maximuswolf · 4 years ago

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New to /r/Satanism? Click here for our FAQ and Q&A! via /r/satanism

New to /r/Satanism? Click here for our FAQ and Q&A!

Link to previous Q&A sticky: Sticky 1, Sticky 2, Sticky 3, Sticky 4, Sticky 5, Sticky 6, Sticky 7

Unlike many other subreddits, we at /r/Satanism enjoy nearly complete freedom of speech. The tradeoff for that free speech is that sometimes you will be exposed to ideas or opinions that you don't agree with. Keep in mind that bad behavior and not bad ideas will get people banned from this subreddit. As Satanists most often believe in stratification, the voting buttons in /r/Satanism can be used to that end. Because of this, moderators like myself likely will not remove links to sites that you would expect to be removed from other subreddits.

FAQ:

Note: This FAQ is written by moderator of /r/Satanism and Agent of the Church of Satan, /u/modern_quill. I am trying to remain unbiased and fact-based in these Q&A responses, so if you feel that I have somehow misrepresented your organization or philosophy, please let me know and we can work together to make the appropriate corrections.

Q: What is Satanism?

A: This is a simple question, but it has a complex answer because it depends on who you ask. Satanism as a philosophy and religion was first codified by Anton Szandor LaVey in his 1969 publication of The Satanic Bible. Some people refer to this secular Satanism as "LaVeyan Satanism" as a nod to Anton LaVey. The Satanic Bible borrows from the works of Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard, Ayn Rand's Objectivism, and Frederich Nietzche's Der Wille zur Macht. This is the most widely practiced form of Satanism and is championed by the Church of Satan (CoS) to this day. At its most basic definition, "LaVeyan Satanism" is about living the best life that you want to live, and bending the world around you to your will to achieve that goal. A Satanist sees themselves as their own God. There is, of course, much more to Satanism than that very basic definition, but we expect people to do their own research as well. Most LaVeyan Satanists will simply call it Satanism, as there is only one form of Satanism from the Church of Satan's perspective. Members of the recently formed secular organization called The Satanic Temple (TST), by comparison, see Satanism as political activism. The Satanic Temple often makes news headlines with their efforts to establish a separation of church and state and do not include The Satanic Bible as part of their organization's canon, but rather The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France. Later, some people in the United Kingdom split from The Satanic Temple to form the Global Order of Satan (GOS). There are also theistic Satanists, some believe in a literal Satan and some do not. Ask a theist like /u/Ave_Melchom what they believe and they'll likely share their thoughts with you, but you probably won't find very many theists that share the same philosophy. There are also more esoteric organizations such as the Temple of Set (ToS), which was formed by former Church of Satan member Michael Aquino after infighting within the organization in 1975 caused many theistic members to split away and become Setians. /u/Purple-Tatters and /u/CodeReaper moderate /r/Setianism subreddit and are a wealth of information on the subject. There are also organizations that fall into a more neo-nazi ideology such as the Order of Nine Angles (ONA or O9A), here is additional reading on ONA, and self-stylized "Spiritual Satanists" of the Joy of Satan (JoS), which are often not tolerated by other members of this subreddit. The words, "Fuck off, Nazi!" have become somewhat of a meme on /r/Satanism.

Q: If Satanists don't believe in Satan, why call it Satanism at all? Why not Humanism?

LaVeyan A: Modern secular Satanists see humans as just another animal within the greater animal kingdom, no better than our avian, reptilian, or mammalian friends. Our technology and our intellectual advancements may have placed us at the top of the food chain, but it has merely encouraged humans to be the most vicious animals of all. To us, Satan is a metaphor that represents our strength, our pride, our intellect, our carnality, and all of the so-called sins as they lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification. The Hebrew word Satan simply means adversary, and Satanists take that adversarial stance to a great many things in their lives; the way we approach an issue, the way we tackle a problem, the way we overcome an obstacle. While Humanists may try to live like Bill & Ted and be excellent to eachother, a Satanist recognizes that emotions like anger, even hate are natural to the human animal and we shouldn't feel guilty for such natural inclinations. While Christians may turn the other cheek when wronged, you can be sure that a Satanist will have their revenge, with interest.

Q: Do you sacrifice or molest children/animals? Do you drink blood?

LaVeyan A: No. Sacrifice is a Christian concept that was projected on to innocent Satanists during the "Satanic Panic" of the 80's and early 90's by charlatan law enforcement "consultants" and Christian religious "experts". One trait common to Satanists is their love of life as Satanists view life as the greatest of indulgences; children and animals represent the purest forms of life and imagination that there are. In fact, the abuse of children and animals is forbidden by the Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth. Also, why would we want to drink blood? Christians are the ones that (symbolically) eat the flesh and drink the blood of their savior. I'd rather enjoy a nice scotch.

Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth

Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.

Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

Do not harm little children.

Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.

More FAQ Below - (10,000 character maximum per post.)

Submitted October 16, 2020 at 03:27PM by modern_quill via reddit https://ift.tt/343kGzm

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vampiresuns · 5 years ago

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5, 10, 27!

i’ll do 5 for nana, and the other two for the four of them 💕

5. Describe the cutest date you��ve ever been on.

“So you see, there was this guy who was a friend of my friends. I met him at a party. First thing I tell him is “what on earth are you wearing”, which was so incredibly impolite considering I didn’t even particularly disliked his fashion choices, they’re rather amusing, really. He keeps me on my toes with his inability to combine colours sometimes.”

“Long story short, we go home together — my place. He makes me breakfast in the morning. We keep having a great time after breakfast. He has to go and here’s the thing: sometimes I do one night stands for the hell of it by it’s usually with people I already know, and not the first time I meet them. It just makes me uncomfortable. But this guy? He took my breath away, and I hadn’t even realised it yet — but my heart did, and I like a fool asked him if he’d like to hang out with me in some other occasion, making it clear it was a date. He didn’t reply.”

“So I tell him to forget about it. To spare my dignity, you know. He leaves, I kick myself for a good while, and suddenly, a couple of hours later, I get a message from him. He asked me out back. Right then.”

“He was everything I already thought he was and more.”

— Anatole 🌞

now, jules’ note: this is his first day with @froyofam’s august in modern au! while he has several boyfriends in different verses (you can ask about his other dates with the others if you wanna!) i picked this one because while nana has his fancy moments or his particular rand of dramatics, this one — honest and not according to plan but better than the plan in its own way, surprising? i can’t imagine of something else he’d absolutely love more in retrospective.

10. dog gay or cat gay?

“Snake gay... but cats if I must choose.”

— Anatole 🌞

“Surprisingly cats? Dogs are great, I love both, but cats are so silly — they’re so fucking ridiculous.”

— Leonore 🔥

“I seriously cannot choose.“

— Medea ⚡️

“Reptiles.”

— Sabine 🌚

27. what is a piece of advice you have for young / baby gays.

Anatole would advice you to learn about LGBT history and reach out. you’re not alone, and together is how we make it. having a community of LGBT people who will have your back, who will understand you, is life changing. Let others be the spoonful of sugar your life needs. Also, develop a personal fashion sense, and gender is fake.

Leonore would advice to take your time. Feeling like you are missing out is anxiety inducing but you have to remember you do have time to know yourself. You do have time to flourish: don’t force yourself into things you’re not ready for. That means you have to be responsible with your mental and emotional health. Reach out. And also: the flashier the coat, the better.

Medea would say community, sense of humour and irreverence. Others to take care of us, sense of humour to uplift us, irreverence because society can and will try to make you feel guilty about who you are, and we must not, ever, let it do that. We don’t lick the boot as much as we don’t let the boot stomp us. Support trans women.

Sabine would say make art. Explore, dress awfully. Live your truth unconditionally and genuinely and let it set you free. Sometimes you will feel like dying, but understand these moments can make you reborn. Additional advice: gender is f a k e, the future is nonbinary.

#gay asks #ask anatole #ask leonore #ask medea #ask sabine #aelius anatole #leonore #medea #sabine rey #to learn to speak the language of the stars #nanaugust #puzzlingenigma #ty ♥️

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crowdbabe · 8 years ago

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Fünf fafickte Favierfervietten

O.k. Neben mir liegen fünf fafickte Favierfervietten und vor uns acht Stunden Flugzeit. Acht Stunden, uns nochmal jede Folge dieser Produktion reinzuziehen, von der alle Beteiligten wussten, dass es sich um eine Reality-Soap handelt. Bis auf mich. Ich hab´s für die Realität gehalten. Weswegen ich das Material jetzt um ein paar Bonus Tracks ergänzen möchte, die ich bisher unter Verschluss gehalten habe, ist also `ne ganz exklusive Veranstaltung hier.

Auch wenn der Flug-Dispatcher die Regeln nicht zu kennen scheint.

Gate C ist nämlich falsch. Gate F müsste mein Abfluggate sein. Heute ist ein F-Tag und das ist von all den Arschkarten, die ich auf der Hand habe, noch die coolste. Ein F-Tag gestattet immerhin solche Annehmlichkeiten wie Flughafen, French Fries und Facebook. Stellt euch mal vor, mein Rückflug wäre auf einen B-Tag gefallen, wo hätte ich mich denn da bis zum Abflug rumtreiben sollen, da bleibt ja außer Brücken und Bus Stops nicht viel, wenn die Alternative nicht im Bett bleiben lauten soll. Und für B-Essen, das nicht ausgerechnet ein Burger ist, wäre ich wohl kaum um das gnadenlos überteuerte Organic-Sortiment bei Godess and Grocer herumgekommen - ich kann mir jedenfalls nicht vorstellen, dass irgendeine der anderen Buden in der Abfluglounge Banana Bread oder Bulgursalat im Angebot hätte. Ich will mich also nicht beschweren über meinen F-Tag mit Flughafen, Facebook und FeierdesAbschieds-French-Fries. Wobei natürlich auch fuckin French Fries und fuckin Flughafen und fuckin Facebook ginge. Was soll´s. Noch eine gute Stunde, dann stehe ich am Gate in der Schlange, und sobald die meine Bordkarte gescannt, die Klappen über den Sitzen dichtgemacht und die Kabinentüren verriegelt haben, bin ich raus aus der Nummer. Vorausgesetzt, ich reiß mich jetzt zusammen und krieg meinen Senf innerhalb der verbleibenden Stunde in Form gepresst. Und finde irgendwo freies Wifi, hier am Flughafen bieten die nur Boingo an, sieben Dollar die halbe Stunde, das ist mir echt zu happig. Ich brauch doch maximal eine halbe Minute, um den Text hochzuladen und meinen Tweet abzusetzen. Unfasslich, dass ein Flughafen wie O´Hare kein freies Wifi hat.

Ziemlich trübe Veranstaltung. Der Himmel legt sich echt ins Zeug, mir die passende Abschiedskulisse zu bieten. Die Delta-Maschine, die sich gerade in die graue Watte schraubt, wird immer mehr zum Papierflieger, je weiter sie sich entfernt. Ich hab uns einen Fensterplatz ausgesucht, damit Gino und Eddie was zu gucken haben, während ich schreibe. Im Moment sind sie ganz fasziniert vom Bodenpersonal, das in signalfarbener Regenmontur die beladenen Gepäcktrolleys übers Rollfeld schubst, während ich durch mein Facebookleben der letzten Monate scrolle. Das Display ist schon ganz fettig von meinen Pommesfingern und die glitschigen Papierservietten aus dem Spender taugen auch nicht wirklich für Notizen. Die sind irgendwie beschichtet, da haftet der Kugelschreiber nicht. Wie soll ich denn da Zeugnis ablegen, wenn die Wahrheit nicht mal auf Papierservietten haften will. Na, wenigstens wollte der Typ an der Bar keine ID sehen, sodass ich den Verlust meines Flachmanns kompensieren kann.

Die Wahrheit ist mehr als die Summe ihrer Teile. Die Wahrheit ist, dass ich betrogen worden bin. Dass Orange mich hintergangen hat. Das Kind, das wir kriegen wollten, mit einem anderen angesetzt hat. Das lässt sich so natürlich nicht in meiner Timeline ablesen. Das sieht man mir auch nicht an. Ich weiß über die Gestalten an den Tischen um mich rum ja auch maximal, dass sie auf ihren Boardingaufruf warten. Und nicht mal das kann ich sehen. Was ich sehe, ist, wie sich jemand Donutglasur von der Lippe wischt. Senf vom Finger leckt. Höre hinter mir jemanden Getränkereste zwischen den Eiswürfeln durch einen Strohhalm saugen. Und denen wird’s auch nicht anders gehen. Was die sehen, wenn sie ihren Becher absetzen, sich die Finger abgeleckt oder die Serviette zusammengeknüllt haben, ist ein unrasierter Typ, auf dem Kopf eine Wollmütze, unter der ein Wust verfilzter Haare hervorragt, der mit aufgestützten Ellbogen am Panoramafenster hockt und sich, den Blick auf sein Handy-Display fixiert, abwesend fettige Pommes aus einer Styroporbox in den Mund stopft. Gelegentlich scheint er sich mit zwei kleinen hellblauen Spielzeugnilpferden auszutauschen, die neben der Pommesschachtel stehen, um im Anschluss etwas mit Kugelschreiber auf einen Stapel Papierservietten zu kritzeln, was genau, lässt sich auf die Entfernung natürlich nicht entziffern. Was weder der widerliche Anzugtyp, der glaubt, dass keiner merkt, wie er über den Rand seiner Chicago Tribune ziemlich schamlos jeden weiblichen Körper im Umkreis scannt, noch das kleine glupschäugige Monster im Star Wars-Anorak sehen kann, ist, dass der grenzdebil wirkende Pommesfresser, der mit Spielzeug spricht und seine Tage alphabetisch ordnet, seinen Aufenthalt in der Abfluglounge einem Stapel Anwaltslyrik verdankt, in dem so unschöne Begriffe wie Cybermobbing vorkommen.

Aber ich bin gewappnet: mein Akku ist voll und selbst wenn sie mich an der Security zwingen können, meine Schuhe auszuziehen und mich nackig zu machen, selbst wenn sie meinen Flachmann einkassieren, mein Handy und meine Kamera durchleuchten und 7 Dollar dafür kassieren, können sie mich nicht daran hindern, bis zur letzten Sekunde ihr WiFi zu nutzen. Und dem Serviettenspender an der Ketchup- und Mayostation so viele Papierservietten zu entnehmen, wie ich will. Ihr Kontrollzwang hat Grenzen. Sie können Menschen glauben machen, sie würden einen Preis gewinnen, wenn sie ihre Smartphones an die QR-Codes auf den Etiketten von Ketchupflaschen halten. Ketchup und Mayo haben sie unter ihre Kontrolle gebracht, aber keine Heimatschutzbehörde wird überprüfen können, wie viele Papierservietten ich am Airport Chicago O´Hare gezogen habe, um meine Geschichte zu erzählen. „Flieg nachhause, Anatol. Erzähl deine Geschichte. Geh Eichhörnchen füttern“, lautet Jerrys Anweisung. Bis auf die Eichhörnchen in ich auf dem besten Wege.

Fünf. Fünf brauche ich. Weil heute ein F-Tag und meine verbleibende Zeit begrenzt ist. Da müssen fünf fafickte Fafierferfietten fenügen. Mein Flug ist für 6:10 p.m. ausgeschrieben, das Boarding beginnt um halb. Meine Armbanduhr, die neben der Styroporpackung mit meinen Pommes liegt, zeigt 16:45 Uhr an, eine deutsche Uhr bleibt eine deutsche Uhr. Eine gute halbe Stunde, um elf Monate, in denen ich beinahe ein Kind gezeugt hätte und beinahe Vater geworden wäre, auf fünf Papierservietten auszubreiten. Die einzigen, die mir die Treue gehalten haben, sind zwei kleine hellblaue Spielzeugnilpferde aus dem Überraschungsei, die auch nach einem Jahr Aufenthalt hier weder Englisch noch ein Laserschwert bedienen können. Aber selbst wenn, mit einem Laserschwert wär ich nie und nimmer durch den Sicherheitsdetektor gekommen. Beläuft sich unsere kleine Reisegruppe also auf zwei nicht sicherheitsüberprüfte Hippos und einen sicherheitsüberprüften Einundzwanzigjährigen im Besitz eines deutschen Passes, einer Gepäckmarke und eines Boardingpasses für den United Flug UA 926 nach Frankfurt. Darüber hinaus verfüge ich über eine Flasche Fuckinduty-Free Fodka, die mir beim Besteigen des Flugzeugs wieder ausgehändigt wird, und einen Stapel Papierservietten.

“Final call for all passengers booked on United Airlines flight 926 to Frankfurt am Main. Please proceed immediately to Gate C 20.“ In der Styroporschale liegen noch ein paar verwaiste Pommes in einer Mayolache. Ich setze Gino und Eddie dazu und mache ein Selfie von uns dreien, dann lecke ich ihnen die Mayo von den Hufen und versenke sie in meiner Hosentasche. Mein Versuch, die vollgekritzelten Servietten im Vorbeigehen unter dem Schwingdeckel des Mülleimers zu versenken, scheitert am Schwingdeckel. Die Hälfte landet auf dem Boden. Ich weiß schon, fünf hat keine Hälfte, aber die Wahrheit ist ja auch mehr als die Summe ihrer Teile. Sollen sie mich doch für volltrunken halten, das Star Wars-Monsterkid und der Zeitungsspanner.

Dabei bin ich doch nur ein kleiner Möchtegern-Superheld, den man aus seinem Heldencomic rausgeschmissen hat. Asterix und die Trabantenstadt, kennt ihr, oder? Wo eben noch dieser majestätische Eichenwald stand, in dem Obelix immer Wildschweine jagen geht, klaffen plötzlich Krater im Waldboden, weil die Römer die Eichen rausgerissen haben. Aber nicht mit den Galliern. Ganz lässig werfen Asterix und Obelix im Vorbeigehen eine Zaubereichel in jedes Loch, und schwupp, schießt im Zeitraffer eine neue Eiche in die Höhe und Idefix fällt vor Schreck in Ohnmacht. Als Kind hab ich die Nummer mit den Zaubereicheln geglaubt. Es gibt dieses Foto, da stehe ich in quietschgelben Gummistiefeln an Papas Hand vor einem Schlammloch und hole, die geballte Faust hoch über dem Kopf, zum Wurf aus. So verstrahlt, wie Papa die Kamera anhimmelt, muss Mama das Foto gemacht haben, ich kann also nicht älter als vier gewesen sein, später hat Mama von Papa keine Fotos mehr gemacht. In der geschlossenen Faust halte ich eine Eichel und Mama hat mir erzählt, dass sie unbedingt den Moment erwischen wollte, in dem sie durch die Luft fliegt. Wer weiß, vielleicht hätte sie ihre magische Wirkung sogar entfaltet, wenn Mama im richtigen Moment abgedrückt hätte. Hat sie aber nicht.

Was glaubt ihr eigentlich, warum einer wie ich ein Jahr lang Container nach verwertbaren Lebensmitteln durchwühlt und nebenbei zum Experten für die verschiedenen Stadien weiblicher Fruchtbarkeit avanciert? Einen Real Life Hero wollte ich aus mir machen lassen, mit Zaubereicheln Hoffnung in die Krater der Zivilisation säen. Einer, der sein ganzes Leben auf die Einladung in ein Asterix-und-Obelix-Heft wartet, lässt sich doch auf jedes Spiel ein, das ein bisschen Eichelmagie verspricht. Selbst, wenn es ein Scheißspiel ist. Hab ziemlich viele Runden gebraucht, um zu kapieren, dass meine Mitspielerin jede gottverdammte Regel bricht, um weiterzukommen. Dabei war doch das einzige, was ich wollte, ein Foto. Ein Foto, auf dem ich mit meinem Kind und seiner Mutter „Engelchen flieg“ mache.

Hallo. Miss? Lassen Sie mich kurz etwas erklären: worum es doch letztendlich geht, ist, die Dinge aus ihrer Perspektive zu sehen. Wir sind uns doch einig, dass ich der Täter bin und sie das Opfer, right? Ich meine, dazu haben wir das ganze Spiel doch überhaupt nur gespielt, oder? Sie müssen mir schon eine kleine Chance lassen, a fuckin tiny chance, ich meine, hallo, was soll die Scheiße, ich mach das doch nicht für mich, Sie werden doch jetzt noch die paar Sekunden warten können, bis dieses fuckin´ Flughafen-WiFi mitspielt und meinen Post hochlädt. Ich bin hier in einer ernsthaften Mission unterwegs! Schon klar, ohne Batmansuit und Flügel kaufen Sie mir das nicht ab, aber wollen Sie mir im Ernst erzählen, die hätten mich im Heldenkostüm durch die Sicherheitskontrolle gelassen? – Hier gucken Sie, jetzt hab ich Netz…. - Wie, meine Geschichte interessiert Sie nicht? Mich hat doch auch niemand gefragt, ob ich Oranges Geschichten hören wollte, und wir reden hier von einer wirklich schwer gestörten zwanghaften Lügnerin, I´ve had it, people! Da kann ich auch ganz gediegen und dezent fünfmal pissen gehen und die Pulle, von deren Existenz ihr nichts wisst und die ich nicht mit ins Flugzeug nehmen darf, dem Zustand zuzuführen, der sie zu keinem Problem mehr macht. Womit das einzige verbleibende Problem ich wäre. Außerdem find ich meine Bordkarte ja gleich, tu ich, wirklich, muss nur kurz rülpsen, sorry, aber irgendwie ist das doch ein angemessener Abgang, so Jimmi Dean-Style, mit hochgestelltem Kragen und ordentlicher Fahne, oder Brando, Brando ginge auch. Sagen Sie, Miss, glauben Sie, der fette Brando hätte das gewollt, dass sich einer so fühlen will wie er, oder glauben Sie, der wollte auch einfach nur nüchtern sein und geliebt werden? Doch, doch, ich will an Bord, und betrunken, nein, ach, gucken Sie, hab sie ja doch, meine Bordkarte….

So, wie sieht´s aus, auch ne Bordkarte? Sobald wir drin sitzen, gibt´s für mich ne Bloody Mary und für Euch alle Staffeln im Director´s Cut.

#crowdbabe #chicago #chicagoohare #french fries #ginoandeddie #trümmerfrauen

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betterthedevilyouknowuk · 6 years ago

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Never Let Your Activism Be Artless: An Interview With Lucien Greaves of The Satanic Temple

Haute Macabre interview June 28, 2017

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing The Satanic Temple‘s Lucien Greaves about art, activism, and what religion means as a framework rather than a faith. “Recently” isn’t quite right — these questions were written back in February, as you might notice by the news reference in one of them, but we hope you’ll forgive us the wait. I’ve been following TST’s work for a while and am wholeheartedly a supporter of their mission, but whether you know their tenets by heart or are just tuning in, you’re sure to find something of interest below.

So, just to get it out of the way, could you describe the difference between The Satanic Temple and The Church of Satan for any readers who may not know?

Well, first off, organizationally, there isn’t any similarity. That is to say, we have an organization, we have active chapters internationally, we have a physical headquarters, and we have active campaigns to advance our goals in the real world. The Church of Satan has none of these things.

One thing that I don’t think is clear to a lot of people is that all of the organized Satanic activity you’ve seen in the national and international press in the past years — from the Satanic monument, to the religious reproductive rights lawsuits, to the After School Satan Clubs — it’s all come from The Satanic Temple. The Church of Satan writes these humorous tirades in opposition to each of our activities, but they always get their facts wrong. For instance, they’ll claim that they would never seek to erect a monument on public grounds because, according to them, they support secularism.

In fact, we very often work with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, American Atheists, the American Humanist Association, and other established defenders of secularism nationwide. Our monuments are made in defence of secularism, and we are very clear about that. We only seek to place our Baphomet monument on public grounds where there is a pre-existing 10 Commandments monument to ensure that the government remains neutral regarding religious expression in public forums. Government has no place in Religion, Religion has no place in Government. If a public forum allows privately donated religious monuments, the Government can’t pick and choose between religious viewpoints. That’s secularism. You can’t let the theocrats take over the Public Square and claim it as their own exclusively.

Of course there are those who complain that a true expression of secularism would be the absence of any religious monuments on public grounds. Well, yes, but when there’s already a 10 Commandments monument on public grounds, it doesn’t do much good to simply say you wish it weren’t there. There isn’t much point to organizing a membership structure and hierarchy when there are no activities associated with those roles. When we’re proposing our monument, the government then has to make a choice — will they accept a Satanic monument, or will they engage in religious discrimination and all but ensure that the 10 Commandments monument will come down as well?

Similarly, The Church of Satan objects to our After School Satan Clubs on the grounds that they feel proselytizing to children is abhorrent. If they learned about our after school program before commenting, they’d find that we, too, find proselytizing to children abhorrent. In fact, the very reason we started the After School Satan Clubs was to offer an alternative to coercive religious proselytizing inflicted on children through evangelical after-school clubs, and we only offer our club in schools where the evangelical presence already exists. Our curriculums don’t contain any items of religious opinion and focus entirely on critical thinking and reasoning skills. To say, then, that we shouldn’t call it the After School Satan Club misses the point. We’re The Satanic Temple, and we’re Satanists, and we’re not going to hide that fact. The schools have to understand, if they allow evangelical clubs, they can’t turn away the Satanists. For children to be aware that there are self-identified Satanists, and that they are friendly, approachable people — it has a counter-indoctrination effect.

So, the incessant criticisms we receive from the Church of Satan are either wildly misinformed, or completely dishonest.

Philosophically speaking, The Church of Satan is a fundamentalist LaVeyan organization, which makes a certain sense from a business perspective because they base their authenticity on the fact that they inherited Anton LaVey’s organization and claim his achievements as their own. They hold to a remarkably similar philosophy as you find espoused by radical Tea Party Christians on the theocratic Right: Ayn Rand-inspired Social Darwinist authoritarian-fetishizing libertarianism, but with a bit of occultic ritual magic thrown in. The Satanic Temple espouses a non-supernatural anti-authoritarian philosophy that views the metaphorical literary construct of Satan as a liberator from oppression of the mind and body. Our canon embodies the Romantic Satanism of Milton, Blake, Shelley, to, particularly, Anatole France, whose Revolt of the Angels is a primary text in TST. From its inception, modern Satanism, as it came to be defined in the Revolutionary era of Romantics, was very much a non-theistic movement aligned with Liberty, Equality and Rationalism. With that in mind, I think we’re rather closely aligned with early Modern Satanism, rather than some type of wildly aberrant, unique and unrecognizable contemporary off-shoot.

Since the religious construct of Satanism doesn’t believe in the supernatural, you say you “turn to literature and art as icons for deeply held beliefs.” Can you talk more about the importance of art and literature, especially during times of conflict?

This, I think, cuts to the very heart of what it means to be a non-theistic, non-supernaturalist religion. As I’ve described elsewhere, non-theistic Satanic religious affiliation has a cultural framework that is deeply significant and far from arbitrary— that is to say, we couldn’t simply re-label it for the sake of diplomacy, nor would doing so be true to our principles.

The narrative of the ultimate rebel against tyranny, the use of blasphemy as a tool for liberation against imposed, frivolous, sanctified superstitions; the cultivation of the individual will and rationalism unencumbered by “faith” or blind subjugation; the willingness to stand as an outsider with a sense of justice that is independent of laws and institutions; all are embodied by the literary Satan.

Those of us who were burdened from childhood by archaic tradition-based dogmas, especially in the era of the Satanic Panic, were instilled with an irrational aversion and fear toward the “other”, the Satanic. Breaking that barrier, defying such deeply-entrenched cultural programming, embracing the symbols, narrative, and outside status of the Adversary, can be a supremely liberating personal experience, not merely incidentally divorced from superstition, but emblematic of, and vital to, the break with superstition. Whether we interpret them literally or not, the mythological backdrop by which we each contextualize our existential grounding is profoundly important in our lives. I feel that theists are subjugated by their myths, while we are empowered by ours. The literary Satanists of the Revolutionary Era understood this, and their power to change the world by way of altering the cultural mythological structure was certainly not lost on them. One can read some artful exposition on this point in Shelley’s A Defense of Poetry. In explaining this, I can only hope to make some people understand that, despite common perceptions, Satanism is (or can be) deeply personally enriching, and isn’t merely an attention-seeking shock tactic directed at observers. When the cameras aren’t rolling, when the journalists have all left the spectacle, we are, in fact, Satanists still. I know this doesn’t quite exactly directly answer the question of how literature and art serve as icons for deeply held beliefs; But the power of metaphor, the vital necessity of narrative to cultivate and define one’s sense of self and purpose, the atavistic desire for art are all self-evident to me. I have a difficult time understanding the bizarre, yet apparently prevalent notion, that religious identity, practice, and ethics should be dependent upon intellectually crippling superstitions. I can’t grasp why it became the norm to believe that mentally-stunted fundamentalists have a more authentic claim to deeply-held beliefs.

Any advice you would give those who are operating at the intersection of art and activism?

Never separate art and activism. Never let your activism be artless, and never allow your art to be orthodox.

In a VICE interview a few years ago, you said, “LaVey is an excellent jumping-off point, but his work was a product of its time, and it’s appropriate to recontexualize it to today’s reality. LaVey was active during a time in which, for decades, the United States was on a dysfunctional spiral of increasing violence.” 2017 also seems to be a spiral of increasing violence; do you see TST adapting to that in any particular way?

I don’t agree that there is a spiral of increasing violence. In fact, violence is at historic lows. Since 2008, in the United States, violent crime has been lower than at any point in over 40 years. There was a rise in crime in 2015, but there’s no reason to believe it’s a trend, and there’s no reason to believe it harkens the end of an overall decline in violence. Broader historical overviews indicate an overall decrease in violence from the beginning of recorded history till now. So why are we being sold this bullshit apocalyptic narrative of increasing criminality and violence? I think the reasons should be clear to anybody paying attention to American politics. There needs to be an emergency in order to declare Emergency Powers. Fear-mongering inures the public to unilateral executive actions that defy the checks and balances of open deliberation. “Othering” strengthens tribal bonds as they unify themselves against a common enemy, and the creation of unease and general panic can be used by leaders to manipulate their followers who offer them the latitude to protect them by whatever means.

In the case of LaVey, he actually was living in a time in which violence in the United States was trending upward and was a cause for alarm. During the 1960s, crime steadily and dramatically rose till about 1995 when it began to plummet, eventually, to where we happily are now. LaVey seems to have looked at what was unique in the culture around him at the time to determine what may have precipitated the rise in crime, and to determine what might need to change to make things better. He looked critically at the Rights Revolution and he despised the Hippy culture. He imagined a stratified and tribally divided, non-democratic world. He advocated police state politics.

Turns out, he was wrong.

Secular democratic states are less likely to engage in war against each other and less likely to engage in terrorism or political violence than autocratic states. The rise in democratic states and the concurrent diminution in autocracies correlates to the global trend in reduced violence. Intermingling cultures — free to “appropriate” from each other — fare better than insular ethnic/religious/nationalist cults. And crime has, as stated, drastically plummeted in the United States without any massive reductions in Civil Liberties. In fact, the Rights Revolution has continued to move forward, slowly — but with great resistance, particularly from the Christian Right — and inexorably. I highly recommend a book by Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, which explores this topic in great detail.

Troublingly, I feel that the greatest threat to our social stability now comes from those who claim we must do something to stop the imagined increase in violence. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We already see an increased tribalistic zeal, and we see pre-emptive violence in the name of anti-fascism, which will then be used as justification for increased police action. That’s the real downward spiral.

However, an increase in crime now can’t change what we know. It won’t make a stratified, autocratic Social Darwinist system any more correct. That said, one might wonder why I feel LaVey could be described as an “excellent jumping-off point” at all, if he is so entirely incorrect on this important point? LaVey was a bold voice in opposition to faith-driven mindlessness. He was instrumental in establishing recognition of Modern Satanism, even if he did hang on to other forms of magical thinking. If he were alive today, I like to think that he would be able to see the evidence and adjust his thinking accordingly. Being able to live without delusion and adjust one’s thinking to incorporate the best empirical evidence is, I think, a great overriding principle of Satanism.

In certain areas, LaVey was quite progressive, and I’ve gotten to know some of his old friends (who don’t associate with the Church of Satan), and they’ve all said that they suspect he himself would very much appreciate what The Satanic Temple is now doing.

Is there a reason TST’s Baphomet doesn’t have breasts?

The short answer as to why our Baphomet monument has no breasts is because we fight to win in all of our battles. The Baphomet was originally offered as a private donation to Oklahoma’s State Capitol grounds where, in 2012, their government allowed for the placement of a 10 Commandments monument. The Oklahoma Legislature — led on this issue by a Southern Baptist Deacon State House representative — claimed that the 10 Commandments monument wasn’t, in fact, a religious monument, but a secular, historical monument paying tribute to the early foundations of Constitutional Law. In further attempting to build an argument that the 10 Commandments on Capitol Grounds didn’t constitute a government endorsement of religion, Oklahoma made clear that no public funds went into the construction of the monument, thus opening the Capitol Grounds as a First Amendment protected public forum for private donations. Clearly, they didn’t expect anybody to call their bluff. It was the end of 2013 when we sent off a letter to the State of Oklahoma expressing to them that we should like to offer a monument to be displayed on the Capitol Grounds and requesting the documentation required to move our monument request forward. Having obtained that, we then began to design a monument within the parameters of their “limited open forum” requirements. After sketching out various proposals, it became clear that Baphomet was the best, artistically and symbolically. Symbolically, the binary elements of Baphomet aligned perfectly with our effort to counterbalance the 10 Commandments. We meticulously contrived a legal argument for the inclusion of the Baphomet on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds that artfully paralleled the 10 Commandments’ Bill in every way. The Baphomet was to stand as an homage to the unjustly accused, the heretics and the scapegoats: those burned, hung, stoned, and tortured during witch-hunts and crowd panics. An homage to them, we explained, is an homage to the moral underpinnings of our secular Judiciary which works from a presumption of innocence, places the burden of proof upon the accuser, and refuses to recognize claims of divine authority or anti-blasphemy legislation. We constructed an ironclad argument. We knew, however, that exposed breasts would lead to an opportunity for Oklahoma to claim that our monument defied so-called decency standards, and they would be entirely relieved to evade the Establishment Clause issue in favor of a puritanical claim related to community standards. Initially, I worked with the artist to devise some type of covering for the breasts, but they all looked out-of-place and distracting. Artistically, the breastless bare chest looked best. We still occasionally hear from people who insist that they, as purists, would have included the breasts, decency complaints be damned. I just have to shrug and let them know that this is exactly why they’ll most likely never get anything done.

As a hybrid religion/activism group that embraces humor, TST bears some similarity to 60s activist group W.I.T.C.H., which has recently announced a modern reincarnation. I’m also reminded of Discordianism, which was my first introduction to the use of religion as a satirical framework as a teenager. Do you think humor is an integral part of activism?

I think humor is integral to being a well-adjusted human. There is a difference, however, between creating a satirical religion and using satire, as a religious organization, to advance a point.

Our identification as Satanists isn’t “satirical,” however, we’re not adverse to using humor and satire to highlight various hypocrisies and absurdities we run up against. This point is entirely lost on some people who seem to believe that everything is mutually exclusive, and one organization can’t be more than one thing at a time.

We’re often asked if we’re political, religious, an art movement, etc. Why would we have to choose between any one of those things? Why can we not be entirely sincere while also having a sense of humor? For that matter, why is it we seldom see the skepticism that is directed toward us directed toward the Evangelical Right? Is the Evangelical Right a sincere religious movement, or is it merely political? Is there anything in scripture that even distantly implies that a corporation like Hobby Lobby shalt not pay for insurance benefits that include contraceptive coverage? Is their belief that they should not pay those benefits more deeply-held than our belief in bodily autonomy merely because they claim to lack the intellectual nuance to not read their Bible as a literal historical text?

I would like to see that The Satanic Temple never loses its sense of humor, even as there persists this bizarre notion that humor and authenticity are irreconcilable.

According to Breitbart, you reached out to clarify that TST had nothing to do with the counter-Milo protests in California, citing your support of free speech. How do you reconcile having “freedom to offend” with the danger Milo causes to individuals by targeting specific trans or undocumented students at his speeches?

I’m not sure what danger he’s caused to anybody. I’ve never read his material. I’ve never listened to him speak. Even still, after having defended his right to speak, I still don’t give a shit about what he’s saying. I defend the principle of Free Speech, and when you defend a principle, you don’t only defend it selectively. If you can’t support it when it incidentally doesn’t benefit you, you’re not supporting it at all. You can’t claim that you believe in Free Speech, only insofar as you agree with what’s being said. If Milo has posed a legitimate danger to individuals through inciting violence in a very direct and tangible way, if he’s defamed people, or invaded their privacy — this seems like a matter for the civil courts, and the aggrieved parties should consult legal representation. If the “danger” is that he has hurt people’s feelings, then I should be quite clear that I am not sympathetic. For my part, I can’t wrap my head around the cognitive dissonance that has self-proclaimed defenders of Liberal Democracy calling for limitations on Free Speech in the name of “anti-fascism.” The irony is overwhelming. Of course, it seems, nobody quite wants to admit that they renounce Free Speech, so it’s quite popular to try and categorize anything one disagrees with as Hate Speech worthy of censorship. But offensive and even hateful speech is, and should remain, protected under the First Amendment. Threats and incitement are treated differently, and there could be legal claims related to those, if in fact that’s what Milo’s done.

Many are the times in which The Satanic Temple has been wrongly denigrated as engaging in “hate speech” by offended Christian groups who imagine that any and all of our activities are acts of persecution against them. They would argue that while we’re not make direct threats or inciting specific actions against them, our very identification as Satanists nonetheless threatens Christians and incites acrimony against them. Their feelings are hurt. They’re offended. We would support a broadened definition of Hate Speech or accept a less discriminating interpretation of what constitutes a threat or incitement at our own peril.

My impression of Milo is that he rode a wave of celebrity that was largely created by the ignorant little assholes who ran amok lighting fires, smashing property, and macing bystanders in the face wherever he was scheduled to speak. When you take a third-rate comedian who’s saying offensive things and demand his censorship, you suddenly give him the First Amendment high ground. You turn him into a defender of Civil Liberties. You make him a Free Speech martyr, and in the internet age his message is certainly no less accessible, you’ve only given him free publicity.

Incidentally, it appears that Milo’s career as a sweetheart of the alt-right is all but entirely finished, and it wasn’t destroyed because some screaming mob of mindless fascistic “anti-fascists” managed to impose a general censorship of his words, but because he was allowed to speak freely and express things that even his followers couldn’t support or defend.

Related, does TST have an official stance on punching Nazis?

Personally, I think it’s a bad idea to go out looking to punch anybody. I especially think it’s a bad idea to go out looking to punch thick-skulled miscreants who themselves are looking for a pretext for a fight. I also think Nazis are a bit too easy a target to place all of our post-election angst upon. I’m not particularly concerned that the Nazi Party is going to gain prominence in the United States any time in the near or projected future. Even our most oppressive elements on the right probably honestly believe themselves to be entirely unrelated to Nazis. The self-identified Nazis I know of are angry, uneducated, aggressive yokels who run no risk of organizing a national coup. I just don’t run into Nazis in my daily life or when I’m out socializing. I’m not sure where people are living that they can decide to whimsically travel out and go punch a Nazi at will. Rather, I think the anti-Nazi rhetoric is simply a safe and inoffensive exhibition of discontent. It’s something people can rant about and issue threats of violence toward without any real fear of actual confrontation. I think it would be far more poignant and meaningful if people were to confront Evangelical Nationalism and rail against the Theocratic Right. I get sick of hearing people say, “let’s call them what they really are: Nazis.” No. Why don’t you call them what they really are? They are the Theocratic Right. They are Evangelical Nationalists. They are taking over the public offices and overturning Liberal Democracy. When you call people who have no attachment to Nazi-ism Nazis, they don’t know you’re talking about them, and it’s not clear that you know who you’re talking about either.

You recently opened an international headquarters in Salem. Can you tell us about this?

Our organization has grown so rapidly in the past few years. It made sense to have a dedicated headquarters where we can keep our offices and centralize our operations. The lower floor is open to the public as an art gallery where we regularly have exhibitions. The current exhibition features the work of Vincent Castiglia, a remarkable artist who paints enormous and meticulously detailed works of art in his own blood. We have some amazing sculpture-work by Chris Andres, who also designed our veterans’ memorial in Minnesota. We also have a segment of the gallery dedicated to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s, and which still persists to a greater or lesser degree today. We also have a lecture room where we show films and host guest speakers.

The gallery is always going to be a work in progress and we’re adding to it all the time. By now, given my explanation of non-theistic religion and the importance and power of art, it shouldn’t seem strange in the least that our headquarters should double as an art gallery. In fact, nothing could be more natural to us. Art is integral to our religion.

People often ask how we’re received by the local community. There haven’t been any problems at all. We get along with the neighbors, the local officials haven’t given us any problems, and we really couldn’t have picked a better place to put our headquarters. When people recognize me on the street, it’s always been a positive and polite interaction. We’ve had many people visit from out-of-state just to visit our headquarters, and it hasn’t been uncommon for them to considering moving to Salem afterward. I have a feeling that Salem will become home to the largest population of self-identified Satanists in the world in the foreseeable future.

You support non-believers having access to religion as a framework. Can you elaborate on what that means? What is the difference between religion and faith?

“Faith” is belief without evidence. Theists ennoble faith as integral to religion: blind belief in intellectually insulting superstitions that offer the benefit of solace in “knowing” that we’ll go to a paradisiacal after-world, so long as we live a life of servitude toward an unseen master. Faced with disconfirming evidence, the theist often withdraws into arguments that attack a lack of moral clarity in science. The superstitious religionist feels that their ethics, community, and sense of cultural identity are founded upon old superstitions that they must strive to believe and struggle to uphold, despite the persistent injuries constantly dealt to those beliefs by critical scrutiny and empirical knowledge.

In the United States we afford certain protections to deeply-held beliefs to respect freedom of conscience. Thomas Jefferson, in his Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom stated, “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.” Elaborating on this bill (which was important enough to him that it was named among three lifetime achievements upon his grave), Jefferson wrote in his memoirs that in this statute “protection of opinion was meant to be universal”, and the document included “within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.”

Religious opinion was meant to be equally protected alongside faith. The non-believer’s right to express non-belief and not be besieged by a state-sanctioned religious viewpoint is equally protected alongside the right of the superstitious to assemble in houses of worship and implore the good will of a petty and jealous deity to take pity on their pathetic and groveling souls. This is the only tenable interpretation of what “religious liberty” can mean in a democratic pluralistic society. Religious Liberty doesn’t support a “right” to impose a religious viewpoint upon anybody else, or a “right” to limit another’s civic capacities. Religious Liberty gives every one of the us the opportunity to object to impositions of the state that run contrary to our deeply-held beliefs and challenge our freedom of conscience. Superstition does not produce superior ethics or identities, nor does faith provide beliefs that are more deeply-held than the personal moral foundations of any well-adjusted atheist. It would be deplorable to give superstition preferential treatment to rational thinking.

Of course, any time that equal protection for the religious opinion of non-believers is contextualized as part of a fight for Religious Liberty, there’s always some smug asshole, self-identifying as an atheist, who witlessly parrots the witticism, “atheism is a religion in the same way that bald is a haircut,” or, “…in the same way that off is a television station,” or any number of less-than-clever unoriginal variations. Nothing could be more helpful to the Fundamentalists than non-believers who insist that religion is dependent upon superstition, thus defining themselves outside of a protected class. I feel that atheist organizations, as organizations based upon a well-defined religious opinion, or opinion regarding religion, should have no hesitation in arguing for religious privilege and exemption including religious tax-exemption.

I think that the more people come to recognize the legitimacy of non-theistic religions — and there are already a significant population of atheist Jews, Buddhists, and others — the more we will see atheistic Christians making themselves known; individuals who still venerate the Christian myth and its customs, who identify with the Christian community, but simply can’t claim to believe ludicrous Biblical stories — at least not literally.

When superstitious delusion becomes isolated from the real-world benefits of religious affiliation, superstition becomes all the more impossible to maintain and defend. The sooner the atheist movement recognizes that their fight is with superstition, not religion, the sooner we’ll get there.

What are you working on right now? How can people get involved?

Recently, we were approved to place a veterans’ memorial monument in a park in Belle Plaine, Minnesota where a Christian veterans’ monument provoked controversy leading the local officials to open the public grounds as a limited open forum. We’re crowd-funding to offset the cost of that effort.

We have two lawsuits, State and Federal, currently active in Missouri, where we’re fighting against prohibitive abortion restrictions on the grounds that these restrictions violate our religious liberty.

We’re putting a volunteer manual together for our After School Satan Club, so that people who aren’t a part of a local TST chapter can nonetheless apply to present our After School Satan Club (ASSC) curriculum in schools where Evangelical indoctrination clubs are present. We’re going to release our volunteer manual at around the same time we file our first ASSC-related lawsuit.

We’re currently researching the prospect of opening our own religiously-protected abortion clinic.

I’m putting together a syllabus now for ordination coursework through The Satanic Temple, and it’s going to be rigorous and intensive, but it will ensure that our ministry are entirely capable of speaking on behalf of our beliefs.

We’re putting together an online platform so that we can video stream our activities at the headquarters to our membership and better connect with our international community.

In fact, we have a massive number of projects currently in the works that keeping track of it all has become the largest difficulty we face. Expect big things in the near future.

People who want to get involved can check to see if they have a local chapter near them, or reach out to us if there is sufficient local interest in starting one. Keep up with our current campaigns on our website and check up on our daily news on Facebook. Check out our merchandise on ShopSatan.com and keep in mind that your purchases help fund our campaigns.

Anything you want to add?

Please check out GreyFaction.org. Grey Faction is a sub-organization of The Satanic Temple dedicated to combating irrational conspiracy theory-based moral panics, modern witch-hunts, and the discredited therapeutic practices that still haunt us from beyond the formally recognized Satanic Panic era. We are keeping track of professionals in the mental health field that continue to use Recovered Memory Therapies to reveal and propagate delusional narratives of Satanic Ritual Abuse. We have issued petitions against therapists who openly endorse bizarre conspiracy theories related to imaginary Satanic cults to the mentally vulnerable. Our research revealed the connection between one such therapist and the murder of an 8-year old boy not many years ago. Our work with Grey Faction is supremely important, but has received relatively little press coverage.

#tst #the satanic temple #friends of the satanic temple uk #Lucien Greaves #satanism #satan #satanic #athiesm #activism #activist #secular #secularism #religion #interview #art

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malusvio · 6 years ago

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Satanic Anarchism

“He expressly forbade them from touching the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He wished, therefore, that man, destitute of all understanding of himself, should remain an eternal beast, ever on all-fours before the eternal God, his creator and his master. But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge. “ - Mikhail Bakunin, “God and the State” It is proudly I label myself a Temple Satanist, specifically the Temple and not the Church of Satan, as the Church is full of cops. But what is Satanic Anarchism all about? Well it is a set of guiding principles that fit well with both Satanism and Anarchism that we should strive to follow. Whether theistic or atheistic Satanism, the Satanic Temple offers a basic set of principles for Satanists to follow:

1) One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason. 2) The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions. 3) One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone. 4) The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own. 5) Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs. 6) People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and remediate any harm that may have been caused. 7) Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

On the basis of anti-authoritarianism and anti-hierarchy, you can see why these 7 tenets of the Satanic Temple would fit well with anarchism. But how is satan a figure against authority? As said by Mikhail Bakunin, God had set up the tree of knowledge in front of Adam and Eve, ordering them not to eat from it. Pushing aside that he literally put it right in front of them for no reason and showed them the existence of this specific tree near them, Satan comes along and says NO! Man must be allowed knowledge, independence, and free thought. So he Tempts them, as a liberator, into eating from the tree and gaining these qualities, freeing mankind from the shackles of god and his authority, free to do as we please. “But Malus” you may say, “Is Satan not a killer?” While it is true that Satan killed 10 people: The 7 sons, and the 3 daughters of Job, and only under contract with god. Meanwhile, god struck down Sodom and Gemorah, he caused a worldwide flood, killed innocent children in Exodus as well as the plague, the Midianite Massacre in Numbers, killing the Israelite army in Deuteronomy 2, the Ai massacre in Joshuah, the Ammonite massacre in Judges, and countless more deaths adding up to roughly 24 million people. The genocidal deity known as god is nothing more than an authoritarian killer with no regard for those he created, playing with them like a child shining the light through an eyeglass at an ant below him.

It should be noted that the Satan who freed man is not the same Satan who tempted Jesus. Why? Well the original Hebrew translation of Satan is “Ha-Satan” which means “The Adversary” and was a title not a name of a single person. And so the adversary who tempted Jesus is not the same adversary who freed mankind is not the same adversary who killed the children of Job. However, when Satanists talk about Satan, we are referring to the first adversary, the first Ha-Satan, the one who freed mankind from the shackles of god. It should be noted that the Church of Satan is shunned by Temple Satanists, as the Church is filled with right-wing, Ayn Rand loving Libertarians and edgy centrists and alt-right fascists. The Church also explicitly does not allow felons to be members, showing the Church is just ran by cops. Many times have they gotten in arguments with the Temple, saying that “Anton Levay created satanism” implying it did not exist before Anton, and also saying that “The Church is the only true satanists” talking like a catholic saying only catholics are the true christians. The Church has many parallels with the bourgeoisie and is not to be trusted, only to be mocked and scorned.

In “Revolt of the Angels” by Anatole France, the Temple’s only canon book, Satan is described, as previously, a liberating, anti-authoritarian being who loves humanity and the hell to which he escaped to. Here are two quotes which reflect this from the book:

"God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot; I love the Hell which formed my genius. I love the Earth where I have done some good, if it be possible to do any good in this fearful world where beings live but by rapine. Now, thanks to us, the god of old is dispossessed of his terrestrial empire, and every thinking being on this globe disdains him or knows him not."

"The poor have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

#Satanism #Occult #Satan #Satanic #Antifa #Anarchism #Anarchist #161

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cyanide-latte · 4 months ago

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So I had gotten another ask for the TWST OCs, and the newest one poked his head up! (I've got a fair few OCs I've not shared yet on here for various reasons, but I alluded to this fellow earlier in the first ask I answered this morning!)

Meet Felix Pondicliff

He's one of several children in a big family of dalmatian beastmen. He and his brother Aurelian both attend Royal Sword Academy on scholarships due to the exceptional talent they show as mages. (They're both in RSA's film club due to their own shared interest in how movies and shows are made, and get along well with Neige in the instances where they interact.)

Felix tends to be exceptionally quiet, not speaking often due to a desire to assess things around him carefully before finally saying anything, and he does his best to make his words really count. Just because he's quiet doesn't mean he tries to hide or diminish his presence though; that thoughtful silence doesn't mean you ever forget he's there. Very warm-natured and confident, he's got a couple of different career possibilities in mind for when he graduates. He and Aurelian eventually meet and befriend the Anatole brothers, Toussaint "Tea" Anatole and Bertrand "Rand" Anatole, perhaps in defiance of the pervasive dogs vs cats stereotypes.

I've been waiting to get to a point where I could do a brief sketch of him today, so I can answer the ask that's been sitting in my askbox without leaving everyone wondering where the first post for this new OC was or if they'd missed it. (If you're curious about which puppy he's specifically twisted from, a hint is the meaning of his first name!)

Taglist: @blithesharem @inmateofthemind @tixdixl @ramshacklerumble @elenauaurs

@rainesol @thehollowwriter @theleechyskrunkly @distant-velleity @twst-migraine (DM me if you'd like to be added or removed from the taglist for my TWST OCs stuff)

#i swear im still working on my masterlist i promise 😭 life has just been kicking my ass #TWST OCs #Felix Pondicliff #my OCs #Cyanide speaks

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naufragando-entre-ideas · 6 years ago

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Eso de Dios, da qué pensar “En ningún momento de la Historia, en ningún lugar del planeta, las religiones han servido para que los seres humanos se acerquen unos a los otros. Por el contrario, sólo han servido para separar, para quemar, para torturar. No creo en dios, no lo necesito y, además, soy buena persona”. José Saramago, Premio Nobel de Literatura 1998. “- Mire, padre, la gente no quema iglesias y conventos sin ton ni son. Nunca han quemado una taberna, un hospital ni una plaza de toros. Si en toda España el pueblo elige quemar iglesias, con lo que cuestan de prender, por algo será”. Eduardo Mendoza, Riña de Gatos, Madrid 1936. Premio Planeta 2010. “Hay que admitir que la libertad religiosa debe su origen no a las iglesias, no a los teólogos, y ni siquiera al derecho natural cristiano, sino al Estado Moderno, a los juristas y al derecho racional mundano, en una palabra, al mundo laico”. Juan XIII. “Los seres humanos nunca hacen el mal de manera tan completa y feliz como cuando lo hacen por una convicción religiosa”. Blaise Pascal. “En realidad, prefiero la Ciencia a la religión. Si me dan a escoger entre Dios y el aire acondicionado, me quedo con el aire”. Woody Allen. “No es dureza de corazón o pasiones malignas lo que conduce a ciertos individuos al ateísmo, sino más bien una escrupulosa honestidad intelectual”. Steve Allen (1921-2000). “La religión es un insulto para la dignidad humana. Con o sin ella, habría buena gente haciendo cosas buenas, y gente malvada haciendo cosas malas. Pero para que la buena gente haga cosas malas hace falta religión”. Steven Weinberg, Premio Nobel de Física 1979. “El cristianismo ha hecho mucho por el amor convirtiéndolo en pecado”. Anatole F. Thibault, Premio Nobel de Literatura 1921. “¡Que el Dios que has inventado, te perdone!”. Ayn Rand, madre del Objetivismo (1905-1982).

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magazinonline · 5 years ago

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Ce carti la reducere ii poti face cadou copilului care a inceput scoala?

Unul din cele mai importante momente din viata unui copil, dar si a unui parinte este inceperea unui nou an scolar, in care copilul va trebui sa faca fata provocarilor unor noi informatii si materii, iar parintii il pot ajuta oferindu-i carti la reducere care sa il ajute pe tot parcursul anului scolar. Anticariatul online https://www.printrecarti.ro/ le ofera parintilor posibilitatea de a fi alaturi de copiii lor in ceea ce priveste inceputul scolii cu emotie, nerabdare, teama si anxietate, dar si maturizare cu fiecare an ce trece.

Carti la reducere pentru copiii cuminti

Principalele titluri de carti la reducere care sunt foarte ravnite de parintii ai caror copii sunt la scoala sunt cele din categoria Harry Potter scrise de J.K. Rowling. Pentru ca primii ani de invatamant sunt cel mai bun moment pentru ca cel mic sa descopere aventurile unui vrajitor cu cicatrice in frunte care trece prin aventuri impresionante pentru a le infrumuseta viata celor mai mici dintre cititori.

Povestea o stie toata lumea din celebrele ecranizari. Harry Potter este un copil care duce o viata mizerabila, pana cand este acceptat la scoala de magie din Hogwarts, de farmece si vrajitorii, unde afla ca este urmasul celui mai puternic vrajitor din lume si care a reprezentat deliciul mai multor generatii de cititori.

Carti la reducere | PrintreCarti.ro

O alta carte ce merita facuta cadou prichindeilor la inceput de an scolar, in caz ca nu o au in biblioteca este Amintiri din Copilarie, scrisa de Ion Creanga, una din cele mai cunoscute colectii de povesti si povestiri care au intrat in sufletele copiilor de ani de zile. Amintiri din Copilarie reprezinta o evadare in trecut, un trecut in care copilaria era simpla, iar in societatea moderna actuala este idolatrizata. Titluri de povesti precum La cirese, La Scaldat sau La Brosteni sunt doar cateva dintre cele mai importante titluri ale povestirilor care au marcat copilaria miilor de cititori de-a lungul timpului, prezentate intr-o maniera jucausa, plina de profunzime si de imaginatie.

Nu in ultimul rand, clientii anticariatului online Printre Carti pot opta si pentru enciclopedii pentru copii, dictionare necesare la scoala , dar si pentru cartea bunelor maniere si pentru volume scrise de Jules Verne, pentru Iliada, Odiseea si Eneida, pentru carti scrise in limba engleza sau franceza, pentru basme romanesti sau povestiri scrise de Anatole France, iar lista poate continua.

#Carti la reducere #PrintreCarti.ro #Reduceri carti anticariat #Carti ieftine #Carti de citit #Anticariat Printre Carti #Carti vechi de vanzare #Anticariat Bucuresti #Anticariat Carti #carti pentru copii

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chrissyhassomethingtosay · 5 years ago

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Grappling with Pakistan's 'influence operations': When the patriarchy moves in to silence a female critic

For some 10 years, I have relentlessly exposed Pakistan's influence operations against American scholars, analysts, journalists and the institutions that employ them and rely upon their ability to raise funds to support the organisations' overhead costs and salaries. Through this basic economic necessity, most of the think-tanks in Washington, DC and the writers who focus on South Asia have been coopted by Pakistan's influence operations because these individuals have generally positioned themselves as Pakistan-whisperers to private and public funders.

This renders them dependent on Pakistani visas and access to officials in and out of uniform. The result is chilling: Analysts who know better — or ought to know better — self-censor to retain this access. In the process, they have become witting or unwitting assets to Pakistan. In response to my most recent criticism, two white men who are considerably senior to me, have turned to the popular tactic of appealing to my employer in an effort to silence me. Two senior men appealing to my leadership to discipline my voice or silence me altogether is white maleness in action. It is the patriarchy in action. In doing so, these individuals hope that I will temper my tone.

I will not.

On Monday 14 October, Michael Krepon who "co-founded the Stimson Center in 1989 and served as Stimson’s President and CEO until 2000, and who continues to direct Stimson’s programming" joined hands with Andrew Wilder, a “vice-president of Asia programs” at the United States Institute of Peace to draft a letter to the president of the organisation that employs me. They also contacted several other South Asia analysts in hopes that they would sign this letter. (I have reproduced the original letter below. Because some of the persons whom I know were contacted are not on this first email, I can assume that their first effort did not produce the anticipated yield of signatories and they reached into the lower benches of the field.)

The letter claims that my assertions about the ways in which Pakistani influence operations have shaped the policy debate to Pakistan’s benefit have coarsened the political discourse. What they seek to obfuscate is that these men do not contribute meaningfully to an empirically buttressed political discourse; rather, they contribute to an unrelenting parade of apologies for the most outrageous of Pakistani behaviours. It is they — not me — who have coarsened political discourse by introducing into it Pakistani talking points, preferred historical arguments, and representations for purposes of programmatic expedience and convenience as I explain below.

Given their seniority, in writing to the president of my employer, they are engaging in a form of bullying enjoyed by senior white men to silence agentive female critics, particularly those of us who are junior to the men who seek to muzzle us. This is the Old White Boys Club in its basest form appealing to oldest trick in the book of asking a senior man to discipline an uppity woman in his remit.

Michael Krepon has a history of sending me misogynist and condescending emails. He has accused me of “losing my way” as if I am a lost sheep and he is the masterly shepherd. When I chastised him for refusing to publicly acknowledge that he was a member of a task-force to re-examine US policies towards Pakistan much-less sign onto its recommendations, he rebuked me for daring to question his reservations about a report that recommended considering the possibility of considering sanctions against Pakistan at some indefinite point in a remote future.

I was not surprised by the language and tone used in this open letter, provided below, in which they reduced my concerns about the necrotic impact of Pakistani influence operations upon the public discourse surrounding that country as “eruptions” and consistently mischaracterised my descriptions of influence operations and their complicity in the same.

What are influence operations? A primer

While it is not uncommon for US officials to be seconded to other friendly nations for temporary duty assignments, Pakistan is not a friendly State. Its crimes include: Murdering thousands of Americans in and out of uniform as well as our NATO and non-NATO allies and tens of thousands of Afghans in addition to many thousands of Indians. Moreover, Pakistan — with lucrative and fungible American economic support–is fastest growing nuclear power inclusive of the development of battle-field nuclear weapons.

Pakistan uses this arsenal along with its petting zoos of terrorists to stoke the fears that “Pakistan is too dangerous to fail” and thus continues to coerce the United States to acquiesce to IMF bailouts and other forms of assistance. It is this verity that allows Pakistan to be near certain that there will be no FATF blacklisting and thus can view remaining on the “grey list” as a political victory. This is nuclear coercion in its crudest and truest form.

Yet it seems that there is literally no Pakistani crime which the witting objects of Pakistani influence operations won’t defend with three consistently and notable exceptions: Jeff Smith at the Heritage Foundation, whose integrity is beyond reproach and who is oddly not included in their missive; Ambassador (retired) Husain Haqqani of Hudson who has repeatedly outed the Derp State for its murderous hijinks; and the doyen of South Asian studies, Ashley Tellis of Carnegie, who never minces his words when it comes to Pakistan. The other gentlemen who opine and repine on South Asian affairs in DC refrain from criticism, engage in relentless “both side-ery” antics and traffic in false equivalence.

In this letter, both Krepon and Wilder, insinuate that I am suggesting that they are paid agents or have acquiesced to explicit quid pro quos with Pakistan. In fact I doubt that these are arrangements are so explicit as this courts jail time unless one is a legally registered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Recent examples of persons who have been so convicted include Ghulab Nabi Fai and Nisar Ahmed Chaudhry. Explicit quid pro quos are not only risky, they are unnecessary.

As I have written previously, Pakistan gets what it wants from its dupes without paying them a dime directly. Although, in many cases, the Pakistan government does subsidize their writings by paying for their airfares to and from Pakistan and/or by facilitating their travel within Pakistan to places like Waziristan where their travel would otherwise be prohibited. For example, in Pakistan: A Hard Country, Anatol Lieven subtly thanks the Pakistan Army for doing so.

For several years, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, DC hosted academics and journalists on paid tours to Pakistan, which included trips to Waziristan to showcase the ostensibly successful efforts of the Pakistan Army. In exchange for such opportunities, analysts write favourable assessments without any credible baseline. For example, Michael Kugelman wrote enthusiastically about his trip to Waziristan which he concedes was arranged by the Pakistan Army in his piece for War on the Rocks, an influence blog for those engaged in political-military concerns in the United States.

I understand the professional requirement for some of these persons to cultivate visas and meetings with high-level Pakistani officials in and out of uniform because they have assured various funders of their ability to do work in Pakistan. Thus, visas and access allow them to launder grants into their organisations to pay for overhead and salaries. This dependence upon such grants and soft monies is precisely why such influence operations are so successful. Only persons who have no need for such hustles are truly free to speak their minds. Of course, one has choice about the projects they take on: They could always choose projects that do not require them to propitiate Pakistan's equities. Thus this bureaucratic reality is not exculpatory, rather explanatory.

I know this process of cultivation well, because the Pakistanis long tried to cultivate me but failed although I never let them pay for my international airfare and blogged about the various (often humorous) lies they sought to sell me. And I do remember when I worked for the United States Institute of Peace and at the RAND Corporation, I too was compelled to work in Pakistan. When I said things that pleased them, I was easily accommodated. Early in my career, when I made stupid mistakes about Kashmir, the Army Band actually serenaded me at a banquet. It played my then favourite raunchy song: Bilo da Ghar.

But I grew wiser, began engaging more primary source documents and evolved from a research assistant to a researcher and began using my voice commensurate with my growing stature, I recall very well the dread of submitting my visa after being particularly outspoken. When the Pakistanis first began signaling discontent with my positions, they began delaying the processing of my visa. It went from being processed in the same day to six weeks. Finally, they threatened me with violence and never issued me another visa. But in being rendered persona non grata, I have been rendered free to speak my mind. It’s a freedom I cherish. I no longer need to bite my tongue about Pakistan’s crimes. I no longer expect a red carpet in Rawalpindi stained with the blood of citizens, friends and allies.

Pakistan is not the only country that does this: China has done this for decades. Many scholars who built their careers around their China expertise can no longer return because their writings eventually discomfited the regime. Many scholars, reporters and analysts have been ousted from China for writing what needs to be written and saying what needs to be said. Israel, Russia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar are just a few of the countries that seek to discipline those who write about the country by calibrating access to officials or even access to visas, needed to visit the country.

I am right to continue to identify the impacts of Pakistani influence operations and this effort of organisational bullying will only prompt me to redouble my trenchant observations of this phenomenon and its outcomes. I will not sacrifice my integrity for a visa or any number of opportunities to be lied to by Pakistani officials. Nor will I let my colleagues off the hook because they do.

This was originally published in First Post on 25 October 2019.

Post-Script

@ThePrintIndia which published the offending pieces wouldn't print the follow-up, whith First Post ran, ostensibly because the editor is friends with Krepon. This is how MALE PRIVILEGE works, by the way.So, in a convoluted way, Gupta Sahab HIMSELF is working to suppress one of the few voices in DC that call this bullshit out.

Many apologies to @Ullekh for sending him this piece when I didn't know it had been published, albeit in a more abbreviated version.

So, in a convoluted way, Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Print, HIMSELF is working to suppress one of the few voices in DC that call this bullshit out.

Many apologies to @Ullekh for sending him this piece when I didn't know it had been published, albeit in a more abbreviated version. I also apologize to his fact checkers who knew about the piece and were confused. (I'll publish the full piece on my blog later this week.)

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/shortbustoparadise.wordpress.com/1356

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