Most Americans probably never thought a literally satanic performance on national television would become part of the national conversation. But after the Grammy Awards telecast Sunday, when a pair of sexually confused “entertainers” staged a primetime paean to the Prince of Darkness, it appears anything is possible.
And for all the social media comment the performance of the aptly titled song “Unholy” has generated, Twitter owner Elon Musk might have summed it up best in four simple words. “End of times vibes,” Musk wrote in a Twitter post published Monday.
Wtf is this? pic.twitter.com/u5gxeOel5C
— Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) February 6, 2023
It’s an easy enough feeling to understand.
Even if sinuous, gyrating dancers, suffused in crimson, surrounding a horned-hatted figure belching out lyrics to the rhythmic screeching of tortured souls aren’t quite the Four Horsemen of Revelation, they were kindred spirits.
But in a typical Musk twist, he followed up with a tweet essentially mocking the banality of an entertainment world being driven to ever greater lengths to try to shock and awe the viewing public. And coming up short.
“If that’s satan, we have nothing to worry about,” he said.
Unpopular take: Kinda lame vibes.
— Gail Alfar 💙 (@GailAlfarATX) February 7, 2023
In one sense, Musk’s amused contempt was right on target.
As morally and intellectually offensive as Sunday’s act was — by the allegedly nonbinary Sam Smith and the allegedly transgender Kim Petras — it carried an almost palpable reek of desperation more than the sulfurous reek of the underworld.
It was as though an entertainment world that has spent decades deliberately offending all that is decent finally realized it needs to pull out all the stops just to get a glimmer of attention.
And “all the stops” means Satan himself.
But on another level, Musk is a little too complacent.
To name one easy example, the level of graphic sexual imagery on television screens in the 21st century (to say nothing of the pornography-ridden internet, of course) is light years beyond — or below — what would have been considered permissible only a generation earlier.
While no one expects married couples to be sleeping in separate beds, a la Rob and Laura Petrie, it’s not likely the country is better off for almost endless advertisements to cure erectile dysfunction or the all-but-incestuous intimacies of TLC’s “MILF Manor.” (The acronym in the title alone is obscene.)
In the schools, supposedly serious people mount arguments on why children should be exposed to blatantly erotic drag shows — featuring men dressed as women performing caricatures of women behaving erotically.
Meanwhile, administrators and leftist teachers are arrogating to themselves the right to determine whether minors are capable of making life-altering decisions about their sexuality without informing their parents.
So, sure, shock-value “satanism” in rock music is old hat. Ozzy Osbourne and the other members of Black Sabbath could be the grandfathers of the nubile succubi swirling on stage Sunday night.
But the very fact that an open “worship” of Satan was planned and performed for an American television audience — even for the kind of troubled audience that would tune in for the Grammys — is a milestone of a kind.
And it’s not a good one.
If that’s satan, we have nothing to worry about
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2023
Really .. lol.. it’s just one of his minions getting us used to them worshipping satan.. OUT IN THE OPEN..
— holly wiley (@hollyjayewiley) February 7, 2023
I don’t think people are upset because they think Smith IS Satan. Many were alarmed about the show because it openly mocked Christian beliefs. Would they have been allowed to perform a show mocking Islamic beliefs? No, because THAT would be considered offensive. There’s also …
— JGill “████ ██" MAGA🍊🇺🇸 #turn22to0 (@jgillil2) February 7, 2023
Or as this Twitter user put it, “Satan stands for something really bad. Why would anyone stand for something that is bad?”
@elonmusk Its not really about if Sam Smith is Satan or not. He is clearly a human being. But the fact that his performance act was like he was Satan is just disturbing. Satan stands for something really bad. Why would anyone stand for something that is bad?
— Eda (@eda1da) February 7, 2023
That is a good question. The answer might be, conscious or not, it’s a way of communicating the message there really is no objective “bad.” After all, this is a country that only recently put an end to the national regimen of barbarism known as Roe v. Wade, and the massed forces of entertainment, the establishment media and the liberal elite — including the “devout Catholic” in the White House — are pushing to establish abortion some other way.
And then there’s this:
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) February 7, 2023
That line is probably best known lately for appearing in the 1995 movie “The Usual Suspects.” But it’s been around in various forms for at least a couple of centuries (and probably even longer).
What appeared on that Grammy stage, and on television screens around the country, might or might not have been legitimate Satan worship, but Musk was right about the “end of times vibe.”
He was wrong, though, about there being nothing to worry about.
