The Satanic Outrage Machine

A devilish Grammy performance is a gift to two entertainment industries

On Sunday night, Sam Smith took the stage at the Grammys dressed as the devil and performed a song called “Unholy.” Unsurprisingly, Smith’s performance alongside transsexual artist Kim Petras outraged prominent figures in the conservative movement. Ted Cruz called the act evil, while Marjorie Taylor-Greene described it as part of a larger Satanic conspiracy. Charlie Kirk drew attention to the fact that the diabolical segment was sponsored by Pfizer. 

The response would not have surprised Smith and Petras. It was exactly what they wanted. They knew their performance would provoke conservative Christians -- they were trying to create controversy to draw more attention to themselves and their music. Their strategy worked.

Conservatives wouldn’t like the message of the song, even without the devil costumes. “Unholy” had already hit number one on the Billboard charts back in October. The hit tells the story of a supposedly straight man who does “unholy” things at a gay brothel. The music video, which I don’t recommend watching, is very explicit about the song’s theme.

There’s a reason why Smith decided on a Satanic theme. The entertainer wanted to do something transgressive that would not risk cancellation. Offending conservative Christians is an easy move. The 1980s are long gone. Musicians no longer have to worry about the Moral Majority, and Conservative Christians hardly exert any cultural pressure. Pro sports teams now have Pride Nights and the players who don’t participate are the only ones who face repercussions. There is no resistance to these teams hosting Pride Nights in the first place.

Satanic performances still offend millions of Americans, but it’s not the kind of offense that would cause Smith’s shows to be canceled or his song taken off the air. It’s the perfect kind of controversy for a celebrity. It generates a lot of beneficial attention for the performer.. Smith will never have to apologize for dressing up as the devil. “Unholy” will still play on the radio. In fact, the controversy will give the song the buzz it needs to stay at the top of the charts.

Entertainers can’t be offensive towards gays, women, or racial minorities. That carries the risk of cancellation. Satanism is risk-free. It only aggravates a portion of the population the culture doesn’t listen to. To the cultural elite, the people outraged look like idiotic rubes. Liberals love that the song agitated Ted Cruz and MTG. They want their enemies to play to stereotypes. The Religious Right’s glory days may be long gone, but liberals and entertainers still want to stick it to those bigots. The conservative outrage over the performance satisfies that need. 

But the right is also desperate to conform to this stereotype. A lot of the people outraged by Sam Smith dressed as the devil wish for a revival of the religious right. They want to pretend it’s the 1980s, when the religious right exerted some influence over popular culture.

Christian institutions seem completely uninterested in the fight. They’re still involved in political issues, lobbying against abortion and encouraging more immigration, but they don’t fight battles over popular entertainment like in the 80s. Back then, powerful Christian groups and figures pushed for the government to censor many popular forms of entertainment, from heavy metal music to Dungeons and Dragons. They were even able to persuade liberal Democrats such as Al and Tipper Gore to take up their cause. They may have failed, only getting “Parental Advisory” stickers attached to vulgar albums, but they still made their presence known. 

Churches now focus more on bringing people to the pews than enforcing their will on the public. America is becoming a more secular nation, with just 64 percent of Americans identifying as Christian—a drop of 16 points from twenty years ago. Rather than opposing popular culture, many churches assimilate to it to attract new followers. Even wealthy conservative evangelicals, including the founder of Hobby Lobby, are currently backing a high-profile ad campaign that portrays Jesus as a social justice activist. One ad implies Jesus would’ve supported mass immigration and that he was a refugee himself. The ads make an appeal to a woke audience. That ain’t the Moral Majority’s culture war, that’s for sure.

If the churches aren’t interested in the culture war, who is? The answer is conservative media. While many conservative media figures are devout Christians, none of them are religious leaders like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. They do not command the flocks of the faithful or hold sway over religious organizations. Their audience may be largely secular, but they still hate liberal Hollywood. 

Battles over liberal provocation are more entertainment for conservative audiences than contests for political power. The outrage over Smith’s Satanic performance exemplifies this. What do the conservatives want? There’s no policy solution on offer. It’s just a story conservative commentators can use to rile up their audiences. Conservative media consumers are addicted to this kind of content. That’s why the timeline is flooded with drag queen footage. The audience wants to feel righteous indignation at the diabolical perversion around them. Instead of looking away, they keep retweeting it over and over and over again. Conservative media, in turn, gets more engagement from the outrage. It’s a profitable situation.

The only way to break the cycle is to refrain from giving entertainers the outrage they want. There’s a lot of crazy things going on in America, and we can’t be outraged 24/7. Changing the culture will take a long time. We should focus our ire on the important things we can change and not get triggered by corny pop stars.