Sam Smith’s Satanic Grammys Performance . . . Shows That Pop Culture Cannot Be Saved
By JONATHON VAN MAREN
(Editor’s Note: Last week’s News Notes column in The Wanderer carried a report on this episode at the Grammys.
(Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator, and others.)
- + + (LifeSiteNews) — I do not watch the Grammys, and I am irritated that the only reason I caught snippets of pop star Sam Smith’s hell-themed demonic performance is because conservatives posted clips of it to Twitter, where I ended up scrolling past it multiple times. Incidentally, that is also how I ended up seeing screengrabs of Smith’s orgy-themed performance earlier this month.
I know these people are decadent — Smith famously identifies as “non-binary” — and I choose to avoid these aspects of pop culture entirely and don’t care for seeing demon-themed sexual exhibitionism.
In my view, conservatives should opt out of these aspects of pop culture entirely. There is nothing remotely redeemable here. There is no culture to “win back.” It is rotten to the core. Much of this industry has been for some time, but demon-themed performances of a song called Unholy are simply evidence of what much of this culture has always represented. They are not pretending anymore, and those who wish to listen to the work of Smith and others shouldn’t, either. I don’t care if it is catchy. Smith is telling you what he is. Believe him.
The Grammys was attended by President Joe Biden’s wife Jill and many other luminaries, because the event represents the mainstream of culture now. The First Lady was there as Smith writhed about dressed as the Prince of Darkness and sang Unholy to a standing ovation. Prior to the performance, Smith tweeted out a photo of himself wearing devil horns with the caption: “This is going to be SPECIAL.”
And CBS — yeah, the TV broadcasting organization — tweeted back: “…you can say that again. We are ready to worship!” Yes, they are. And we should not participate by listening to their worship music. The mask is off.
How did the press react to this performance? By accusing those who pointed out that a Satanic ritual had been performed live of being conspiracy theorists, of course. And, in the case of Joy Reid of MSNBC, who could not stop raving about how much she loved it all, by announcing that the event was the crowning glory of the Left’s victory over the culture:
“So yeah. The culture wars are over and the Left won. Like, total defeat. I could only imagine the heads exploding in red states. I imagine Ron DeSantis is somewhere stalking through his governor’s mansion, trying to figure out how to ban the airing of the Grammys in Florida and take away CBS’s tax exemptions.
“ ‘No educational value, queer theory, black music, blah!’ It’s a helpful reminder that despite the almost hysterical war the right is waging to take the culture back to the John Wayne era, they’re not just losing. They literally cannot win.
“Cultural progression is relentless. Once people get a taste of modernity, they almost never go back willingly. Red state governors and legislators can ban as many books as they want, but people can still buy them on Amazon and literally hand them to their kids. Young Americans are still going to find out the awful parts of American history. They’re not idiots. They can read and watch YouTube and TikTok videos that talk about this history. Brave teachers are still going to tell them the truth. LGBTQ people are not going away. And not going back into the closet.
“If you ban drag shows, more people are going to want to watch them. They can literally watch them on RuPaul’s Drag Race. What are you going to do? Ban TV itself, ban watching things with your eyes?”
They Can Have It
I tend to agree with Reid. The Left won the culture, and at the Grammys they showed us who they won it for. Conservatives shouldn’t just rage about taking it back — they should walk away.
The Grammys — which aired on a Sunday — should be totally ignored and undiscussed. We don’t need politicians to ban TV. We can simply choose not to have one (we don’t have one in our home). I don’t need to ban watching things with my eyes to choose not to watch the Grammys or anything else with Sam Smith and the rest of his unholy creative class.
Western culture didn’t begin with rock n’ roll: It started to end there. That leaves us with an enormous inheritance of beautiful music to enjoy.
Joy Reid and the Left have “won” the culture, and are free to give standing ovations to sexually confused men pretending to be sexualized demons. They can have it.
