they were cosolidated by capital, transformed from subcultures into “aesthetics”

It was foretold

Youth music-oriented subcultures kinda don’t exist anymore. I think young people now orient subculture around which twitch streamer they enjoy. Rock music in general has also become far less culturally dominant.

Furthermore the pearl clutches don’t even need the satanic metal imagery anymore. They’re perfectly content finding devil stuff in Disney movies and soap commercials or whatever.

What other people are saying is probably true to an extent, but also consider that algorithms often end up artificially inflating the popularity of certain beliefs: young people who act like 70s religious grandmas might be a tiny fraction of the youth population, but if they’re made to click on things that will offend them and make them comment in droves, that generates a lot of engagement. If people end up arguing with the pearl-clutching teenagers, that generates even more engagement. And the false impression that Satanic panic is a popular idea among young people happens to be a convenient side product for those who stand to benefit from creating that impression.

If nothing else, I’ve got a goth zoomer cousin, so I can at least attest that they still exist.

Used to be QAnon shit, might be breaching containment now. They have been redoing the satanic panic for years, flipping their shit every time a celebrity is doing the metal fingers or when their pareidolia spots a pentagram somewhere.

i am getting to the point where i don’t believe comment sections anymore.

like some kind of half-dead internet theory. we all recognize bots and farms and generative content are deployed to create impressions/trends and drive monetizable content, and there have to be thousands of organizations doing that work on behalf of various clients with their own agendas. and then there are the actual humans responding to some generative content posted to hijack the conversation. or bots flagging content that doesn’t align with their project. and then the people just posting using the latest jargon without attachment to any value being discussed so they can demonstrate their membership in the latest iteration of the in-group.

there’s enough of all that going on to make me suspicious of any trends in comment sections being organically human-community driven rather than being manipulated and managed.

this is probably one of a tiny number of very niche communities i read and post comments on, because it’s a niche interest with limited potential for monetization so i perceive it as more authentic and resistant to semi-dead internet.

I think there’s a push behind trying to flip gens z and alpha into being reactionary fascists.

Back when I worked at McDonald’s, I had people get upset when their total was $6.66. It’s not even the same number

I did have a fellow dad who I talk to out at the playground from time to time ask me “so what’s with all the satan stuff? Do you actually worship the devil?”

I have a bunch of band shirts and a couple shirts that have baphomet and one that says “hail satan and smoke weed”

Most people worship via t shirt, right?

#SoyRight

Seems there’s a generation or two that understands goth as a type of big-titty gf, the punk rock and sensation novel origins have been buried for archeological rediscovery.