Throughout One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 , Marilyn Manson constructs a dark journey through death, violence, accusation, isolation, mortality, and the search for something beyond him. “Don’t Answer the Door” speaks of a voice being a guiding light in the darkness, while “None of the Suns” speaks of running away from the daylight and being “in the black.” By the time we arrive at “Lucifer’s Teardrop,” the journey has reached a different point. The darkness is still present, but the speaker is finally prepared to stand before what shines. “Lucifer’s Teardrop” is therefore less a departure from everything that came before it than a turning point within it. The fallen angel at the center of the song has been cast out, wounded, and changed by what happened to him, but he is no longer simply defined by the fall. He is “finding my way home.” That movement becomes especially important when considered alongside Manson’s own explanation of the song. He said that its title was inspired...
A Few Words on Cancel Culture For most of human history, shunning, excommunication, and public humiliation have been used for social conformity. The modern versions are generally categorized as “calling-out” or “canceling.” While the first use of these terms is not certain, sometime in the early 2010s, "fans" of various celebrities and groups began to post on social media, identifying imperfections in their "idols" and “calling them out” on their behaviors. During 2017 and 2018, online posts calling out others drastically increased and were part of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements. By 2019, the term "cancel culture" became more known and moved into mainstream media usage. Cancel culture has been considered acceptable by some people in some cases because it seemed to provide a way for marginalized individuals and groups to silence someone they deemed hurtful. As a result, powerful individuals or groups that would otherwise evade responsibility for...