There is a point in One Assassination Under God – Chapter 2 where the language of survival finally becomes the language of retaliation. “The Arsonist” is that point. The song is not simply about having survived an attempt to destroy you. It is about what happens afterward, when the person who has been burned decides that the fire did not finish him and that the scars it left behind have become part of his strength. Manson himself described the song as the moment when the narrative of the two chapters “crystallizes into a battle stance,” and, referring to the painting he created for it, said that the “burned scar tissue” had formed into armor. That description gets very close to the heart of the song. The fire has not disappeared. It has changed him. The title is important because Manson does not call the song The Survivor or The Victim . He calls it "The Arsonist." An arsonist deliberately starts a fire, and this changes the entire perspective of the song. The speaker is no...
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...