Since Marilyn Manson returned to the stage in the summer of 2024 with the One Assassination Under God tour, pulsating illuminated upside-down double crosses have been a consistent part of the stage design. The double cross itself is nothing new in Manson's work. It has been part of his imagery for many years and became particularly prominent again after the Heaven Upside Down era. What is new since 2024 is the way the symbol has been incorporated into the lighting of the performance. Rather than functioning simply as a static emblem, the crosses now pulsate and change as part of the stage itself, becoming one of the most noticeable elements of every concert. Manson's return to the stage has also involved bringing back many features and images from earlier periods of his career, which has naturally given the performances a nostalgic quality for longtime fans. What interests me for this analysis, however, is what has actually been added during this new period that has not be...
I. INTRODUCTION In the first two minutes of part one of the three-part docuseries Marilyn Manson: Unmasked , you have a bunch of clips edited together to serve as an introduction to what you are about to see, and it is meant to put you into a mentality from the very beginning that Marilyn Manson is immoral, a deviant, a misogynist, dangerous, provocative, a pedophile, extreme, conflicted, a puppet master, manipulative, unpredictable and someone who brings out the worst in people, meanwhile this is someone "YouTubers" are defending for their own selfish gain. Then the credits roll to open the series. This is an example of media manipulation at its finest, a classic "moral panic" in which actual context is wiped out to establish the formulated narrative of the one doing the reporting. Indeed, Marilyn Manson has been the perfect scapegoat of what we can call a "moral panic" since the 1990's in various forms, being accused of dozens of evils by all so...