So, kiddies, just so you don't think you're losing me (you already lost me first of all), I want to talk a bit of the world I shall be entering sight unseen. I have a couple basic expectations, which I shall elaborate on as well as my reaction to such situations.
The first and least likely is that the Satanists will be cultists. They will all wear strange clothing, weird make-up, and pass around a faux jeweled chalice for me to drink blood out of. They will talk about the greatness that is evil, how they can't wait to be tortured in hell, and how the devil looks like something out of a tarot card deck.
My reaction to such a situation would be pretty cut and dry. I would listen to their initial blatherings, when offered the blood I'd refuse, saying I'll gladly drink my own blood (possibly cutting myself to illustrate the point if I feel the compulsion to prove myself), but I will not drink a strangers blood. For all I know, it contains some disease or virus, and I won't subject myself to such a risk to prove myself to people I have just met, and in asking to prove myself, proving themselves to be not the kind of people I'd want to spend my limited free time with. I would then probably be coaxed into a tirade against their lifestyle (they wouldn't think they were coaxing it, but that's cause they don't know me and how I react). I've already stated my dislike of the anti-mainstream here, and I would reitterate that to them since chances are they have not read my essays. I would say how you don't think a putrid and disgusting satan is beautiful, you only call it so because society says he's ugly. You aren't (most likely) attracted to bulbous, grotesque forms, you only say and act like you are because you actively look to embrace what society rejects. If you lived in a land where tall is attractive, you'd say short is awesome, if thin lips were in you'd crave fat ones. The problem with seeking to be the antithesis of societal norms is that you depend on society to define yourself, you're a counter culture... counter cultures are fads. People that embrace them tend to only do so for a short time before they out grow it, and those that live it out their whole lives tend to be pathetic, they should've outgrown it but haven't.
To me, satan is beautiful cause satan represents temptation, and its easy to reject something traditionally hideous, difficult to reject the form you covet. To believe otherwise is foolish, ignorant, and, well, closed minded. The church choose to personify the devil as a hideous being, not the satan worshipers. It did so because it wanted people to reject satan, and by creating a revolting image, they thought they were doing so. However, the classic sermon of satan takes many performs pleasing to the eye falls on deaf ears, and because people expect to see satan as vile incarnate, they fall into his clutches without even knowing it. They accept satan in small ways, and while satanists still commit sins and acts of the profane, I truly feel in satan's eyes their worthless. Dante's inferno may not have been accurate, but it did get atleast one thing right - betrayl is the big one. If you have someone who thinks evil is great, satan wouldnt want you to sign your soul away, it's already his. You'll be tortured for all of eternity, requiring no effort on his part, end of story. No need to promise you anything, you didn't need it to sin. If, however, you are goodness incarnate, and satan works his way into your heart, that's how you get all the goodies. Maybe you'll suffer for eternity, or maybe you'll get a nice title with a desk and a plaque. At the least, you got a better chance than dime a dozen evil.
When I think of the European satanists, who kill people, conduct inverse masses, and cackle, I think what morons. Anyone can kill, a six year old with a gun can do that. Gangsta culture in America has created a generation of kids that want to get a hold of a gun so they can point it in someones face and say, die nigga! They want to be pimps, drug dealers, enforcers, (and for the ladies) hoes, slaves, and let's face it, dumb-asses. I really respect Pink's song stupid girls, and I ain't just saying that cause I think she's hot, I haven't even seen the music video of it yet.
Anyway, the point is gansta's are more evil than European satanists, cause they aren't doing it to be evil, they're doing it cause they see it as what's pleasurable. If society was cool with it, they wouldn't care. Satanists are who they are cause they're society's rejects, the kids who were left of the popular kids groups. They won't admit that, but experiance has taught me people seek answers to the meaning of life in alternative ways when they feel rejected (or worse0 by the people that embrace the mainstream view. Emotionally, they see the two groups, the mainstreamers and its ideology, as one. By rejecting the ideology they are, inactuality, rejecting the people that were dismissive, rude, mean, or sinister to them. This applies more to the american satanists than the european ones only because they are the ones i have more experiance with.
You can pretty much see where I'm going with this, and while I could go on, hopefully my lessons to you have enabled you, if not previously enabled, to think up of more arguments that go along these lines... if not, I'll go on another time.
Okay, so now the more likely encounter, that the satanists are just a bunch of chill hedonists. The original church of satanism founded in america was started by a guy that dressed crazy not because he felt compelled to, but because he thought it was funny. Being openly satanist, he knew people would expect him to dress zany, and so he did. As with EH, some people-