My Stance on Xenosatanism

Recently on my Tumblr I was asked how I felt about xenosatanism. My response ended up becoming quite long, so I figured it’d be best to respond through a blog post, as my opinion is quite nuanced.

Content Warning: suicide, abuse, rape, drugs, self harm, and oppression.

Intro

For starters, xenosatanism seems to be a bit of a niche ideology. I have never personally met a xenosatanist, and I can’t remember the last time I interacted with one online. So I feel like someone’s opinion on xenosatanism doesn’t actually have much of an impact on things. The ideology also doesn’t make a lot of things very clear.

There’s also a couple different definitions of xenosatanism, so if someone calls themselves a xenosatanist then it’s hard to know exactly which one they mean. For the sake of this post I’ll be giving my thoughts on what I believe to be the original definition.

Additionally, as someone who’s prison abolitionist and ACAB, the natural extension of that is that formal laws shouldn’t exist, as there’s no one to enforce them and no real punishment. So anything pertaining to legalizing something I agree should be legalized, however, that does mean I think it is a good thing. I just don’t think any laws should exist at all.

And all of my stances are going to be based off of full autonomy, which includes normalizing consent for everything, not just sex.

So, without further ado, let’s respond to each individual point of the ideology.

Beliefs

Pro transabled, xenogender, transpiecies/alterhumans [sic], transnoso, map, zoophiles/bestialitors [sic], transage etc, rights

I agree with all this. Though I have heard before that supposedly “bestialist” is a term used to refer specifically to animal rapists as opposed to practicing zoophiles that care about the well being of animals. If that is true then I can’t say I support that, as someone who cares about animals, but if it’s just synonymous with practicing zoophiles then I support that as long as they’re not abusing animals.

Full legalization and normalisation of any kind of body modifications (and every person should be informed of the potential consequences or risk of every mod)

I agree with this too. I believe in full bodily autonomy and that education is very important.

Pro transhumanism

From what I know about transhumanism it is also kind of a bodily autonomy thing but more aimed at improving human life. I think if such improvements exist everyone should have the right to be able to use them, but not be forced to.

A total desacralisation and destigmatisation of sex, sexualisation and nudity

I agree with this. As someone sex neutral, I believe that sexuality shouldn’t be treated so differently from everything else. Nudity is completely natural, there is no good reason for stigmatizing naturalism/nudity.

Unsegregated pornography and other ‘obscene’ materials (should be accessible everywhere to everyone)

Also agree. We shouldn’t have age limits for accessing porn.

Public sex, nudity, and pornography legalized and socially encouraged

I also agree with this, it’s similar to the destigmatization of sex thing. Though I may be biased as I have an extremely strong exhibitionism kink. //>//.//<//

Youth liberation, anti-adultism

Agree. Youth liberation is important and adult supremacy/normativity should be abolished. Youth are people too, they’re not just future adults.

Anti-ageism

Agree, ageism is bad.

Abolition of the age of consent

Agree, though I don’t think that’s as important as age of majority abolition.

Abolition of the age of majority

Agree, though with nuance. I believe this is the most important cause for youth liberation, however, in current society, if youth become liberated then they’ll also be subject to exploitation. If we make it so kids can work jobs then companies are going to start exploiting child labor again. Alongside AoM abolition needs to be a complete reform of society, otherwise the equality that youth are going to have is just being equally abused by capitalism. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t abolish AoM, but it’s extremely important that we also reform society.

Full legalisation of both real and fictional cp

Like I said, I don’t think laws should exist.

Full legalization of sex work (even, to some extent and under certain conditions, for minors of all ages)

Agree, but also with nuance. Sex work should indeed be fully legalized, but we should also be trying to create a society where some people don’t feel the need to do sex work, let alone work at all. Some people do enjoy sex work, which is great! But there are also people who don’t who just do it because they have to. That isn’t so different from anyone else working a job they don’t enjoy, but once again my take is it should be legalized but it’s also very important that we reform society.

Incest legalized, banalised, and socially encouraged

I agree with this. I’m not exactly sure what they mean by “encourage” though.

Legalization and social banalisation (perception) of bestiality

Agree, but is should only be destigmatized for non-abusive, consensual bestiality.

Depathologisation and social banalisation (perception) of kinks and paraphilias

Agree. No other comment.

Destigmatization of self harm (people should be free to engage in self harm as long as they want it, and if it’s not too dangerous)

Once again another nuanced take. I believe in full bodily autonomy, which includes letting people self harm, but just because should be able to do something doesn’t mean they actually should do it. It really depends on circumstances, like if you’re self harming because doing so helps you not do worse things then I’m all for it. Same if you’re doing it for body modding reasons. But if self harm makes you more depressed or puts you at risk of death then I don’t think it’s a good thing. But we as a society should also be making steps towards improving our mental health and making it so people don’t feel the need to self harm in the first place.

Destigmatization and desacralization to some extent of rape, molestation, sexual abuse (bcs of a priori and retrospective harm induced by internalized social norms. Tho, we don’t want harmful rape to be fully legal)

Now this is a point I very much disagree with, though I suppose I can understand at least where it’s coming from. I think the point trying to be made is that the reason some people become traumatized from things like molestation is because of some element of sex negativity, but I don’t agree with that. Molestation isn’t bad because society frowns down upon sex, it’s bad because it’s taking someone’s autonomy away. As I’ve said, I strongly believe in bodily autonomy, and that includes the autonomy to not be touched.

depending on the case, non-consensual but harmless sexual interaction should be legal, and not stigmatized

This is kind of the same thing. I think some people who hold more extreme views of sex neutrality believe that if nonsexual, non-consensual contact is okay, then sexual, non-consensual contact is okay as well. But on the contrary, I think consent should be normalized for all forms of contact, not just sexual.

An anecdote I have for this is that one time at work I was trying to be silly, so I put an object on the head of one my coworkers. This coworker was very autistic, and this became a very distressing sensory experience for them. It was a completely mundane form of contact, but I should have asked them for consent first.

Consent is about establishing boundaries, and it looks different from person to person. Maybe some people are okay with sexual, non-consensual contact, but the only way to know is to ask them first to establish those boundaries. The same should go for all forms of contact.

Anti-psychiatry

Not exactly sure what this means. Psychiatry can be very helpful for some people, in terms of like therapy, but it can also be harmful. Once again this is something where I feel like individuality matters a lot. If someone benefits from some sort of psychiatry then great, but if someone doesn’t then it shouldn’t be forced onto them. (Like involuntary commitment into psych wards.)

Anti-maladism (we’re currently crafting this concept)

Very not sure what this means. In general I’m not sure about the word choice behind a lot of this carrd. Transid.org calls it “the oppression of those based off of illness and disease.” In which case, yeah, oppression is bad and we should be against it.

Anti-sanism

I think what sanism means is that society favors those who are “sane”, aka not having some mental disability or personality disorder or what have you. In that case then yes I agree that we shouldn’t normalize that anyone who isn’t “sane” needs “fixing” or whatever, unless they genuinely want that.

Moderate to high anti-suicidism (suicidism is the oppression of suicidal individuals)

If this is just about removing oppression against people who are suicidal then yeah I agree with it. More on that next.

Pro euthanasia, assisted suicide, and non conventional ways for suicide (for people with a long and persistent desire to die)

This is another thing where my stance is nuanced. As someone who believes in full bodily autonomy, that naturally includes the autonomy of suicide. We’re born in this world without a say, so I think people should at least have the right to leave it if they want to. But again, just because people should be able to do something doesn’t mean they should actually do it.

Sometimes people want to die because of things that can’t be fixed. For instance, if I was suffering from locked-in syndrome I would much rather have medically assisted suicide than experience the hell that is being “locked-in.” But a lot of the time being suicidal comes from depression that spawns from, once again, society—capitalism and fascism and what have you. In these cases we shouldn’t normalize suicide, we should try to fix the underlying problems and make it so that people don’t want to die in the first place.

But this specifically states a “long and persistent desire to die,” so I suppose that as long as that desire isn’t because of societal bullshit then I agree with it.

Drugs liberation

I agree. Some drugs are harmful, yes, but a lot aren’t. And at the end of the day if someone wants to do harmful drugs then they should have the autonomy to do so. But once again we should make changes to society to reduce harm, such as providing better education on what drugs are actually bad and making it easier to get help for those struggling with addiction. (I will always be salty that in school they taught us that weed is dangerous; it’s way healthier than alcohol is, and all that that misinformation does is make people think “oh, if weed is really good, then cocaine must be too!”)

Legalisation n social banalisation of cannibalism and commercialisation of human flesh

More nuance. Again, I don’t think anything should be illegal. As far as “banalisation” goes, I suppose it should be normalized. There’s technically nothing wrong with it as long as you’re getting it from someone who’s already dead (as opposed to killing them with the intention of eating them) and you inform people of the risks of it.

As far as commercialization goes, I agree with that a little less. Capitalism ruins everything, and the way society is that just means commercialization of human flesh would lead to shady business practices.

Drastic renewal of the organization of the public space (and we also plead for urban cyberpunk aesthetics)

Uh, okay. Cool.

Drastic school reforms

I agree. School should be something that youth have a choice about, they shouldn’t be forced into it. And as far as reform goes, we shouldn’t hire teachers that don’t care about youth, and school should be 100% free, including food and transportation. I’m not sure what other changes need to be made. I guess maybe getting rid of homework and just making education better and more personalized.

Depathologisation of queer behaviors

Agree.

Pro surrogacy

Agree.

Prolonged delay for abortion (how far, yet to be determined)

Hard to give an opinion when this doesn’t really say what it means. I am very pro-choice, but if we’re talking about like aborting babies that are days away from being born then that kind of is just murder at that point.

EDIT: The context is very important. At the end of the day it really depends on why someone is aborting. And it’s not really my say what someone else does with their body.

Extended free speech (how far yet to be determined. We would like complete free speech but it could be very counterproductive to our own goals)

I also agree. I don’t like the idea of giving fascists free speech, but I think having mechanisms of controlling speech is bad, and if they’re put in place then inevitably the fascists will find a way to control it for their purposes. I also think that restricting free speech just leads to echo chambers, which makes people who hold bad opinions worse.

As far as how to keep fascism at bay when free speech is “extended”, I think we just need to put the proper systems in place to keep them from gaining power, and stay on top of education, especially providing leftist resources to youth before they get fully exposed to right wing ideologies.

Pro hunting

Hard to say. As someone who is vegan, I care about the well being of animals. It’s true that humans are naturally omnivores and that a lot of the nutrition we require comes from animals, but we also live in a day and age where we don’t need that anymore. It’s really hard for me to say.

Political bisexualism

I also don’t know what this means. Transid.org seems to think that it means “the idea that bisexuality is a choice–one that should be made for a liberated society.” Which I disagree with. I heard Billie Joe Armstrong once say that he thinks that everyone is a little bisexual, and that society just kind of pushes people to be straight, but that just comes off as homophobic and acephobic to me.

Deconstructionism (not to be confused with Derrida’s decontruction [sic]) as a tool to breakdown and analyse social constructs, system of belief of whatever kind, should be widely used in society

I don’t really understand this either. It just sounds like it’s saying we should normalize deconstructing ideas? Which I guess I agree with?

Nihilism (separating value jugements [sic] and other subjective mental constructs from facts), and relativism (hierarchisation of facts is arbitrary, thus it’s invented and not inherent to facts), and more globally anti-realist stances, should be widespread positions in society

I kind of understand this but I don’t really know what it would mean in practice.

Conclusion

To sum it up, xenosatanism as an ideology is very half baked. There’s a lot of things that aren’t explained well, or aren’t even fully expanded upon. There’s some stuff I fully agree with, stuff I fully disagree with, and stuff in the middle that is very nuanced. As far as whether I “agree with” the ideology in full, I’d say I do not.

The core belief of satanism is that we as people should focus on what makes us happy. It seems to me like xenosatanism is just that but to the extreme, a sort of focus on hedonism without much regard for others. But it’s clear that this ideology does care about people to an extent; it’s not just saying “we should be allowed to rape anyone we want.” But that extent isn’t as far as it should be in my opinion.

Though I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. If someone is a hardcore xenosatanist and believes in the entire ideology then I’d be willing to hear them out; maybe there’s some nuance I’m not understanding, after all a lot of the beliefs use wording like “depending on the case” without actually saying what cases would be okay.

I believe that we should do in life what makes us happy and nothing else. But I also think that means doing things that don’t make others unhappy. This of course carries nuance itself, as some things that make people unhappy are unreasonable (such as public nudity), but I think the underlying belief of autonomy can help sort that out.

What do you think about xenosatanism? Let me know in the comments below! (Or through the fediverse.)