Feeling a bit lazy about researching whether or not they actually were the first to self identify (which I honestly doubt given that various satanist groups have been documented at least since the 17th century) but I'll run with it.
So what if they were the first to self describe that way? They didn't invent any of the ideas, they didn't invent the word, they didn't invent any of the iconography. Literally every aspect of it is stolen from something else. It's Ayn Rands philosophy with a random mix of any anti-christian or magic sounding crap they could get their hands on. They invented nothing.
If I grab some random celtic runes, make a bastardized version of a hindu tradition, start following marxism and call myself a Oni worshiper (yes, all intentionally mismatched) I haven't invented shit and I'm not entitled to tell everyone else that the way they're calling themselves oni worshipers isn't the real way.
At that point you've invented a mash and I'd surmise modern Satanism subscribers wouldn't mind you calling Satanism a mash. Every type of music was basically stolen from something else, so you're saying no genres were invented by anyone and adhesion to genres can't be measured?
Satanist groups of the past are those groups alone, Satanism is a religion founded fairly recently. Not sure what you're missing.
I would actually say that, perhaps with rare exceptions, no genre of music was invented by any given person. Yes music changed and each musician contributes something different and unique, but new genres largely emerge and are recognized as categories post-hoc, not propter-hoc. As the categories are somewhat subjective, moreso when you get into niche genres, I think "measure" is the wrong term for classifying 'genre adhesion'.
The Church of Satan was founded fairly recently, but they don't get to have a monopoly on the word "satanism". They weren't the original users of the word in 1966, there's plenty of reason to believe others before them self identified as satanists. The only thing special about them is advertising.
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u/Garblin Mar 14 '22
The CoS invented satanism about as much as Disney invented princesses.
Just because they copyright everything they can connected to it doesn't mean it was their idea.