1. The Devil's Advocate

Time Stamp: 21:19

* When does Studying prevent Living Satanism?* There is something to be said for getting together with other Satanists and talking about Satanists* There is a fine line between this and developing a community* There is also a fine line between this and creating an echo chamber* I have discussed how Satanists online need to measure their successes and essentially ‘raise the bar’ on what success is, but you also have to get off the damn computer at some point to do that.* Step away from Satanism as a religious study and focus on your actual life. Study not worship means more than just study,* You can find yourself worshipping the religion itself rather than yourself* Study the religion to understand the tools it provides for your use, then get out in the real world and use those tools!

2. Infernal Informant

Time Stamp: 40:47

* The Last Children of Down Syndrome* https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/12/the-last-children-of-down-syndrome/616928/* Fält-Hansen, a 54-year-old schoolteacher, heads Landsforeningen Downs Syndrom, or the National Down Syndrome Association, in Denmark, and she herself has an 18-year-old son, Karl Emil, with Down syndrome.* Once, Fält-Hansen remembers, it was a couple who had waited for their prenatal screening to come back normal before announcing the pregnancy to friends and family. “We wanted to wait,” they’d told their loved ones, “because if it had Down syndrome, we would have had an abortion.” They called Fält-Hansen after their daughter was born—with slanted eyes, a flattened nose, and, most unmistakable, the extra copy of chromosome 21 that defines Down syndrome. They were afraid their friends and family would now think they didn’t love their daughter—so heavy are the moral judgments that accompany wanting or not wanting to bring a child with a disability into the world.* in 2004, Denmark became one of the first countries in the world to offer prenatal Down syndrome screening to every pregnant woman, regardless of age or other risk factors. Nearly all expecting mothers choose to take the test; of those who get a Down syndrome diagnosis, more than 95 percent choose to abort.* Denmark is not on its surface particularly hostile to disability. People with Down syndrome are entitled to health care, education, even money for the special shoes that fit their wider, more flexible feet. If you ask Danes about the syndrome, they’re likely to bring up Morten and Peter, two friends with Down syndrome who starred in popular TV programs where they cracked jokes and dissected soccer games. Yet a gulf seems to separate the publicly expressed attitudes and private decisions. Since universal screening was introduced, the number of children born with Down syndrome has fallen sharply. In 2019, only 18 were born in the entire country. (About 6,000 children with Down syndrome are born in the U.S. each year.)* Fält-Hansen is in the strange position of leading an organization likely to have fewer and fewer new members. The goal of her conversations with expecting parents, she says, is not to sway them against abortion; she fully supports a woman’s right to choose. These conversations are meant to fill in the texture of daily life missing both from the well-meaning cliché that “people with Down syndrome are always happy” and from the litany of possible ...