The ruination of so many people, especially young people, that you accurately describe is a sad, unfortunate reality. Where I live now and where I grew up entire communities have been transformed and there has been much suffering and grief. You list the various ways individuals come to perdition. Why? A popular term in the venacular is “influencers”. Whether they be teachers, entertainers, politicos, the media, the internet elites who control information flow, medical quacks or those who just have loud determined power and money, most observers argue that they have immense influence on people especially young people and the vapid. They really do influence their choices and their epicurean behaviors.
It has been your argument that Osborne with his satanic schtick was really at his core a decent man, despite his public embrace of hedonism and decadence, just made entertaining music and did no real harm to those that he influenced. There are many reasons that rational, decent , educated people would disagree with you.
You claim to be a musician yourself and have a band. I’ll desribe just one observation on how music influences people and is a subject of some neurological research. If you attend big concerts where a male voice is projected through electric amlifiers observe the behavior of many of the women. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has an exhibit of the hotel keys and the underwear women throw on stage at the performers. Often the manage to copulate. Now ordinarily these women may be reserved and would not give these singers the right time of day if they met them in another setting. Obviously people like Osborne do influence people with their “schtick”. They have the wealth and adulation to prove it.
BTW to the best of my recollection ,I have never physicaly harmed any individual because of cultural, ideological or artistic reasons. The only people I have held personally accountable are those who physically attacked me or my family first. Also as an aside there is little doubt that our hypothalmi are shaped differently ( look up what that means if you are interested) and our values do not coincide. Nevertheless I wish you well.
I never said that so please don't put words in my mouth. Here is what I said: "Ozzy was talented, innovative, crazy, hedonistic, a drug addict, an alcoholic and sometimes a madman, a husband and a father. But he was no Satanist, just a flawed human, like us all, barreling through life, trying to make sense of it all, looking for Salvation. I hope he's with God today."
Then you said, "You list the various ways individuals come to perdition. Why? A popular term in the venacular is “influencers”.
Sorry, you utterly ignored what my point was, even though I spelled it out precisely. Here is what I said: "Here's what I learned, first hand, about those "lost to the depths of neopagan, hedonistic decadence." And yeah, I've known a few of those folks: If it wasn't booze, it was endless women or men. If it wasn't women or men it was coke. If it wasn't coke, it was heroin. If it wasn't heroin it was pot, PCP, 'Ludes, uppers, downers - whatever it took for them to avoid themselves. And of all the wrecked and addicted folks I've run across through the years, it wasn't music that drove any of them towards the Abyss. It was themselves or their genes or their families or some horribly traumatic experience(s) or, most often, some combination of those things."
"Influencers" had nothing to do with it.
On the other hand, I do agree with you as far as the negative effect the broad culture, and those who shape and promote it, can have on the young goes. But let's face it - a society will only allow that which it finds acceptable to flood the public square. And, as far as young folks go, that "screening" is strictly up to parents and other adults.
My generation, and yours, failed young folks miserably by spoiling them and allowing them to do whatever they pleased. Collectively, we ply them with drugs like Adderall, Ritalin and antidepressants whenever they act up or show some spirit. When ghetto culture became chic in the '90s and kids were blasted with it non-stop as being "cool," we didn't stop that insidious, violence-worshipping, stupidity-worshipping, bling-worshipping, illiterate, misogynistic crap in its tracks. We, not some "influencer," allow our daughters to leave the house dressed like hookers and our sons to dress like prison thugs, slobs and clowns. We allow our kids to smoke dope, consume porn, stare at their phones all day, cover themselves in tatts, pierce themselves like pin cushions, we feed them antidepressants and help them avoid adulthood, So on and so forth. And that trend first kicked off when the "Greatest Generation," not wanting them to suffer as they had, spoiled their children terribly.
That being said, I laugh when some folks blame play-acting characters like Ozzy, who never called for violence or promoted leftist crap, for ruining the young.
Now, go listen to the Black Sabbath tune "War Pigs" and still tell me that Ozzy was a satanist.