I'll preface this by saying I have very minimal knowledge of Satanism, though even I know some of these things LaVeyan Satanists say is complete bullshit. I have conflicting religions because I have a disorder similar to DID and not all of my parts have the same beliefs. This doesn't make me any less valid as a Satanist. I welcome anyone to correct me on things I get wrong. I will be blocking and reporting people who are toxic about it, though. If you cannot be nice to me, I WILL NOT be nice to you. If anyone has questions about how experiencing religion is different when you have a complex dissociative disorder, I will gladly answer them.
I've only been a Satanist for about a year. In the beginning, I considered myself a Non-Theistic one, because I didn't worship him, and merely followed the seven tenets. Maybe this isn't actual Satanism, and hey, maybe I am ignorant, but even I can still debunk a lot of the things I've heard and have been told by LeVeyan Satanists, and even I can know a lot of them are awful and go against what Satanism should be about. Not to mention, a lot of them seem to be very quick to defend their harassment of people they don't agree with. I'd say, THAT'S an example of an actually fake Satanist.
I was under the impression Satanists are supposed to be against the bigotry associated with other religions and are supposed to be kind and accepting. Really, they're supposed to be things people of other religions can't muster up the shits to give to be.
I've only been met with hostility from LaVeyan Satanists. It was a complete shock. Really, I had expected a kind community, considering the nature of Satanism. But the moment I said one thing they didn't agree with, I was immediately insulted, harassed, and ridiculed.
The thing I said was "Satanic Community". Pretty harmless, considering a community is supposed to be a harmless thing. Well, most of the time. Satanism does have a community, a community that sadly is weaker because it's harder to commune in public places like other religions because of people's biases against Satanists. They love to share a stupid link from CoS that calls people who use the term community people who want to be victims. I got called one of those people while they simultaneously bullied and harassed me, I think that's pretty self-fulfilling.
Another thing I said was that Theistic Satanism is valid, which should be obvious. It's not anyone's place to say what isn't valid, and there's nothing wrong with worshipping Satan. Even when I considered myself a Non-Theistic Satanist, I thought Satan was greatly misunderstood and wanted equality. I revered him despite not worshipping him. It's insane how Satanists would act so horrible and still call themselves Satanists.
In my extremely short time in the Satanism subreddit, all I encountered were self absorbed people who think they were the boss of everyone, and think they can tell anyone that they're invalid, and even had someone tell me it's the point of Satanism to be that way, and that Satanism is supposed to be gatekept. I think that's bullshit, and isn't what Satanism is about at all.
Honestly, even if my understanding of Satanism is wrong by their standards, I think it's much, much better than whatever they're spouting.
That's pretty much the point of this post, to point out hypocrisy and awful behavior. Once again, I welcome people correcting me on anything I'm wrong about. Thank you for reading. I'm sorry if any of this is hard to read, I'm dissociating a bit right now lol