One of the strangest aspects of contemporary pop culture is how dark a lot of it is, and how drenched it has become in all kinds of occult symbolism.

I am way too old to personally follow pop music, and I don’t really watch most Hollywood movies anymore either, but sites such as Vigilant Citizen, among others, are useful to keep track of what goes on in today’s so-called entertainment industry.

For instance, Bebe Rexha’s “Sacrifice” videoclip shows the singer as some sort of vampire torturing and drinking the blood of her victims and finally covering herself in human blood. Doja Cat’s “Demons” shows the singer as, well, a demon. Ariana Grande’s lyrics for her 14-year-old fangirl base include gems such as “Fuck me till the daylight.” So much for teenage romanticism. Rap lyrics, luckily, continue to be traditional: it’s all about selling drugs and shooting rivals.

Meanwhile, photographs of pop stars covering one eye or wearing satanic imagery have become almost a cliche.

I could go on, but I guess you get the point.

Transgenderism and androgyny are increasingly promoted. Androgyny was present in the fashion industry at least since the 1970s, but recently it has become so over-the-top that it is unclear if it is meant to be satyrical. As for the film industry, it’s not just Hollywood anymore. A recent hit comedy series from Argentina included a transexual actor, and a recent Japanese series that I watched also had a transgender character in one of the main roles. It’s everywhere.

The visual arts, of course, have been at the forefront of promoting ugliness and debauchery for decades, with the shock value being much more important than beauty of talent. In fact, I can’t think of any recent famous work of modern art that could be considered beautiful, and, if it is, it might be just by accident.

Recently in the news, artist Marina Abramovic, who has a new show opening at the Royal Academy in London, was chosen to become some sort of Ambassador to the Ukraine, supposedly to help rebuild schools.

It’s a strange invitation.

As you probably know, Marina Abramovic is a famous and controversial performance artist. Her name, which means daughter of Abraham, sounds Jewish — and she could be related to mogul Roman Abramovitch — but supposedly she’s Serbian Orthodox, at least by birth and family.

She mostly does installations or performance stunts about sex, violence and death.

There are many other contemporary artists who do this kind of thing, but they are not exactly swimming in money or media appearances. Marina, however, has been heavily promoted for some reason and is always seen cavorting with celebrities such as Lady Gaga.

In 2016, during the leak of the Podesta emails, there was a whole discussion about an invitation for doing “spirit cooking” with the weird Podesta brothers and Hillary Clinton and other politicians. What did it meant exactly? Some say art, others say a type of magic ritual.

There was a big scandal, and she publicly denied being a Satanist.

But there is a famous photograph of her next to Lord Rothschild in front of a painting titled “Satan summoning his army”. (She has given talks to the Rothschild foundation. Maybe that picture is from that time.)

Perhaps it’s really just provocative art. Whatever floats your boat.

But some questions remain.

Why does she always wear black?

Or, if not, red?

Why does she look to be in her 40s or 50s when she’s almost 80 years old?

Why is she so obsessed with skeletons?

Why is she constantly photographed with snakes?

While the elite loves her, you can’t really blame the less sophisticated peasants for starting to think something else.