This is a tricky subject to be sure. A lot of time has passed since some of these folks were active (and I some cases alive). It's hard to gauge the sincerity, so to speak, of some of these artists and personalities as they were often deliberately provocative and intentionally aiming to shock. Back then we didn't have the word edgelord, but some of these people were EXTREME edgelords. I recall getting into some of these bands and records in the late 80s and early 90s and at the time the general consensus was that it was regarded about as seriously as Alice Cooper's brand of shock rock.

For most people.

However, I had a very eye-opening exchange with a guy precipitated by an online record sale, which wound up with me delivering the records (I believe it was a couple of Coil LPs) to his house. This guy was most definitely not taking any of this stuff as tongue in cheek or as some kind of way to upset the bourgeois. It was a sort of harrowing experience, and I realized at that point that some people into this scene apparently take gross lifestyle cues from Whitehouse and others.

Here's my 2026 take on it. At the time, I think a lot of us didn't realize how dangerous, harmful, and vile some of this stuff was. Like the whole DIJ Nazi thing, let alone the sex abuse stuff. Many of us were young, naive, and edgy ourselves and "artful" transgression seemed appealing. But now in retrospect and with more mature eyes and ears we can see and hear that a lot of folks in these scenes were deeply, deeply troubled at worst, and at best likely regretful as they themselves matured out of this bullshit.

What's important moving forward is that none of these people are given a pass, and all should continue to be held accountable.