Louis TBD

Your prior replies so far give me the impression that you don't, in fact, "genuinely want to understand this". But I'll play along. 1) From an outsider's view, it certianly seems that there are "different forms of Satanism" akin to how the other major religions have multiple denominations (e.g., Christianity has denominations such as Presbyterians and Methodists, Buddhism has denominations like Theravada and Mahayana, Judaism has Reform and Orthodox, etc.). But with Satanism, further inspection reveals that the various types of "Satanism" found are either: A) congruent with Satanism as established by Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan, as reflected in The Satanic Bible, B) people slapping the label of "Satanism" on some unrelated belief system of theirs simply because they like the label, or C) people who never identified as Satanists in the first place, but erroneously get called such by Christians or journalists out of ignorance (e.g., occultists like Aleister Crowley, or some serial killer who just happened to listen to heavy metal). To further clarify: before the formation of the Church of Satan, the word "satanism" (lower case "s") existed as a pejorative, used by Christians to refer to various blasphemous acts. There were certainly occultists who existed before 1966, as well as devil worshipers thoughout the centuries (many of whom ironically styled themselves after Christian scare propaganda), but again, no actual religion calling itself "Satanism". By "actual religion", I mean an actual codified belief system complete with canonical text, an ethics code, philosophy, etc., calling itself "Satanism". So this is why we don't consider these other groups to be Satanists; the label of the religion we established is just being thrown on something unrelated. 2) The religion that Church of Satan established (which again is called "Satanism") is a non-theistic one that only views Satan as a symbol. The media-created term "theistic Satanist" for example is a misnomer. A devil worshiper is a devil worshiper, not a Satanist. 3) The Satanic Temple is a political organization created and run by prank filmmaker Cevin Soling, under the pseudonym "Malcolm Jarry". They dress up as "Satanists" for the sole purpose of baiting and harassing Christians by doing "Satanic" parodies of Christian things: nativity scenes, prayers to open government meetings, philanthropy, etc. Not only do their practices have nothing to do with Satanism, but they don't even have any belief system of their own that's clear or consistent enough to be considered much of anything. They initially claimed to believe in a literal Satan, and say right in their FAQ that people of any supernatural beliefs are allowed to join. 4) There are certainly people drawn to Satanism out of a thrill for blaspheming Christianity. That's how, for example, The Satanic Temple is able to dupe so many liberals out of their donation money, for the cheap thrill of "owning the fundies" and some delusion that the pranks will somehow lead to a more secular United States. But Satanism itself doesn't begin and end with Christian blasphemy. Philosophically speaking, Satanism is just as anti-Islamic, anti-Buddhist, or anti-Judaic as it anti-Christian. Though having been formed in 20th century America, Satan is still the most recognized adversarial character from mythology. Had the same principles been codified in a different time or culture, our religion may have ended up having a different name.