While I've never been an all black guy, I've had many friends who were, including a few very close friends. I've also long been a nonconformist, had long hair until male pattern baldness started resulting in a skullet, and owned my share of black tee-shirts, including one with Charles Manson's face covering the front and "Support Family Values" on the back which I particularly appreciated because of the two wildly paradoxical messages it conveyed, though of course I always favored the positive connotation. I'd still wear that shirt to this day if it hadn't fallen to pieces over a decade ago. I've also long shared much of what I've seen of Damien's taste in music: Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer, Judas Priest, Danzig, Nine Inch Nails, and I've been to concerts of the last two.
Beyond that, I've long been interested in alternative systems of beliefs, since I was four in fact, when my mother admitted to me that that Santa Claus wasn't real, at which point I asked her why I should believe what everyone's told me about God and Jesus any more than all the stories I'd heard about Santa Claus, for which of course she had no rational answer. I read the Satanic Bible in middle school at the recommendation of a friend, and while it struck me as reactionary screed against the faults of Christianity than a legitimate philosophy of it's own, it showed me that a person who generally respects the doctrines of LaVeyan Satanism can be a far better person that many who proclaim themselves Christians and such.
Also, while I stopped believing in the magic shortly after I stopped believing in Santa Claus and Christianity, I've read a considerable amount of works on occult doctrines for their philosophical perspectives, various writings from Alice Balley, Aleister Crowley, Manly P. Hall, and Albert Pike being notable examples. I've been friends with many people who do believe in magical elements of such doctrines throughout high school and into college too, attended a few seances complete with candles, crystals, Ouija boards and the like, and learned how to read Tarot cards from a roommate who insisted on teaching me. I've even dated couple of girls who considered themselves Wiccans, one of whom baked a cake and buried it under a full moon during a ritual with her friends in the hopes that feeding it to me would make me fall in love with her. That actually ended my romantic interest in her when she eventually told me though, not because I considered her beliefs fanciful, but rather because what she hopped to accomplish demonstrated would have been a flagrant violation of my free will.
So, the notion of not liking or approving of such things doesn't describe me my any stretch of the imagination. To the contrary, I identify with the three on many levels, likely more so than many who insist the three are innocent. However, unlike any of who've I've seen proclaiming their innocence, I've also taken the time to familiarize myself with the body of evidence against them and consider it as a whole. If you ever care to take the time to do the same, I recommend visiting
WM3 Truth, look to the left the page and perhaps scroll down a bit to find the "The Case Against the WM3", and then read every page linked in that list in order of first to last while verifying all the sources as they are cited, and taking time to thoroughly consider each point before moving on to the next. If you do ever choose to undertake that effort and still conclude the three are innocent, I'd be most gratuitous if you'd share your reasoning in the face of the body of evidence as a whole, as I've yet to find anyone who can.
And on a side note, the previous mention of music reminded me of a song I'm particularly fond of,
Flood, by Tool. The message conveyed through the song has aided me in many situations where something I had taken on faith stood in conflict with fact, and to the point of largely freeing me of the impulse to take things on faith. I suspect I'm far from the one only one who would say that, and perhaps it might help you too, in this matter and others. I recommend reading
the lyrics too, and you can skip to about
4:00 into the song if you are only willing to take the time to hear part with the lyrics, but of course the song is best comprehended in its entirety.
