You really seem to believe Christianity ran the mainstream media in the 80's. That's false.
You're in a different world.
It's collectively understood to have happened this way as a matter of recorded history.
That's fake though.
You seem to think a lot of things are fake.
Yes.
See this is where in your shoes I'd start to question myself, a lot of shit might not be real but it's more likely that, even during times we've been alive, we're liable to have not noticed everything.
I'm a media junkie, I look at this stuff more like a pop culture historian to see what trends led to other trends down a timeline until we hit where we are now. The media itself is interesting, but the evolution of the censor is a constraint that has both stopped people from writing what they'd want to write and in some cases inspiring them to either work within those constraints to produce a strangely superior product from the challenge (like Ren & Stimpy did in the 90s compared to when the guy had complete creative control later on Spike TV) if not finding outside venues for cult followings that were made so powerful as a protest against the classic censor.
The constraints of the censor end up becoming a muse for many artist, so it's been interesting to follow it's shifts. It's in a pretty weird state right now where the freedom to say curse words continues to flourish while demographic labels are going out of style in spite of archetypes being on the rise. You can say "Granny's stank pussy bitches" no problem, but you cannot say something like "Gay African" unless they're made out to be some sort of Guru or Wiseman trope.
The target audience was assumed to be Christian, which wasn't that far off to assume when you consider the numbers of card carrying Christians back then (and even now really). As such, that was the constraints they were facing for 'Cancel' risk. All that really shifted was Canceling power being put into the hands of the people, whereas before it was over corporate presumption. You can even see a rise in Witchcraft in the media as an author protest, but even those were whitewashed and typically presented as a 'dark path' when compared to now, and you rarely saw them push religious values outside of the usual Christian norm, something that becomes increasingly apparent as you watch media from other countries for a comparison.
Really though, you can see who the people that became too adjusted to 80s values are by seeing who complains about shit like Beavis and Butthead. It took the 90s to break out of the prison the 80s tried to build.
But seriously. I was all about TV and radio. When the vcr went mainstream I was there. I know the biggest artists on the 80's as I was there as it all unfolded. We used to use our tapes to record radio.
Did you really make yourself look at that which was outside of your own interests though?
Most don't.
RUN DMC, Madonna, NWA, Maestro fresh west, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and a whole heap of others. I seriously cannot tell you of a Christian group hitting it big, neither can you really.
The Censors are not the same people as the businesses themselves, nor their artists. While now it's a lot more transparent you had to go through a ton of hoops to get your shit released, and they had to walk the line pretty thinly to be risque when the censor otherwise could just take them off the market with a group of angry supporters behind it.
Christian bands and artists have for the vast majority of history been awful from fixating too much on their music while not comparing themselves to more successful sources, retreating too much into their own genre for a niche audience. This however doesn't mean that the Christians were not the ones behind the vast majority of what was and wasn't deemed okay for media, simply that they were not it's creators but rather it's critics.
Seriously, during an era where "One Nation, Under God" wasn't being questioned yet a lot went through our culture under the idea of "Christian Values". It's around the time we saw Bill O'Reilly complaining about Christmas becoming X-Mas that the censor was changing from a Christian machine into an 'Equalist' one.
Horror movies of the 80's are fucked up too.
60s and 70s went harder for fucking with the mind, while 80s made it more about body horror.
Rosemary's Baby for instance hits on way darker tones than Child's Play.
Cartoons were indeed a marketing ploy to sell toys. G.I. Joe and Transformers as you mentioned, are a trademark of Hasbro then and now.
Somethings haven't changed.
The company is the same, but their target market has changed.
The artists remain who they are, pushy to get their brand out, but the censor insists that it be their branding instead.
Iconic 80's shows were A-Team, Knight Rider, and a pile of others.
I never really got into those, too episodic with a numbing amount of consistency. By contrast you have shows like MASH from the 70s.
There was no artist revolution against Christianity in the 80's to make what they wanted, Gangsta Rap about killing niggaz was a thing back then too.
I'd argue freedom of speech was more well off in the US before 2015.
From a position of privilege where your views were the mainstream, that view of yours for as wrong as it is makes sense for you to acquire.
From the other side of the fence I look at history for it's repressive practices done through it's rating system and censorship practices and see that fading more and more as I get older. Suddenly you can say curse words on TV, show a lot more skin, and can be more blatantly suggestive as long as it's not about pigeonholing an entire demographic.
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