I really don’t know if any organizations that gathers hard statistics on things like “how many astrology nerds are weirdos who take it too far and are obnoxious about it.”
We’re putting anecdote against anecdote here. The “it’s totally harmless” camp doesn’t really have any hard data to back up their assertions, it’s all just anecdote for them to. I don’t know why the counter claim needs a doctoral thesis to back it up.
Hun?
I mean yeah my evidence is all anecdotal but I promise you I ain’t lying. Maybe I’m just in an area with a bizarrely high amount of people who take astrology ridiculously too far, but if you go on astrology YouTube and Twitter you’ll probably find some figures to back up what I’m saying. They probably won’t be the most popular ones but they’re out there.
I’m gonna disagree with the “it’s totally harmless” line. It is for like 90% of people into it, but I’ve also seen the other 10%. It can be a gateway into other pseudoscientific thinking, I’ve seen a lot of astrology people get into anti-vax shit. And on a more interpersonal level some start taking it so seriously it starts affecting their relationships, like they can mediate any conflict with a family member or friend without a discussion of their astrological sign to the point their loved ones get fed up talking to them about it. I’ve seen breakups happen over this.
And beyond that, as I mentioned above, I think it’s obnoxious and rude to demand everyone you know have a discourse with you about something they believe in but other dont. We wouldn’t hesitate to call this out if it were Christians injecting Jesus into every convo or STEM bros demanding to know everyone’s Briggs-Myers or IQ, but for whatever reason people demanding they know your sign before they talk to you gets a pass.
I find this impulse to redeem astrology in the left fucking weird. If we don’t want to be associated with Reddit STEM bros who hate it we should just be silent on the issue. But just because something is popular with LGBT people doesn’t mean it’s not a load of nonsense that’s obnoxious to bring up in literally every damn conversation fucking ever, like seriously why does EVERY GODDAMN convo with a new person I meet have to open with what my birthday is so they can chart out my fucking personality for me!
Sorry, I live near an art school.
I openly admitted my evidence was anecdotal and anecdotal evidence is what I provided. Also my claim was in response to another claim that “it was totally harmless” and that guy didn’t back it up with any evidence so why do you go hound him for some.
And this all circles back to my main question, why do so many on the left seem hell bent to defending the valor of astrology? I didn’t advocate outlawing it or being mean to people who were into it, fuck I said it was harmless 90% of the time. I just said I didn’t think it was 100% harmless and that was enough to get some debate bros jumping down my goddamn throat.