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Many consider astrology to be a creative and self-reflective process. Definitely would want to hear technical ideas from that kind of person. In any case, it’s
by odyssey7 5y ago
Many consider astrology to be a creative and self-reflective process. Definitely would want to hear technical ideas from that kind of person. In any case, it’s up to the reader to decide where they will look for ideas and what they find valuable.
- teddyh 5y agoIn the current climate of censoring “misinformation”, astrology and its ilk should have been the first to go. Propagating superstitions and encouraging magical thinking is, if anything is, a destructive force on critical thinking.
- odyssey7 5y agoOn the other hand, astrology is decentralized and requires individuals to find their own values, and to actively interpret the meaning of things they read. I find that being this engaged with something enhances critical and creative thinking. And in the case of astrology, self-awareness.
- throwamon 5y agoOh, so it's just like philosophy and science, except without any philosophical or scientific backing.
- pxc 5y agoNo. Astrology is a somewhat mystified, ritualized form of useful reflexive and social activities, namely thinking about personality and long-term thinking about life decisions. Just like how a funeral at a church is a somewhat mystified, ritualized form of the useful reflexive and social activities of remembering and grieving.
- teddyh 5y agoEncouraging people to “find their own values” and to “actively interpret the meaning of things they read” , without any grounding in reality or science, will mostly result in people either growing more ardent in their existing beliefs (whatever they happen to be), or make people spin wildly out of control in conspiracy theories and/or magical thinking and superstitions.
- ashtonkem 5y agoEh. Astrology is obviously bullshit, but on the whole it’s much less harmful than other forms of misinformation. If we’re going to spend public and private credibility haggling over misinformation, I’d rather focus on the forms that have a much higher body count. I’m fine with leaving astrology in the category of “not subject to any moderation, but openly mocked by other commenters whenever it comes up”.
- teddyh 5y agoSure, there’s a scale to these things: https://twitter.com/abbieasr/status/1312512066071060480 https://twitter.com/abbieasr/status/1312512066071060480 However, it could be argued that small continuous amounts of superstition and magical thinking (like regular horoscopes) weakens people over time, so that they are vulnerable to the larger stuff (like essential oils) or even larger and more harmful conspiracies later.
- bcrosby95 5y agoAdd Santa and the tooth faerie to the list.