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Young people are flocking to astrology

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#61

Post by sircastor »

aradox66 wrote: post #7
kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #4

Sigh. No they aren’t.

Cultural bubbles? I hardly know anyone who /isn't/ interested in astrology.

Interesting. I can’t think of anyone I know who is interested in astrology.

That said, I recently stopped attending a church, so maybe most of my associates were self-selecting to a different belief structure.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#62

Post by photochemsyn »

101011 wrote: post #41
photochemsyn wrote: post #39

[flagged]

I'm a little bit incredulous reading this statement. In no world are those outlets in the same ballpark as Russian or Chinese state media. Just because a new source has a tendency towards bias, doesn't mean that it isn't reliable. There are a small handful of news organizations that make a best effort towards the truth - and WaPo, NYTimes, and WSJ haven't won as many Pulitzers as they have by being unreliable.

If it was the Russian or Chinese governments deciding who gets the Pulitzers, would you be so sanguine?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#63

Post by figital »

There are epigenetic markers which can identify the season or perhaps even month you were born. If you might think there is a link between personality and birth order and that perhaps metaphor is useful in storytelling or group dynamics … then one could loosely link these concepts together and consider it more than something like a party trick.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#66

Post by nprateem »

I had an argument with a girl the other day who was adamant she wanted to know my star sign. I said "you tell me" and after 10 guesses I finally told her. She then went on to tell me what I must like etc - most of which was complete bollocks obviously. I told her her beliefs were akin to racism. Just because of when I was born she thought it was acceptable not to bother to treat me as an individual but as automatically likely to have certain traits. Insulting to say the least, and hypocritical. This same girl had just been arguing with someone else about not making assumptions about people, but she couldn't see the issue.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#67

Post by uwagar »

permo-w wrote: post #14

I think the easy way to look at this is that a certain segment of society will always want to believe in something beyond the observable world with the decline of organised religion amongst Western Europeans, astrology is one way they fill that void if astrology doesn't float your boat, there's always witchcraft and tarot, or crystals and alternative medicine. or if you're less inclined towards new-age horse you can…

and you believe in pfizer and moderna? :)

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#68

Post by luc4sdreyer »

drooby wrote: post #30

I always love getting my tarot cards read. Do I believe it has special knowledge of the universe? Absolutely not. Does it get my thinking creatively and critically about the personal story that I have with my self? Yes. And that has some value.

Of the atheist STEM postgrad degree people I know that love to talk about astrology/tarot, they usually retreat to this type to defence: it's a useful tool for introspection. Sure.

But then if I ask them to admit that believing in it is unscientific, the response is something along the lines of "well it could be true". They know there's no evidence for it, but they're probably afraid of offending close friends that actually believe.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#70

Post by RodgerTheGreat »

Mental health therapy carries significant social stigma and is not affordable to many people who need or want it. Having regular conversations with an astrologer is a cheaper, more accessible, and more socially acceptable alternative, even if it isn't as effective (or at all effective). The same principle applies to most forms of "alternative medicine"; people cope with what they have.
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