Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Young people are flocking to astrology

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 972 posts

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#421

Post by sillysaurusx »

Dalewyn wrote: post #391
sillysaurusx wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it’s true that men have body image issues, when’s the last time you’ve seen them objectified the way a woman was in this thread? That might happen too, but not with the same frequency or casualness. Worse, men tend to refuse to believe it’s a problem, and file it in the nonsense bucket. One of the primary roadblocks for women getting into tech is that they’re not encouraged to the same way men are. And once the…

>While it’s true that men have body image issues, when’s the last time you’ve seen them objectified the way a woman was in this thread? Literally any time I've seen women talk about what they like/want from men? Go take a stroll through any NSFW r/AskReddit thread, plenty to see in there from both sides of the chamber! >Worse, men tend to refuse to believe it’s a problem, and file it in the nonsense bucket. Concerns…

Your comment is pretty thoughtful, so I’d like to respond in kind. One difference is that we rarely gain or lose jobs based on how we look. Another difference is that if we were to try to make a living by being a sex worker, we’d find that our income is much less than women, precisely because of the demand for a certain type of body. This realization is the essence of body image issues; to know that no matter what you do, you probably won’t achieve a certain thing in life unless you look a certain way. Worse, the question being ever present in the back of your mind will always get to you, no matter how much you try to shrug it off.

I note that this thread started out with a comparison of astrology to racism, and everybody seemed to buy into that. Is it so hard to believe that we’re just as guilty of our own flaws? It’s easy to make fun of a woman who believes the stars predict your future, but we should at least check whether we’re fostering a culture that can predict very accurately whether an ambitious young woman might want to join us as developers. The answer right now tends to be no, and I’m skeptical it’s because their interests are different.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#422

Post by tpreetham »

adyashakti wrote: post #49

western astrology is broken, unreliable and overly complex. because it is based on erroneous assumptions due to early mistranslations from Sanskrit into Greek and Latin, it has required so many patches it's worse than useless. Vedic astrology (jyotiṣa) OTOH, is extremely direct, simple and accurate.

My superstitions are more accurate than your superstitions

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#423

Post by BiteCode_dev »

jacquesm wrote: post #335
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in various "alternative" industries in my youth. One day I was having an informal diner with people that, in another context, could have been business partners. One guy was making a killing with an astrology service by phone. He started with those text message based games, that were popular in the 2000'. Remember? "Send 'love' to this number to know if he loves you". And eventually created a full phone call…

I think we have a common friend!

It's a small industry :)

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#424

Post by pndy »

jahewson wrote: post #107
donatj wrote: post #97

The number of people in my life who have recently taken to astrology and started buying "healing" crystals is frankly disheartening. You try to argue with them they just call you toxic. I suspect it's a social virus.

I carry a silicon crystal in my pocket at all times that gives me some pretty awesome powers.

Does that come along with fighting demons and being saved by mysterious masked man wearing tuxedo and a big cylinder hat?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#425

Post by Footkerchief »

varjag wrote: post #398
machina_ex_deus wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me there is an a huge difference. I can accept religions, which are adding axioms that aren't falsifiable, and that are usually taught to a person when he is a child. And religions had their roles in shaping society for good. I can accept conspiracy theories and disbelieving the known consensus. I just can't accept a person who, in the age where we know exactly how planets move and what they are, decided to believ…

I feel it's more of a personal background issue. Do you really have objection with planets effects on personality but at the same time feel turning water into wine is plausible in the slightest? To a raised atheist all religions are not far removed from belief in Santa Claus. But to someone with religious people in the family cutting them off may come not as natural as of strangers with astrology brain.

Saying water/wine happened exactly once 2000 years ago is much harder to falsify than claiming a present, ongoing, and universal correlation between planetary bodies and psychology.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#427

Post by rcme »

varjag wrote: post #345
machina_ex_deus wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of stereotypes, if anyone takes astrology seriously, I automatically assume they are not intelligent, irrational, and I find it impossible to take them seriously. I consider them beyond reason so I don't even try. If a person's logic and epistemology lead to him believing in astrology, it shows a deeper problem and I don't hope to have an intelligent discussion with them any more than I expect to have an int…

There is no qualitative difference between belief in astrology and any of the world's religions. Not saying you're not entitled in disregarding astrology believers but the cut-off point is completely arbitrary and dare I say irrational.

How is believing in religion rational?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#428

Post by Pamar »

jmkd wrote: post #183
Pamar wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also an interesting/insightful comment. But again, Tarot (and especially Astrology: you cannot really change when you were born) do not encourage self analysis and especially any attempt to change your own mental models/way to do things. Hugo Pratt, author of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corto_Maltese - hinted at this in one of stories about the character. Allegedly Corto met some sort of Gypsy palm reader w…

You generalized tarot and astrology based on the predictive elements often seen in the media. You are completely ignoring the primary motivation of both practices which is very much in attempting to understand yourself. It's a shame when those who decry alternative systems do so using flawed logic.

To be more precise, I generalize the tendency that people have in trying to "externalize" their problems. And "traditional therapy" can have the same effect: "whatever, the root of all your problems is your parents".

What I am trying to say is that most people will not dig further and most importantly will not even try to put some honest work in trying to understand things in order to try to repair these.

And assuming I am right, Astrology is not really helping much, because if you are "stubborn because you are a Taurus or whatever" what are you supposed to do? What kind of corrective practices will Astrology suggest?

Please enlighten me (I am not sarcastic): in all my dealings with people who were interested in Astrology (interested beyond the most superficial interest) everybody was trying to "understand", a minority was trying to "predict". But nobody had any Astrology-based best practice to "heal" or "repair".

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#429

Post by Footkerchief »

jb1991 wrote: post #404
machina_ex_deus wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of stereotypes, if anyone takes astrology seriously, I automatically assume they are not intelligent, irrational, and I find it impossible to take them seriously. I consider them beyond reason so I don't even try. If a person's logic and epistemology lead to him believing in astrology, it shows a deeper problem and I don't hope to have an intelligent discussion with them any more than I expect to have an int…

> I automatically assume they are not intelligent, irrational, and I find it impossible to take them seriously There are a lot of people who are highly regarded in history but who also believed in astrology, so you shouldn't be too hard on it. Do you feel similarly about people who believe in various religions? These people believed in astrology to varying degrees: Winston Churchill J.P. Morgan Nancy Reagan Theodore…

Source on Winston Churchill?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#430

Post by rcme »

throw0101a wrote: post #415
varjag wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no qualitative difference between belief in astrology and any of the world's religions. Not saying you're not entitled in disregarding astrology believers but the cut-off point is completely arbitrary and dare I say irrational.

> There is no qualitative difference between belief in astrology and any of the world's religions. Some of the world's religions can start off from a basis of logic: * https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35592365-five-proofs-of-...

How is this not bigger news? He actually proved God exists???
Post reply on HN