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Young people are flocking to astrology

washingtonpost.com

561–570 of 972 posts

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#561
post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is believing in religion rational?

Is it rational to believe in humanism? Is it rational to believe in social progress narratives? Is it rational to believe in science as a "force for good"? I have only met a few "true atheists" -- people who do not deeply believe in some narrative that provides meaning and exists outside of the material world.

> I have only met a few "true atheists" -- people who do not deeply believe in some narrative that provides meaning and exists outside of the material world.

Really?! That's definitely by viewpoint. I don't talk religion but in my encounters with other atheists, I haven't gotten the feeling that any believe there to be some narrative.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#562
post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest you look at the world wide statistics from before the vaccine roll-out and afterwards. There is nothing to 'believe', that data is about as non-ambiguous as it comes and you should be very, very grateful that those people spent their lives learning the skills required to save our collective asses, especially in light of the way their contributions are being minimized. And if you don't understand that then t…

actually british govt stopped publishing COVID infection/fatality data based on vaccination status because of risk of misintepretation :) ie a lot of folks that were vaccinated were getting [re-]infected and so on. i could dig the sources for you but i suppose we dont care anymore. the fact is people feel physically, spiritually and scientifically abused by the handlers of the pandemic. and they cant talk about it co…

I think you are just looking for reasons to believe what you want to believe.

You don't speak for 'a lot of folks' you just speak for yourself.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#563
post #381

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…

Well, I also do similar kind of judgement. I.e. if someone is seriously religious, flat earth believing or ghost worshiping etc, then I would just assume they... have many things to left learn. But often as I encountered it, some individual is also too cute to be treated rudely. This is a bit of dilemma, really. Because if you share what you've learned, then no matter how respectful you tried to make it look, they mi…

Reframing mundane life as sexual social fantasies is about on par with astrology imo

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#565
Has any study been done to correlate personality to seasons? Weather?.

I'm not arguing for astrology, but sometimes our 'mystical' views could have some underlying cause.

Like seeing ghosts might just be our pattern matching brain seeing things.

Maybe being conceived in the winter when food was scarce, impacts embryo development, and then personality?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a 61-year-old software developer. It’s been interesting (and infuriating), experiencing some of the conclusions that younger techs have reached about me, due to my gray hair. I’m also a developer of Apple device software. That has resulted in even more abuse. There’s serious hate for Apple amongst techs. Human nature likes pigeonholing other people into simple “sort buckets,” and we have many ways to do that. It…

Hey! 35yo dev here. If you could go back and give your 35yo self some advice, what would it be? (Feel free to make it specific to yourself; I’m just curious.) You’re a bit of my hero since I aim to be a dev till at least 60. I barely survive Leetcode interviews now — in fact I can’t think of a single one I’ve passed. Having to interview at 60 plus sounds awful, mostly for the reasons you describe.

My advice would be to find a niche where your business knowledge is your value, not your coding. Bonus if the niche is finance, because $$. Become a consultant not an employee. In this world, leet code is a liability. Always code assuming the next person to maintain it is a junior, or a psychopath who knows where you live.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#567

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 automatical…

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…

Jokes on you, humans aren't rational, and are no better than GPT. Just because some people are GPT2, and some are GPT4, both are parrots. Now what?

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#568

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 automatical…

If you think astrology is dumb, how about witchcraft? I started dating a woman and after a few dates she told me she was a member of a Wicca. I never had much luck with the ladies; I shrugged it off and continued with the relationship.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite certain. The fact that you’d call them imaginary is simply … mistaken, to put it lightly. I recommend asking some actual women how they feel about it. Feel free to link them to this subthread. But since you’re certain they’re imaginary, I imagine you’ve already done so and found it to be true, right? This kind of attitude has no place in our industry, and it’ll be lovely when the social tides shift just a littl…

> ask some actual women Just asked my girlfriend and two sisters about your comment and they said it was cringe. Maybe it’s time you start a poll to double check your (and my) assumptions about the frailty of women when reading online chit chat? Especially with something as basic as being more agreeable with people you want to fuck, something women do too.

Are they into software? I’m sitting right next to one who is. She’s my wife.

Women outside of tech are entitled to their opinion. But if their opinion is that hot women should be more likely to get a job in tech, then their opinion is on the wrong side of history.

Re: Young people are flocking to astrology

#570
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.

That is simply false. The first problem is the word "religion", which, in common usage, is as if we were talking about different flavors of ice cream, and the atheist or "unbeliever" is some version of someone who simply doesn't like ice cream. Man is a religious animal in the sense that, as a rational animal, he must worship something he takes to be the highest good. The question is never "do I worship something" bu…

You diluted "religion" into something basically like "belief". Religion is the belief in some supernatural power (and, I would add, that requires faith because there is no evidence). Believing in ideas, in "highest good" is not religion, although religions include them as part of their dogma.
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