compostgoblinEmpowered witches
Even into adulthood, they love bullshit like horoscopes and blood types (the latter more prominent in Japan).
Just let people enjoy things, jeez
Leg
JackbyDevThe majority of it is indeed harmless fun, but I personally know someone who believes they don’t mesh well with specific signs. So much so that once they learn someone has that sign their opinion sours.
That sounds like their problem
Yes, it is a problem with their magical thinking surrounding superstitious, preconceived notions about others. Just like how phrenology is not only bunk, but actively harmful in stereotyping people, inaccurately, for things they cannot control, zodiacal discrimination is similarly potentially harmful bunk.
Phrenology was used for scientific racism. “Zodiacal discrimination” is used to … not go on dates with people? Be a drag in social circles? What if someone doesn’t like my socks and refuses to date me? Is this potentially harmful bunk? What about haircuts?
Given how many idiots there are who make hiring decisions? Yeah, I’ll bet that it has harmed a not insignificant number of people. As long as people have noted the movements of the heavens, people have made life and death decisions on the perceived significance of the positions of the stars, sun and moon. Bunk is bunk, and all it takes is one incredibly stupid demagogue to believe a horoscope for the world to change in a horrible way. If there is no other lesson of the last 10 years in american politics, then at least this: never underestimate either the depths of stupidity to which a human can descend, and never underestimate the damage that the truly stupid can cause.
Ok so we went from phrenology to … checks fucking notes … hiring managers using astrology to not hire someone and therefore causing significant social damage. So now this is about intelligence? Only “stupid” people believe in astrology? “Smart” people don’t cause damage? Or are you conflating intelligence with ethics?
What I am “conflating” is the stupidity of a moron with the tendency to make patently stupid decisions based solely on what an oracle tells you. Anyone can do it, but boy, it sure is more damaging when its the leader if a country with nukes reading “outlook not so good, beware of the color red, look to the east”. So yeah, I’m much more terrified of a stupid person with power and a fucking horoscope than a smart person with a trolley problem in front of them. At least one of them is going to use a heuristic more complex than “this thing I read sometimes tells me today’s a bad day, better blow up the world”.
Ok so now it’s no longer hiring managers, but a president with nukes. I’m losing track of what you’re trying to say. This stemmed from a comment about someone in a social circle using horoscopes and becoming a drag on the group.
Here, full circle, special for you, all subtext removed. To whit:
Having a subculture of stereotypes, vague prophecies, and self-proclaimed oracles is bad. The degrees of bad vary, but such a subculture is net negative at all levels.
Just for me? Aw, thanks.