CommunistCuddlefish [she/her]
I’m going to sound passionate about this because I’m passionate about this, not because I’m coming in hot @ you or even have anything against you in particular. More like, your comment provided the nucleation point around which a bunch of thoughts I haven’t been able to put into words suddenly crystalized into words so no I’m going a-ranting. I respect a [no pronouns provided] who stans Stalin and am not attacking you, but I want to tilt at some ideas you expressed and ideas that you defended.
When I talk about Astrology I am referring to modern Western Pop Astrology. I don’t know shit about astrology from other cultures nor am I talking about those kinds.
However it is women’s bullshit and we never let them have anything nice. It is our job to protect it until they get bored of it and move on.
This comes across as sexist (the thing that is bullshit is inherently feminine!) and patronizing (protect their frivolous bullshit til they grow out of it?) as well as patently false (why say it’s women’s? men and other non-women are into this shit too!)
It’s gets people intrested in the stars and the universe
What good is people’s “interest” in stars and the universe if they’re going to be interested in it in a way that is disrespectful to the beauty of nature and elevates fiction over fact? That is a false interest that is more interest in their own personalities and feelings. Astrology is at best a way for people to express their own thoughts and feelings by projecting them onto made up shit about stars. I don’t view that as them being interested in the stars, I view that as them being (put uncharitably) narcissistically interested in themselves or (put more charitably) struggling to find a way to grapple with difficult feelings and concepts about their material conditions and interpersonal strife. But turning to fake shit is not right! It may provide some false comfort, but it also misleads people into incompetent thinking rather than honing the analytical skills required to grapple with the problems of living in late stage capitalism [point 1 that I will come back to] and actively trains them to be sloppy thinkers who are easily misled. So I say no, pseudoscientific bullshit like present-day western astrology is subtly counterrevolutionary. To cut through problems we must be able to see them clearly and it is counterproductive to foster a willingness in people to disregard the evidence before them because it makes them uncomfortable.
A disclaimer, why do I not say the same about religion at large? Because religion can provide a set of moral ethics that lead people to leftism – after all, it was my religious upbringing that laid the ethical foundations which led me to Communism. But astrology provides no ethics save for “you are the center of the universe,” and that type of individualistic spirituality provides such an easy path to reaction. Ever hear, “the crunchy to fascist pipeline is real?” Basically that: new age spirituality’s focus on the individual is the opposite of the collectivist community-valuing ethos we need. Well then how do I square that with many leftists being into astrology? By watching really fucking carefully which ones live by leftist values and which ones merely larp them for the aesthetic and to be counterculture for the sake of being counterculture. (And to be clear I’m not denouncing anyone for being into Astrology or calling it a moral failing, but I do not trust the judgement and wisdom of someone who’s into astrology as much and am more wary with them. More on that to follow).
Anyway, that point 1: To believe in astrology one must fundamentally reject an ironclad commitment to material analysis in favor of a more woo-woo vibes-based approach which centers their feelings and psychological biases as the arbiters of reality. This is why astrology fanatics do not respond to any science about it. Talk about gravity, and they come up with some excuse. Talk about the many psychological studies done that show the Barnum Effect’s relation to astrology, and they wave it away because what they feel is true is more important than what is actually true. If that’s what they want, fine, but it is a liability I keep in mind when evaluating how much to trust and rely on which comrades in what ways. As just one example, I’ve had friends I know are into astrology tell me that certain unmasked social activities are covid safe. I said no, when we look at the science and physics of how covid spreads, they really aren’t. None listened to my explanation and it was a bit socially isolating for me to not join them — however, they got covid as I warned and I did not. It was kind of hard to go against the social pressure but I knew that these people do not understand and respect physical reality and are prone to shifting their beliefs based on what they want to be true rather than on what they can see is true, so it would have been foolish of me to trust my safety to them in that way.
More on why astrology is bad: fostering an inability grapple with reality undermines people’s ability to analyze the world as it is and navigate it. Maybe this is a chicken and egg thing — those who can grasp reality do not fall so easily for astrology or if they do, they abandon it when presented with evidence disproving it. So maybe it’s more fair to say astrology is a filter that selects for people who are bad at assessing material reality. Regardless, it’s a red flag and it’s way past my bedtime and the more tired I get the less coherent and more verbose I get so I gotta wrap this up, shut up, and sleep.
Blah blah blah, I see belief in astrology being more comorbid with people who will make consensus-based and vibes-based assessments rather than looking at the world as it actually is, which is a liability. Ok I’m definitely repeating myself.
Lastly, I’m not saying to go denounce Astrology to all its adherents or harbor a seething hatred of anyone into it. Ultimately, it’s not a fight worth having and there are so many bigger things to deal with that it’s just a minor annoyance unless it’s being forced on me in a consent-violating way in which case yeah, I’ll snap and go off at someone about it. But generally I take this approach with new friends who are into it and try to rope me in: “Friend, with love, no. Please leave me out of it. I dislike astrology, I don’t believe in it, and I don’t want to be involved in this. But I do like you and respect our friendship so, as long as you can respect my boundary of not wanting to be astrologized, I will respect your enthusiasm for it and not argue with you about it”. Most people can take that fine and that’s great! If they’re talking amongst themselves about it I zone out or read on my phone or go talk with the other friend who hates astrology instead about something unrelated. And while I don’t trust their judgement in some matters, I do respect them in others and consider them good friends! A few haven’t been able to and their insistence on crossing the clear boundary I set about not wanting to have my fucking “sign” guessed and everything ascribed to it, well, their insistence on crossing a clear boundary about something that is actually quite distressing to me for personal reasons is a big red flag, so I distance myself from them because if they’d cross such a small boundary how can I trust them with something important?
P.S. When I said, earlier, “I am referring to modern Western Pop Astrology”, perhaps the root of what I’m critiquing is Western Whiteness expressing itself through this cultural construct of Astrology.
Sorry comrade. I hope that you’re better off without them and find someone better for you.
(aside, fuck astrology) ( I legitimately would not date someone who’s into astrology, I can’t fuck with someone that unmoored from reality. Especially when inability to discern material realities is a liability that can get people killed. None of the people I know into astrology are taking covid seriously anymore, they’re so used to magical thinking that they just can’t look at the science to defend themselves against the capitalist gaslighting even though they’re principled leftists)
I always wear a mask when sharing breath outside my household. That means everywhere inside. That means outsids if I’m near people. Even if it’s just one person – it only takes one oerson to spread disease. Covid is airborne and has killed and disabled millions. The vaccines lessen the chance of death in the acute phase but don’t prevent Long Covid and I’m not willing to get Long Covid.
Covid is a class issue. The capitalists got pissed that keeping people safe from covid was too expensive and disruptive to business as normal so they sent the working class into the meat grinder and have manufactured the myth that it’s over. All for their economy. Its not over and all the young people I see coming down with POTS, cognitive decline, and chronic fatigue are a testament to that fact.
Wear a respirator anytime you have to breathe in someone’s exhalations – kf94, kn95, n95, or better (kf99, kn100, p100). It should seal on your face, not have giant gaps. You can get body-safe double-sided tape called “mask tape” to affix a disposable respirator to your face. It’s a bit more upfront effort and cost but you can get a resuable elastomeric respirator – my P100 cost 30 to 40 dollars and the filters last for 3-4 months before they need replacing, at $15 per replacement set.
Never give in. Those who pressure you won’t take care of you if you become disabled from Covid. They won’t even care enough to spit on your grave if you die from it directly, or die from the disability and systemic oppression that is rained down upon those who cannot work. They won’t spit on your grave because that would require remembering and acknowledging what they did to you and they’d rather sleepwalk to their own joyful doom with no acknowledgement of the cost in human blood to disrupt their shared mass delusion.
