Society6 love censorship, it would seem

Hi Sarah,

What a lovely little collection of logical fallacies, confirmation bias and grade school arguments you've gathered for me here. Thanks for engaging, and thanks for making it easy.

I'm the problem:

  Let's be frank. I'm not interested in you, and you're highly unlikely to be interested in me. I know next to nothing about you, and you know even less about me. Now, I could go and make a whole lot of assumptions about who you are and what your motivations might be, or I could theorize about how you came to believe that this particular pseudo-science holds any answers. I'm sure being prone to generalize about people makes it much easier to believe in something like astrology, but somehow, free will seems so much more alluring.

The Western world is the problem:

  Of course. Eastern mysticism equals truth. These people thousands of years ago in fact held all the keys to the universe, and only our arrogange and self-righteousness stands in the way of realizing they in fact got everything right all along. Or, perhaps they didn't, judging by the state of their society, and overall knowledge of physics, anatomy, astronomy, engineering, pretty much all the foundations of the modern world. Sure, they were taking important baby steps towards progress, but 95% (random figure) of what they held to be true, has since been replaced with what we now know as scientific fact. Future generations would build on what they got right, of course, but equally important, they would also dismiss what they got wrong, that which proved to hold no merit. More on this later.

  I'm sure a daily life of modern healthcare, creature comforts and free speech can get dull, and the temptation to spice things up with some exotic foreign cultural influence from past times is strong. Discard everything we've learned about nutrition, and start the paleo diet, originally practiced by people with an average life expectancy below 30, eating whatever they could find around them while trying their darndest to stay alive for their brief flash of history. Don't dream of vaccinating your progeny - it's not like child mortality has ever been a problem, and those little anklebiters are plenty strong to take on anything mother nature can throw at them. The Illuminati are giving your tot autism through needles, just like those damn academics are spending all their free time trying to keep the actual facts, hidden somewhere in the stars, from all of us. Thank <divinity> we have PROFESSIONALS ready to tell us the REAL TRUTH about who planned 9/11 from the bottom of a coffee cup.
  Might I suggest the Kama Sutra instead - it doesn't profess to tell you much about the universe, but at least it's enjoyable, and provided you are somewhat lean, it's not harmful. Just ignore the fluff surrounding it, is all.

  Eastern mysticism has also brought us poaching, a huge black market for rhino horn, and the near extinction of the elephant. And "Western medicine", whenever not contrasted against Eastern mysticism, is usually just called "medicine". Also known as that thing which tends to keep you and your loved ones alive. I have nothing against the Eastern world, but I also don't believe in dragons. Our Western world is not the enemy - of reason or otherwise.


Lack of education is the problem:

  EXPAND! EXPLORE! My fairy tales have a more elaborate cannon than yours, hence they hold the truth! L. Ron Hubbard made exploiting this into an artform - and a very lucrative business. No good snake oil salesman would ever claim the formula of his potion to be simplistic. Rather, it's a closely guarded secret of ingredients, known only to the seller. Tell him what ails you, and lo and behold, this is precisely what it will cure. Among numerous other things, of course.

  Astrology has been around for a long, long time. If something is to survive for that long, through changing times, faced with an ever more educated population, it must build its lore. Each new iteration and generation of people claiming a deep understanding of its secret potion must add to this lore, lest it succumb to basic scrutiny. As the world evolves, the snake oil must evolve with it to survive. For every question, another elaborate answer, and preferably one that can dodge further scrutiny. Even better if the answer is something sufficiently vague that it cannot be easily proven wrong - people are surprisingly willing to ignore where the burden of evidence should lie. Ask anyone employed in an executive position in the Vatican state; regular meetings are required to retrofit long expired beliefs, morals and world views into an ever evolving world. How can you best manage to hold progress back this week?

  Now, I'm sure any topic as long in the tooth as astrology has enough published material, from various contradicting sources of "authority", from which one can become "educated". I bet you could spend the rest of your days doing nothing but studying it, desperately trying to make it all harmonize, develop your own particular breed of it in the face of contradicting theories and unsubstantiated claims. Applying vast amounts of suspension of disbelief - or being "open-minded" as you say - to try to make sense of it all. There are no doubt many profiteering from precisely this, giving classes, issuing certificates. Self-proclaimed experts and authorities, in possession of a truth others seek.

  But, then again. If something has been around for thousands of years, and has yet to be supported by even a single shred of evidence.. How educated does one truly have to be to dismiss it outright? Where can you possibly dig that hasn't already been thoroughly excavated and refuted, by people far more educated than yourself not just on the matter itself, but also in the fields that affect it?

  Today, I have a superficial knowledge of Batman. If I devote the rest of my life to reading every issue ever published of Batman, does he become a real person, living in the real world? Or is he still make believe, a figment of someone's imagination, and as the years pass, an ever more elaborate tale from more and more people's imaginations? Probably most of those writers acknowledged Batman as a fictional character, but profited healthily from expanding his story lines, and indeed made entire careers out of it. Perhaps, maybe, some of them actually, truly, genuinely believed he was real, and thought they were relaying the tales and adventures of a true hero of the people. Does that mean he is? What if we were talking about Santa - a character we know millions of people believe in?

  In the general sense, I am educated, and I know precisely what about Batman, or Santa, or astrology, resonates with people. If you truly believe education is the answer, I would strongly suggest reading up on the Forer effect as part of a psychology 101, to learn why the navel-gazing nature of astrology feels so alluring, and why anecdotal personal experiences are quite the opposite of true fact. Understanding what makes us humans tick provides a far deeper insight into your personality and behavior than any so-called "reading" could ever offer, and will be helpful in countless real-life situations. The next time you're engaged in a discussion, you'll stand a better chance of seeing what actually motivates your debate partner, and why they may have chosen a fully irrational standpoint.

  Do the clouds frequently look like objects to you? Do you keep seeing faces even where there are none? The answer lies in your brain - not in the stars. Though I'm certain that if I claimed a gift (or carefully honed skill, depending on the audience) for reading the clouds over people's heads, and insisted their formations had profound significance for them, I would become a wealthy man very quickly. The more intricate the pseudo-scientific explanation, the more wealth would be coming my way. This man clearly knows his clouds - listen to the confidence in which he describes his readings, and how they affect me personally! Nothing appeals more to people than feeling they are at the center of the cosmos, rather than an insignificant and fleeting atom in it, intended for nothing but a brief and swiftly forgotten existence. Incidentally, this is also why the illusion of a heaven, afterlife, reincarnation, what have you, is so persistent.

Closed-mindedness is the problem:

  Being open-minded involves looking at all available evidence, applying a scientific approach, and when something can be proven to be true, believing in it. This is the source of all progress the human race has made, since long before it had a name. Heck, we eventually learned that the scientific method holds merit by applying the scientific method to it! This gift of critical thinking is what truly separates us from the animals, even as we are faced with (and resist) our genetic and animalistic inclination to see patterns and correlation where there in fact is none. When something can be proven, we learn from it, build on it, and evolve further. Progress.

  Closed-mindedness, arrogance even, is looking at a theory devised thousands of years ago, ignoring the historical context, choosing to disregard everything we as a species have learned since, and deciding that our predecessors were right all along - even if it directly contradicts everything else we know about the topic. Astrology tries to tell us that it is neither nature nor nurture, but rather massive gas clouds that somehow dictate the lives, future and makeup of each and every one of us. I am who I am not because of my genes, not because of my experiences, not because of how I relate to others, but because planets orbit. If I was on trial for murder tomorrow, it's not because my dad beat me, it's because when I was born, a particular celestial object happened to be in a particular location. That's my defense, and Madame Banicki is my star expert witness, with impeccable credentials to speak on the subject.
  Astronomy, engineering, actually understanding physics, these things literally took us to the moon and back. Claiming astrology has anything to teach us about anything in 2018 is exceptionally closed-minded.

  A theory is just that until it can either be proven true, or proven false. If demonstrably true, it becomes fact. If demonstrably false, it becomes misinformation. Some misinformation dies out in the face of a better understanding of the world around us - we rationally simply cannot continue to believe it, given all we know. Very few people today believe the world is flat, that blood-letting can cure mental illness, or that alchemy is the solution to any problem. Some misinformation, however, sadly persists, and usually because there are some who stand to benefit from it, through convenience, profit, politics, or other driving forces of the human nature. I could theorize about what causes astrology to persist in a world with more knowledge, more easily available, than ever before, but that would bring us back to generalizing, which is better avoided. I believe it better for those afflicted to look within themselves, try to figure out which hole they are trying to fill, and fill it with meaning instead of convenient hokum. Don't be the person insisting that trepanation is actually awesome because some loons kept doing it and expanding on the theory, when in fact the theory was wrong all along. There were never any evil spirits hiding in your dura mater. Just because a practice doesn't physically harm someone, and thus can't be outright banned, doesn't mean it isn't harmful to you, to an enlightened society.

  Sure, astronomy is a difficult and complex topic. Like quantum physics, actually understanding it isn't for everyone. Someone needs to mop the floors and scrub the toilets too. I couldn't build a combustion engine if you put a gun to my head, yet I've never claimed my car's forward motion is in fact caused by magic, divine intervention, or any other fantastical property. And if I had, I certainly wouldn't have the audacity to call those disagreeing with me closed-minded, as the burden of proof would obviously be on me. Instead, I acknowledge there are plenty of people that *do* have a lot of independently verifiable knowledge about combustion engines, and before them, I am humble.

The problem is people just don't know enough about your false prophet:

  I don't care about Madame Banicki any more than I care about you, Sarah. I know that she exploits the vulnerabilities of those already predisposed to believing in a particular brand of superstition, and I know that she prefers "helping" those with the highest incomes when doing so. I'm sure this gig here is helpful in further building her brand and all, but she prides herself in providing her "services" to the wealthy Hollywood elite, and then uses that reference as justification and validation. It's a perfect scheme really; a celebrity endorsement where the celebrity pays you!
  I couldn't tell you what the P.T. before Barnum stands for, yet I still feel entitled to hold the opinion that exploiting those with rare afflictions, displaying them as animals (often in actual cages), conjuring up false back stories about their origins and allowing this misinformation to proliferate, should not be a profitable profession - or indeed a profession at all. Some exploitative professions we have been successful in eradicating during the past century, some require more work still.

If you don't have anything nice to say:

  Lately, an awful lot of people seem to have less than nice things to say about President Trump. Some go as far as taking to the Internet to opine and debate - uninvited even! And nearly all of them expend energy! It logically follows, from your statement, that these people should not only shut their ugly pie holes, but that their opinions are invalid by mere virtue of being uttered. Any viewpoint they may have to offer is automatically discredited simply because it is not complimentary. In your world, Tucker Carlson would be a voice of reason, and TripAdvisor would have no business case.

  Now, I'll be fair, I know this is not an entirely fair comparison. We know we'll be rid of Trump in less than seven years, worst case, whereas this particular school of outrageous misinformation (and lies, and fake news, and whatever else you wanna call it) has already plagued us for thousands of years.

So why am I still here, you ask? Why am I still expending energy? Because I think I can change anyone's opinion?
Because I've picked my battles, because I look at the actual big picture, because I believe that without critical thinking, the human race will eventually succumb to superstition and ignorance. Because refusal to accept scientific or historical fact is why there are still plenty of people denying the existence of HIV/AIDS, the Holocaust or climate change. Because belief in the supernatural - even when under the guise of pseudo-science - is what wars are fought over. Because seeing ruthless people profiteering greatly from the dissemination of misinformation sickens me to my stomach.

Best of luck to you too, Sarah! Seems like you're gonna need it more than me. But in the timeless words of Fox Mulder: the truth is out there! And with the tireless efforts of you and your ilk, I guess we'll all have lost our critical sense soon enough.