Yes, religion is far worse. Any exclusivist ideology that pits faction against faction of humanity ("We're the chosen ones," "No, we are!") and believes in a genocidal lunatic as their "god" (i.e., the Abrahamic genocidal god worshiped in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) is going to create far more cultural and…

"This is the conspiracy theory you displayed in your first paragraph. I'll repeat my question. Would you be interested in knowing why your first paragraph is wrong, or if I gave you links would you ignore them?"

False equivalency alert! Anecdotal evidence is not conspiracy thinking if it has been spontaneously shared with you, over some 28 years, by people who themselves did not know the significance (to me, anyway) of what they were sharing with you (because these boatloads of anecdotes were shared with me WITHOUT people…

Yes (says the real astrologer in the room). Because it's no different than encouraging other stereotypes like basing your reaction to someone on the color of their skin, their gender, their sexuality, etc. What you have there is a prejudiced person; because in real astrology your being a sun sign Sagittarius has very…

Do you know if you're really a cusp person? Sometimes people think they are and they aren't. The dates given in newspaper astrology columns are all slightly off; the times when the sun is in a particular sign change year to year; usually the sun changes sign between the 19th and the 22nd of month and you're really…

OOOH, that's an interesting one. I had a friend who was on the Pisces/Aries cusp and this manifested for him as some complex "schizophrenia", common with cusp folks:

Not "all" imaginary. We astrologers have always been big on tracking interesting things that go on with the masses during full moon times, which is confirmed anecdotally if you take in firsthand stories from people who work in ER's, as EMT's, as psych nurses, etc. The full moon is proven to have effects on water; it…

And yet real astrologers are constantly blamed for:

Astrology does not predict; it alerts people to strong trends which are likely to be present and attempts to guide people in better managing those cycles, so they can have more optimal situations going on in their life. It's misconceptions about this, the attempt to classify astrology as "predicting the future", that…

Two people with the same sun sign will tend to draw out each other's nasty habits, shadow side, etc; and most of today's couples, let's put this politely, are NOT up for that challenge in this time of disposable relationships, insta-porn, and so on. So that fact that the two of you are doing well is GREAT and shows…

I was the very rare "real astrologer" (using quotes because otherwise all commenters will collectively rip me a new asshole, and I like my current one just fine, thank you) who was hired by some of the startups circa 1998 thru 2001 that actually had decent writers' budgets. They were so happy to find someone who could…

You're talking about Rob Bryzny, I believe? Still the most popular syndicated alt-weekly "astrologer" in the US.

True. My current orange tabby lets me wear him like a necklace around my neck, hold him upside down, put him in "human doll" positions to receive tubby rubs, and is just generally what we call around here a "doughapuss." (Like dough. Malleable and sweet.) Past orange tabbies we've owned have also been this way;…

You should see all the Fifty Shades of Grey knockoffs, often using slight variations of that title, making shit tons of money for some erotica Kindle writers. I don't think readers have been too busy to complain about receiving knockoff versions because they're, um, too busy doing other things (one would guess) after…

You are an officially ordained piece of shit, Esme. Thank you for playing the blame game!

So......your "not believing" in what my family members experienced, what, makes what they actually went through okay?

The emotional bullying my aunt went through, the bizarrely clueless aggressive pressure my own elderly primary care doc exerted on me, and the incredibly sneaky, subversive, and quite frankly, illegal giving of my 90 year old mother-in-law (without her permission, knowledge, or clear understanding of what medication…

I would add "skeptic." We have come to view this as someone who automatically "debunks" or refutes or objects to accepted ideas, opinions, or findings. But this wasn't the original meaning of the word.

That's so frightening, CeltyQueeny! The "diseasification" of common emotional states, or the pseudo-medical "classification" of the broader spectrum of TEENAGEHOOD (i.e., hating your mother at times, wanting to die at times, feeling like you're the center of the universe at other times and nothing will ever go…

I think the worst is the extremely aggressive pushing of antidepressants; they really do often take a simple question like "Do you ever feel sad?" and exert a lot of undue influence sometimes in pressuring people who DON'T need antidepressants into taking them. I could see where a mopey teen could get conditioned by a…