this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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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.
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.
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 it's the leader of 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 I am of 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".
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. This is not a "bad apples" deal, as your original comment implied. It is a systemic problem, and using meaningless bullshit to stereotype people makes you a worse person, at any level.