As a side note: blows my mind there are people over the age of 9 that persist in actually believing in tarot cards or astrology.
People believe in a god who sacrificed himself to save people from himself. Tarot is downright reasonable in comparison.
I've seen it. Tarot is like amateur therapy, with props. It's a whooole lot of talking back and forth, with some cards to comment on.
Yeah some people take it way too seriously, but most people just enjoy it for what it is. Like I've got a lucky rock that I feel off without, but I know it's just a fetish.
So independent of any woo-woo, tarot cards are designed to be a potent conceptual microcosm. That means that when you shuffle the cards and do a reading, with a decent understanding of what each of the cards represents, you essentially make a little randomly generated conceptual perspective through which to view the problem. Extremely helpful for shaking out of an established mindset, finding an unexpected angle which reveals connections you hadn't considered.
I can't really speak to astrology, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be approximately accurate for some reason other than the stars themselves. Perhaps the changing temperatures of the seasons have a slightly noticeable effect on natal development.
Astrology is only accurate in that everything it says is vague and easily interpretable in multiple ways.
A teacher did an experiment where he handed his class custom astrology reports based on their birthdate, and asked them to rate how well they fit each of them. Everyone gave it a high rating, and said it was very accurate. He had them pass the paper to a different student, and everyone laughed because everyone got the exact same astrology report.
I had some friends do astrology readings for themselves that depended on the exact time they were born. I asked one of them about how they accounted for time zones and DST. (They didn't.) I may have gotten my point across.
I'm seeing a lot of deeply unscientific arguments in these comments. This "Cult of Science" mentality is a concerning trend, where instead of thinking rationally and scientifically about something, people blindly follow whatever the contemporary consensus is. Your friends using poor methodology is not a rational argument against a field, any more than solving a math problem incorrectly invalidates math.
For what feels like the tenth time: I don't believe any star (other than the sun) has any direct significant effect on a person. However, correlation isn't causation. I do believe that it is possible that there might be other factors which vary over the course of the year which may have some effect, and that those variations can be coincidentally correlated to the zodiac phases as a convenient reference.
I use tarot and other divination methods (primarily the I-Ching/Book of Changes). It’s less about trying to get magical communication from some sort of magical realm or helper for me, it is more a way to organize my thoughts. Often times, the advice associated with each card is just generic good advice, and it prompts me to consider situations from other perspectives. I take some time to think about a problem facing me and use the cards as creative prompts for ways to solve that problem. No supernatural stuff involved.
Horoscopes are mostly just (hopefully!) good advice packaged in what can only be described as a crime against astronomy. They’re good to read, because they tell you what people want to be thinking about themselves.
The way that I think about these things is that it's like flipping a coin to make a decision. It doesn't really matter what the coin says, but if you feel happy or disappointed in the result, that tells you what you really need to know. Tarot's like that but with a bit more depth. The value from the reading is that it encourages introspection.
Well Intended Leftist: I want to do something productive for society.
Tankie: I want to bash you
To be fair, the tankie in this situation said they are bashing because no one wants to plow fields. You can't serve latte's if no one is doing the hard work of growing and transporting the coffee.
How about working the oil rig to supply the petroleum needed to ship coffee from South America? You'll probably lose a finger or two. Any unpaid volunteers?
Larpers hate it when you ask them to join the shit brigade/bathroom cleaning.
fight tankies, I guess.
Where is the line here? Art, music or writing fiction? Anything that isn't needed to keep 20 people alive? Or are we talking a society that is more than just surviving? Want to keep people tired and dirty, that's a good way make them shut up and submit I guess. I'm making my own commune, with black jack and hookers.
Entertainment can be labor. If someone is explicit and consistent about a tarot reading being just a game of make-believe then I suppose it's fine, but I doubt most people who would do tarot readings professionally would be about to pull it off with at least winking at their audience.
Entertainment (and the arts) would probably not have a large central component. I imagine many more people would engage with arts than today thanks to shorter work weeks. Set building and performances and the like would probably occur on a more local level.
There's definitely something cool about seeing a blockbuster movie with special effects, or an artistic film that makes deep points while showcasing actors at peak talent.
However, humans had oral tradition and just like people in robes acting for a long time. Our brains are probably better off with some storytelling that requires a little internal imagination and thought.
I guess what I'm getting at is, on my ideal commune the arts would be hobbies for everyone to enjoy and play a part in as they wish, not a "job" that constitutes pulling one's fair share.
That's the beauty of communes. It's up to the group to define what's acceptable.
that sounds like a government but without the extra steps. i'm in
Except that you can't just grab your stuff and leave your country to go join another country at will.
If there's a version of communism that works, it's definitely at the scale of a town or smaller where you can voluntarily leave whenever.
Yeah, I've always liked the idea of a town where we mainly just pool resources together. Buy products we can't make on our own in bulk. Communal resources. Provide services within the commune for some kind of metered access to the resources, or live basically, etc. Still have your regular remote slog, have some sort of income pooling. Definitely seems like some kind of idealist utopia though, and the bigger it gets, the more complicated it gets, and the potential to represent some of the worst parts of society increases, like HOAs, government, insurance, etc.
I mean also it has to actually work sustainably, or else it'll just collapse and everyone will diasporate to other communes lol
I think I'd like to design the dodgy ad-hoc series of aqueducts that bring water from the nearby river to the commune. It will be like a daily task of building Rube Goldberg machines.
The Political Officer has conscripted you... to also make Rube Goldberg machines that smack Astrolgers and Psychics upside the head. Not a bad gig!
My dream job is that post I noticed the other day about "white guy doormen in Japan who greet women with hello princess!"
Either that or the "Loud American" position also in Japan that tells the boss they're doing something stupid. I seem to have recently developed a thing for Japan apparently lol
Image Transcription: Twitter Post and Replies
ascended dr. jade phd😇, @_jad...
whats your job on the leftist commune??
im gonna be leading discussion on theory some days, making clothes from scraps other days, and making lattes whenever needed.
Amtrak-Bidenism🚂🧭, @man_di...
political officer that beats the shit out of all the people who think reading tarot cards is labor
Good human! A Political Officer will not be visiting you anytime soon
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