June 13, 2021

The Washington Post publishes a long, flattering article about an astrologer.

Can anything justify this idiocy? The article is "Can astrology make sense of cryptocurrency? Maren Altman and a million TikTok followers think so," so it's in the form of a question, and maybe it's just another quirky piece about social media and cryptocurrency. 

The news is that there are people out there that consume this video, not that the answer to the question in the headline is "yes."

Let's read some of this trash:

In a typical crypto astrology video, Maren reads the birth chart of a particular currency and offers thoughts on its immediate future. She often films herself in front of a brick wall adorned with a red neon sign reading “amor fati,” Latin for “love of fate,” and her language can get pretty colorful at times, befitting her punkish vibe.

In early January, Maren read Bitcoin’s chart, using its creation date, Jan. 3, 2009. “New moon in Capricorn, January 13th, looks big for bitcoin,” Maren says in the video... Though Maren claims in the video that she isn’t offering financial advice, many of the comments on the post suggest some take it that way....

She said a misconception many have is that astrologers believe the planets cause [world] events. It’s more that they believe the celestial positions give us a head’s up as to what might happen. As Maren put it, “we aren’t positing that Jupiter’s sending out … rays to make us spend more money … It’s like how the clock on the wall isn’t making it three p.m. but it might tell us it’s three p.m.”

Yeah, just like the clock.... This could be hilarious, but it's not written as hilarious. It's written as a display of coolness. So lame. And right when it's important to get people tracked onto real science. But — oh! — there's a cute young woman with a punkish vibe being colorful! And WaPo is the dorky old man galumphing after her.

3 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

K writes:

The stars have moved in their positions since most of the currently used astrology texts were written and so the statements about which stars might be influencing events based on birthdates are usually impossible. The stars simply were not in those positions at the actual birth date. So, one question to always ask astrology dupes is what text their astrologer is using. Then you can point out that the stars weren't in the position the astrologer is assuming because the text in out-of-date. This works at waking people up if they haven't been dreaming for too long.

Simple: It's just like a clock.

Ann Althouse said...

Joe writes:

Why aren't all these visionaries and 'seers' ungodly rich?

Not from scamming idiots mind you, but from picking all of the winning lottery numbers and knowing when to buy low and sell high...

Ann Althouse said...

Nancy writes:

"I’m always amused or perhaps bemused is the better word, by all the people I know who believe in astrology yet also love to say “believe the science”."