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They deffo don't
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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Witches VS Patriarchy
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Sorry to go all Godwin's law, but astrology can and has been used as a tool of oppression. Nazi Germany had a state-sponsored astrologer, Karl Ernst Krafft, appointed by Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess and Chief Propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Krafft was employed to write astrological propaganda that justified anti-semitism on the basis of celestial events. He was also tasked with using astrological observations to predict threats to the Führer Adolf Hitler and offer military advice.
Ultimately, it's not the stars and Moon that do the oppression, just whoever is in charge of divining their meaning, which is also pretty much how religious oppression works.
It's almost as if certain types of people want to be assholes but want an irrefutable entity to say it's okay.
Never trust someone else's imaginary friend over one's own.
Here's a thought: go one further. Kill all gods & masters.
We will only be free when the last monarch is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
Repair world hunger with a woodchipper & fertilizer tumbler... Yeet The Rich.
Eh not giving up my kinks, but everyone needs to have the right to say no or it's not fun.
(sorry, the homebrewed anamist theism is too fun right now, and i got a puppy boy that's counting on me so... upvotes for thoroughness and enthusiasm)
Religion is a lot like genitals, enjoy yours in places that people are cool with that happening but only share them with the willing and don't be an asshole just because someone else's are different.
Religion has been the single most detrimental invention of humankind since civilization's dawn.
To the other point, since nearly that same catalyzing point in our history, undying Truth itself can be found in the loving eyes of a goodest boy. (source: my own life has been saved by one on more than a few occasions and ways. 🙇🏼♂️🐕🥰)
Nancy Reagan had an astrologer.
Does he pack a shovel if she calls him?
Changed my verb tense. :)
Reagan too. Basically his whole second term was just his astrologer.
Religion, as in faith in God, doesn't oppress anyone. Religion, the institution, oppresses people. If astrology had a comparable institution, it would absolutely oppress people.
Faith oppresses the believer himself because it requires a willingness to believe in things without proof. It's like saying AIDS doesn't kill people because it merely weakens their immune system. Astrology believers are primed to believe anything, and often get scammed by their astrologers.
Which is accurate. It's the infection or cancer that kills you, like the priest or the astrologer oppresses you. The belief might make you more susceptible to oppression, but it's not what's oppressing you.
They don't understand what I'm saying. Oppression is a specific phenomenon. Becoming susceptible to oppression is not the same thing as being oppressed.
I never said it wasn't dangerous.
Yes. I said that AIDS itself doesn't kill you. In fact these days it's much more manageable with modern treatment. I never said it didn't raise your risk of dying from something else, obviously, that's the main thing it does.
I'd say that tight rope walking doesn't kill you. I used to go to the rock climbing gym all the time, and there was a slack line there constantly being used and I never saw anyone die on it. Tight rope walking isn't all that dangerous, any more than any other moderate athletic act. Tight rope walking 50 feet above the ground is dangerous, but I'd also argue that being on a tight rope 50 feet above the ground is drastically safer than being in the exact same point in space minus the tight rope.
Because that's exactly what this AIDS analogy is ignoring. Yeah, it can easily make an easily oppressed person more materially oppressed if it leads them into the influence of religious oppressors. But it can also be a source of fortitude and resilience against those very oppressors. Martin Luther is a fantastic example, his devotion gave him the resolve to call out the Catholic Church for its oppressive bullshit.
Rubes are gonna be rubes. If it's not a religious institution, it'll be an MLM or an NFT grift or a political party or something. Religion, the faith, isn't oppressing anyone any more than franchise owners or cyber security nerds or political activists. That is the reality of the situation.
Faith in good doesn’t need organized religion. That’s just being spiritual.
This is an area where terminology gets real fuzzy. "Spiritual" is inherently vague and individualistic. I'm referring more to personal faith in a particular sect: read specific texts, pray in a particular way, organize your metaphysical model in line with an established religious tradition.
Generally I don't like to reference specific religious texts, my beliefs are much too syncretic for that, but I was raised Christian, and for all the faults of the various Christian institutions, Jesus himself seems pretty based:
If someone practices Christian dogma that way, I'd be hesitant to call them oppressed or an oppressor. It's still definitely a specific religion, but it's engagement with the emergent power structure that causes the oppression.