Daily Horoscope for Gemini

Horoscope Cast for Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

by daniel "bud" dowd

Daily Horoscope for Gemini Summary

I hate social justice warriors. Loathe the principle. It’s pretty much the most hypocritical, self-righteous thing imaginable. Take for instance “cyber-bullying”. People hate cyber-bullies. As someone who plays video games, I’ve heard every sort of insult imaginable at some point in my life, people suggesting others perform impossible acts of self-fornication, others suggesting that someone’s mom basically invented the kama sutra, others still imploring people to do the right thing and commit ritual seppuku for their failings in life. The internet is a rancid place (and this isn’t to suggest every video gamer is a huge asshole – most are solid people).

Enter social justice warrior. “We cannot stand for !” “This is an outrage!”. “You are an awful human being and must be stopped.” So, Bud Dowd, as a logical human being sees this: Someone says something mean to someone (or a group of people). The social justice warriors get upset and offended. In turn, they congregate and say all sorts of mean, upset stuff (and in many cases, look for ways to “inflict justice” through a variety of means) to the original asshole. Hold on, back up a second to that last sentence, Bud… So there’s a group of people saying a bunch of mean things to someone, telling them they’re a waste of space and in some cases, try to facilitate some form of downfall upon the person. Wait, that sounds an awful lot like cyberbullying to me!

As is the case with everything on the internet, people are addicted to hyperbole, and anyone that disagrees with you is a. wrong, b. a moron, and c. the entire sanctity of their being shall be judged upon one statement they made one time.

The problem with the above paragraph, with internet discourse, and human interaction in general is that the more this is our basis of social engagement, the more people who actually originated at some middle point on a scale of thought will get pushed further to the extremes. The more people challenge our beliefs in something, the more likely you are to do whatever is possible to reaffirm them (and in the process retain some semblance of self-worth). Basically, if you have a debate with someone on a civil level, with open avenues of thought, people might accept they’re wrong or change their beliefs, or at least move towards a middle ground (or you might drift that way yourself). If you call someone an asshole because they don’t agree with you, they’re going to embrace the thing you called them an asshole for even more.

The next time a fairly noticeable event happens, look at social media, look at the responses, look at the memes people are coming up with. They usually exist on one of the poles of an argument. And if you look deeper into it, there’s usually an undercurrent of self-affirmation attached. “My belief is right”. “I am proud of feeling this way”. “I am expressing validity in myself and my viewpoints.”

Take that point even further. More and more, things are boiling down to yes/no states of existence. People have thoughts on a lot of things. The multitude of thoughts and the multitude of people expressing them create a social construct where it’s exceedingly difficult to interact in a social media space without encountering something divisive, and because there’s only two sides to arguments, you have masses defending one side of an argument, and masses defending the other. Many times this is done in a manner devoid of all couth. Socially, we experience the internet mostly from an individual perspective (just you and your computer or phone), and even if there are others who agree with us, we don’t see or hear them as clearly as we do the people we stare across the “battlefield” at.

Piece that together real quick:

People observe things on an individual level, rather than imagining they are part of a collective

Opposing thoughts stand out more clearly and carry more emotional impact

People see pluralities of others standing up for opposing viewpoints

Basically, in many instances, particularly those involving opposing viewpoints, even if not true at all, people can develop this mindset of “me against them”, which can be daunting, and at its core something that resembles something that’s pretty similar to cyberbullying. At the same time, in most cases it’s a completely made up construct in our minds.

To bring it back to Social Justice Warrior; most of the time, their beliefs aren’t wrong. We should aspire to be better people. We should aspire to be more accepting of all people, regardless of physical makeup or ideological beliefs. However the methodology is flawed, and the concept of shaming others generally only leads to reinforced opposing beliefs and further resistance to social progress. As people we need to reject the hyperbole, we need to reject conservative/liberal alliances, we need to reject dismissal of opposing arguments simply because we don’t agree with them, and instead embrace a truth that is somewhere in the middle, because frankly, the most sensible solution is always somewhere in the middle, and we shouldn’t look at defining events in our country as some sort of dick-swinging contest of who has more self-worth today.

Anyways, I looked at the current chart and saw Mercury and Pluto at odds, and it made me think of the question, “Why am I routinely angry when I’m on the internet?” I think I’ve chipped away some at that through today’s scope. Aside from the above, we’re going to be prone to some resistance to changes occurring in the world around us, and there might be some arguments as a result. Pluto afflicted might lead to some changes we aren’t expecting being inflicted on us, which may come in the form of bad news. On the bright side, Mars and Uranus are hooked up, and while this might lead some to do things which are somewhat crazy, people will generally rebound well from negative incidents, and can generally be more motivated. So while there might be difficulties, we can be super-motivated to come up with new solutions to overcome them. Best of luck.

Bud

The Daily Horoscope for Gemini

The energy can leave you talking a big game, but when push comes to shove, if you’re advocating for changes, you probably won’t be the first in line making them. Others might call you out and it can leave a dent in your reputation. With this in mind, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t worry so much about perceived glory; you probably can’t build much credibility here, but you can definitely lose some. Keep things on real terms.

...Show some Love...

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Today's Astrology Quote of the Day:
Anyone can be a millionaire, but to become a billionaire you need an astrologer...
~ John Pierpont Morgan

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Daily Tao

High virtue is not virtuous
Therefore it has virtue
Low virtue never loses virtue
Therefore it has no virtue
High virtue takes no contrived action
And acts without agenda
Low virtue takes contrived action
And acts with agenda
High benevolence takes contrived action
And acts without agenda
High righteousness takes contrived action
And acts with agenda
High etiquette takes contrived action
And upon encountering no response
Uses arms to pull others

Therefore, the Tao is lost, and then virtue
Virtue is lost, and then benevolence
Benevolence is lost, and then righteousness
Righteousness is lost, and then etiquette
Those who have etiquette
are a thin shell of loyalty and sincerity
And the beginning of chaos
Those with foreknowledge
Are the flowers of the Tao
And the beginning of ignorance
Therefore the great person:
Abides in substance, and does not dwell on the thin shell
Abides in the real, and does not dwell on the flower
Thus they discard that and take this

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