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Feminism and Astrology
(hexbear.net)
I don't understand why there are so many people who consider themselves "Marxist feminists", but at the same time are distracted by astrology.
The origin of feminism is working class, and as a working class movement, it is materialist. I don't know if they at least know what dialectical materialism is, since they don't see such an abysmal contradiction between astrology (pseudoscience) and feminism (materialism).
They remind me of the liberal “feminist” Gloria Steinem.
And the same with some anarchists.
What do you think about it?
I wouldn't necessarily say it's a feminism thing. I think it's a millenial/zoomer thing more than anything. It's sad seeing BS like that get normalized, like, how are we accepting people saying "yes, I actually believe that the positions of given stars and planets affect people's personality and my future"? That's 100% against materialism and against the scientific method.
By "how are we accepting" I don't mean "let's oppress these people", just I think we should collectively adopt the same reaction to it, as if an adult told us about the tooth fairy coming.
Do you do the same thing to all religious people too? Aggressively condescend to them? What about Indigenous spiritual mysticisms?
If not, why are you targeting one vs the others, when there's no materialist or scientific method reason to believe any of them are more or less true than the others in reality? This is worth analyzing.
If so (or you concluded to do so), don't. Comrade, we don't need a rehash of the insufferable petulant reddit atheists in the world, let alone in the socialist movement. And most of those reddit atheists all became gamergate CHUDS, which is a logical conclusion of this kind of chauvinist attitude. and because astrology is in general a heavily femme-leaning and trans-leaning mysticism/spirituality, there are certainly these implications that we absolutely do not need to reinforce. We do not need to have men condescending to people's spiritual beliefs out of a misplaced superiority, when I am certain you tell yourself just as many lies to get through the day as any religious person does. So do I. And I've worked with 'witchy' marxists who have put more into the struggle than you or I combined.
Your attitude is not as mature and grounded as you think it is, but more importantly, it's not just counterproductive but actively reactionary to decide to be alienating and spiteful toward others and advocate that "we should collectively adopt" these petulant and petty attitudes towards peoples' personal beliefs. I'm more of an absurdist, but if someone reacted to me sharing deeply held beliefs of mine with them in the way you are advocating, I might punch them in the mouth. And they would deserve it.
I don't actually do that because it's a fringe position that would most likely get me shunned, but yes, I think we should be consistent in our treatment towards anti-materialist beliefs, and by this, I mean claims towards the effect of "metaphysical" things such as deities or mysticism in the material reality. And it's an important distinction to me.
The posture shouldn't be condescending towards religion in general, but towards actual material claims derived from religion. You wanna observe Ramadan, or you don't wanna eat pork, or you don't wanna have sex before marriage, or you want to believe that grandma is watching you from above? Go off. These are at best tangential to material reality, and they're more of a cultural system of moral beliefs and traditions, which is absolutely fine and we should fight to preserve.
When it comes to claims on the material reality from anti-materislist beliefs, it's different, and it promotes illogical and unhealthy thinking patterns towards our world. Don't go telling me that there's gonna be a deluge if we don't do X because a deity claims so, or that the stars claim I'm gonna have a shitty Tuesday, or that my palm reads that I'm gonna cheat on my wife. Those are strong, anti materialist claims, that in my humble opinion, a rational society should discourage. By discourage I don't mean "let's forbid these practices entirely", but rather let's not show them on media and newspapers, and most importantly, let's ban people from profiting through these activities. Do you think it should be legal that a fake practitioner tells your grandma that for just $2000 they're gonna give them a massage and a concoction of herbs that will cure her cancer?
Your two last paragraphs boil down to "don't be a condescending petulant Reddit atheist gamer chud". My point isn't "abandon every mystical and religious aspect", it's "let's avoid anti-materislist thought that actively makes claims on reality". I'd understand you'd want to punch me in the face if I told you to burn your religious book and abandon your cultural practices, I wouldn't understand you wanting to punch me in the face if I told you "believing that my personality is X because the stars say Y is idiotic"
People have the ability to contexualize. Revolutions have been won by people who believe a god controls everything. They still found the motivation to act with a group of humans for their material needs.
Your problem is one of priority. I agree these things aren't material, but it truly matters so little. Astrologists still protest, christians still read marx.
I think you should analyze why these specific beliefs cause you so much anger that you call your comrades on this forum idiots.
Calling an attitude idiotic doesn't equate with calling someone an idiot. I've made plenty of comments and a few posts in this community, and this is the first time that I remember that I'm discussing anti-materialist belief, feel free to check my profile and decide for yourself whether it seems like a priority to me.
Revolution is my main goal, but it's not the only goal. Beyond revolution, I want the world to be a better place in many other senses. Revolutions have also been won by majorities of anti-LGTBQ people, that doesn't mean we can't do better than that. Communism can be queerphobe, I just don't want it to be. I also don't want it to support anti-materialist beliefs and behaviours.