“Oh my God, you must be a Scorpio. Scorpios are soooo luke-warm on astrology!”
I like it when a belief system can take the objections of non-believers and use those objections (or the fact that they are objecting at all) as further evidence for the correctness of their belief. It’s a pretty effective way to belittle counter-arguments if you can pull it off.
Last night I was wondering if astrology, that king of spurious beliefs, had such a mechanism in place. I imagined a dialogue like this taking place:
“I feel like an idiot for asking this, usually I can guess it every time, but I’m getting a real mixed-up vibe from you. So I give up. What’s your sign?”
“My sign? You believe in astrology? I hate that shit.”
“Oh my God! You must be a Gemini. Geminis hate astrology!”
If she happens to be a Gemini, you might have a duped convert on your hands. Otherwise, there’s no loss, because she already didn’t believe in astrology.
But wait. Even if she’s not a Gemini, you don’t have to give up. Let’s say she responds like this:
“Oops. Nope, sorry. I’m actually a Capricorn. Guess that proves astrology is a complete fraud, doesn’t it?”
“Oh that explains it,” you could say, saving face. “Capricorns hate astrology the second most of all the signs. But I didn’t guess that for you, because a lot of times Capricorns are really into astrology. Capricorns are very conflicted and complicated, actually. Many of them start out hating astrology, but then change their minds and love it more than any other sign. I wonder if that will happen to you.”
Probably won’t fool anyone, but that’s better than throwing in the towel right away. Besides, even if she doesn’t buy any of it, you know that the only reason she doesn’t believe in astrology is that she’s a Capricorn miraculously infused with some Gemini tendancies.
6 years ago