Shenanigans and Goings-On

I feel kind of guilty because not only have I been neglecting my own blog, but I haven't been able to dedicate the amount of time that I'd like to in order to join Jason, Stephanie, George, and the rest of the crew in responding to the nonsense claims of some astrologists. They're approaching the five hundred comment mark, and with me missing the last couple of hundred posts, it's going to take me a couple of hours to catch up, with what the current conversation is. Not to mention the time I'm going to need to actually investigate the raping of reality and reason that I'm certain the astrology supporters are engaging in.

Unfortunately, joining the fray is going to have to wait - I have an India Pale Ale that needs starting (I have a 2L WYeast 1098 yeast starter bubbling away for it right now), an Oktoberfest that requires racking from primary to secondary, and a Cream Ale that should be kegged. Well, from the representation that the skeptic side of the conversation has, I'm willing to wager the only thing that I'll be able to supply that is missing thus far would be my not-so-unique brand of snark. Oh well - to the brew kitchen!

Update: Brew day is complete! Now that my beer supply is on its way to being replenished (I still need to drop off my Cream Ale keg for cold conditioning, and to pick up a Pilsner kit), maybe I can head over to Lousy Canuck for some brain-cell destruction at the hands of the Funky Fraud and his rubes, er - I mean, "followers"!

Sagittarius!

I figured that this sort of fits what's been going around here lately. Plus, I'll take any opportunity available to link to a Weird Al song!

Funky Frauds Must Protect Their Financial Interests

Well, it looks like Jamie Funk isn't interested in my attempt to actually discuss astrology instead of insulting each other. He deleted my original post where I entered his contest for a free reading, then he wiped his multiple responses where he took a martyr's pose, stated that astrologers had been murdered and persecuted for centuries by Romans and Christians, then said that it was time for astrologers to "fight back" against the skeptics that wish them harm. Later, he said there would be no way I could ever win his contest, but that I could purchase a reading from him for double the price (his "skeptics special") and he would inform me as to why my life was so pathetic and miserable. In a later post he made a vague threat, stating that my miserable life was about "to get much worse." I then responded by apologizing for my first hostile post in the thread and indicated that if Jamie would come down off his cross, I'd drop the attitude and actually browse a couple of posts that he requested I read. That last response also went down the memory hole.

So, now the dissection: Am I angry? No. How could I be angry about denialists doing what denialists do? I might as well be upset at a flag for flapping in the breeze - it's what the flag was designed to do. What experience can be taken away from this brief exchange? Two things: First, astrologers have thin skins and are quick to break out moderation if they don't like your attitude - even if you attempt to rectify it. They have to protect the sanctuary of their echo chamber, or else risk losing followers, a valuable source of income. Second: When arguing with creationists, astrologers, and conspiracy theorists, always take a screenshot! I checked the Google cached page, and it showed my first prickly post, but not Jamies acidic responses.

I went back to have a look at the progress at the original thread "Dealing with Skeptics and Assorted Trolls" (I'm done linking to the Funky website), and it looks like Jason and George W.'s requests for evidence and/or an explanation of how astrology could work had been met with little more than jeering, insults, and claims that Jason & George are arguing against strawmen versions of astrology. Strangely (but unsurprisingly), when they request correction on their apparently false view of astrology, all they receive are more insults and claims that essentially boil down to, "Science doesn't know everything" and "Astrology is very old, so it must be true!". Things are progressing pretty much exactly as Jason said it would.

The one scary thing to come out of this exchange is how close I came to volunteering my personal information for Jason's intelligent offer for what could be a valuable experiment: he would obtain birth info from five individuals and submit one random person's data to Jamie. Jamie could do a personality chart, and Jason would return it to the five volunteers for review. Each would report back on how accurate an assessment it was of their personality, after which it would be revealed whose birth information it was. It would be an excellent way to see exactly how well Jamie's "art" works (or doesn't, as it would probably be). Of course, it's easy to see why Jamie would never agree to this experiment, isn't it? Falsifiability isn't something a fraud could ever subject themselves to - he has to make sure he only practices his art for those that already believe he has a "gift", so that confirmation bias can "prove" his powers.

I'll wager this is going to end quickly, with a whimper. After which, the astrologists will feel vindicated because they've banned or chased off skeptics attempting to shine the investigative light of science on the quackery of astrology. Then, the astrologers can return to making a comfortable living fleecing the gullible in the darkness. At any rate, considering Jamie's actions thus far, I don't think I'm that interested in proceeding further along with this waste of time.

I'm a troll again!

Well, for the second time in my relatively lengthy (albeit minor) career of posting on discussions around the internet, I've been labeled a troll!

The first time was posting at a Blogging Tory site, owned by a... "colourful" (and more than a little bit racist) gentleman named Neo Conservative (I refuse to link to him). I had tried to engage him (quite pleasantly, at least so I had thought) on a post he'd written that was critical of a neighborhood holding a candlelight vigil for a murdered local child. Instead of responding to my criticism of his opinion, he merely linked to my sparsely-outfitted Blogger account (before I had this blog linked to it), called me a troll, and refused to address my comment further.

This time, I wrote a highly critical opinion on astrology over at Lousy Canuck, where Jason was having a spirited debate with Jamie, a practitioner of that "esoteric art" (I then followed that up with a post here at home.) Obviously, my opinion didn't please Jamie at all, and I have been branded a troll yet again. I was originally determined to stay out of it and merely toss a little invective in from the sidelines, but I think I'll try jumping into the conversation and seeing where it goes. I want to see if Jamie considers me a troll or merely a skeptic.

EDIT: Troll it is! I found a series of snarky little responses to my joining in on Jamie's free reading contest (in which I took what was apparently a joke about levitation as a construction tool seriously - do Poes count against New Age believers?). I was even vaguely threatened in one of his responses (not physically, I'm certain - I think Jamie probably meant he was sending a curse or negative tachyon burst in my general direction.). I tried dropping the hostility-dripping reply I was thinking of and broke out some apology and a touch of humility (but only a touch!) in order to see if I can draw something interesting out of what has mostly been a pissing match between Jamie and I thus far.

People braver than I

Over at Jason's place, he's currently taking on somewhat of a debate with a self-described professional astrologist named Jamie Funk, who, along with his girlfriend Marina, is doing a decidedly poor job of arguing his position against Jason, Stephanie Z, and a few other regular readers of Lousy Canuck.

It's a little confusing to follow, since Jason is attempting to cross-post between his site and the Funk site, since it seems Mr. Funk is doing some editing of Jason's posts, claiming that Jason is playing cut-and-paste on multiple threads on the Funk site.

Jason and his group have my support, since astrology is so obviously ridiculous that I don't think I'd have the patience to deal with the peddlers of such trash. The one thing that I'm realizing is that anti-science is the same, whether it be astrology, creationism, anti-vaccination, or anything else; it takes a lot of work and research to counter the claims of denialists, yet the supernaturalists get to make up any damned explanation they feel like out of thin air to defend their point of view. That said, it could be interesting to watch, should any true discussion evolve out of it.

I've asked the wife to make me popcorn while I dispense a couple of wheat ales from the kegerator. Fun!

EDIT: I've taken a(n admittedly quick) browse of the Funk website, and it seems to be the standard tripe that you'd expect from your run-of-the-mill astrologer/prophet: general and vague predictions of future events (seriously, I didn't see a single mention of a specific event - it's all vague "love could happen" or "violence could be possible" bullshit), coupled with a LOT of "in-depth" analysis of past events, and how the Funk version of astrology "correctly predicted" said events. It's disturbing that people can fall for such obvious fakery, and it almost makes me angry that a comfortable living can be made off of making shit up and dressing it up as reality.

That said, I entered the Funk contest for a free reading. I'd be fascinated to see what kind of predictions they'd make for me. I'll wager that if I was able to wrangle some concrete insights or predictions about my life from them (and I doubt they'd be foolish enough to do so - they do claim to be "professionals") that they wouldn't even be successful to 50%.

Edit 2: Edited to note that Marina is Jamie's girlfriend, not his wife.