Uncanny Powers Are a Feminist Issue

[ Rubs amulet, cackles in triumph. ]

Or cranks and woolly headed idiots, as the rest of us call them.
Well, you do have to marvel at the mental processes of someone who believes that the credibility of feminism is somehow enhanced by people who faff about with “potions” and tarot cards.

Witches…pfft!
I’ve got a bucket of water here just for such eventualities. Remember your Patriarchal(tm) training guys and don’t panic!

Make up your mind Guardian.
Oh no. Now I don’t know what to think. We must consult the runes.

Incidentally, the article linked above is displayed by the Guardian as one of its more essential “highlights.”

No, there’s no time to collect your belongings, we must flee to the escape pods.
Relax, David. We’ve weathered these sorts of storms before. Let’s place this on the agenda for next week’s meeting of the Patriarchy, which, as you know, will be held at the Lusk, Wyoming Grange Hall Basement next Tuesday at 6:30 PM, followed by a smoker afterward. Beer and set-ups provided, but you have to bring your own hard stuff.

‘I once had a girl…..’
Tarot, black magic, hated Christians and waay ahead of her time.
Dead now..of course.
‘Leftism’ and Darwin in a new-age spiritual dance.

Does that mean I get to rescind all those recent Amazon purchases through your link?
Luckily, my escape pod has its own escape pod.

Why, it’s almost as if the author is a sheltered millenial with no sense of history, and therefore doesn’t remember the last time this “resurgence” happened.

Autostraddle, a popular left-leaning blog for young queer women, has an in-house tarot columnist.
So many classic sentences…

The Guardian just keeps on giving.
We tend to empathize with our online avatars. So let’s get rid of white emojis
Says it all, really. The woman hates her own kind and has a paid platform to talk about it.

>black people are naturally born SEERS, DIVINERS
Hence their above average stock market returns…

spiritual but not religious
i.e. I’m afraid of death but I can’t be arsed going to church.

Ayn Rand had their number. Mystics of a feather flock together.

As products of the split between man’s soul and body, there are two kinds of teachers of the Morality of Death: the mystics of spirit and the mystics of muscle, whom you call the spiritualists and the materialists […] Selfishness—say both—is man’s evil. Man’s good—say both—is to give up his personal desires, to deny himself, renounce himself, surrender; man’s good is to negate the life he lives. Sacrifice—cry both—is the essence of morality, the highest virtue within man’s reach.

– John Galt’s speech, Atlas Shrugged.
“We tend to empathize with our online avatars.”
Yes, I for one am really beginning to understand how it must feel to be a turquoise Spirograph.

Feel free to demonstrate otherwise, with citations, but when skimming through her commentary, what rather comes to mind is really, really, really, deep level satire…
That’s already several layers too deep into the strata of satire for mere mortals such as myself, though I suppose I can understand how the article could be read as a jibe toward those who take emojis too seriously. For what it’s worth it seems the Guardian have got a lot of mileage out of the topic.

Witchcraft – and the embrace of “magical” practices, like reading tarot cards – has recently experienced a resurgence of sorts among young, creative, politically engaged women.
So next week will the Guardian big up ‘young, creative, politically engaged women’ who believe the earth is hollow?

Comments delve into madness quote fast too.
You may appreciate Larry Correia’s fisking.

Witchcraft – and the embrace of “magical” practices, like reading tarot cards – has recently experienced a resurgence of sorts among young, creative, politically engaged women.
Heh.
Heheheheheheheheheheheheheh.
Heh.
Borrowing from Dicentra, the applicable phrase is, continues to be, and will always be that It attracted only idealists and disaffected romantics when what was needed were people with practical skills, like plumbers, carpenters and engineers.
. . . . . . Rather a number of years back, I was having a talk with a cousin about a number of things that go bump in the daytime that I had started running into with rather great regularity. I commented on meetings and discussions with The Local Experts, the ones who proclaimed that of assorted white light wooga wooga, They—pause here for kowtow—The Great Experts—pause here as well for kowtow— were The Great Experts and So Wise and Have Totally Mastered All, and absolutely most emphatically, based on what I was telling them, the Great Experts Are Not Running Away, Not Running Away . . . .
Or, yeah, out here in reality, when I described actual occurrences that really did happen, the bullshit peddlers™ absolutely ran screaming from the room, screaming denials as they went. And I told my cousin of this, where my cousin has been being the legal next of kin ‘cause she’s the one with the longest memory . . . and that was about the point when she finally blurted out Wai, wai, wait, waitaminnit, I thought you knew all this, didn’t anyone ever tell you the family history??!?!?!?!
I had to remind her why she’s the next of kin and therefore why I had never been briefed. She then explained that, well, the occurrences all happened in my branch of the cousins, rather than hers, therefore I really should have been giving The Briefing, because when she was a very small child, what I was describing was rather well known of . . . at that time . . .
Sooo, umpteen years later after my cousin’s memories, when I got to reinvent the wheel, I did indeed run into Witchcraft – and the embrace of “magical” practices, like reading tarot cards – has recently experienced a resurgence of sorts among young, creative, politically engaged women. . .. and I’m a male of the species, so presumably my personal actual experiences also happen to be total and complete heresy . . according to The Great Experts.
What the white light wooga wooga peddlers—of many varieties and claimed traditions— all want everyone to forget is the absolute gulf between personal religious experience and mere dogmatic faith.
Just because The Bible—pause here for kowtow—proclaims, that don’t make something so. Just because The Wooga Wooga—pause here for kowtow—proclaims, the bullshit also piles up at exponential rates.
. . . any sort of actual practitioner . . . not Great Expert . . is rather likely to toss in lots of disclaimers, and at most will state that you might try X . . . or Y . . . and when it works, Oy, Veh does the message come through—noting here, that I here state of my exemplary personal experience, Your Mileage Will Vary.
So. Tarot decks? I have a few, and a couple of assorted other toys . . . and when using such I state rather emphatically, that I have zero guarantees, let’s see what turns up, Etc.
So there was this one client who wanted a reading, and I tossed cards about and looked up meanings, and scratched my head, and linked this phrase to that concept. Dear client; There is something that you will do alone. You may have others around, you may have others in parallel, you may have others leading or following, but you will work by yourself—and what I explained to this woman was a very clear mental image of not quite a maze, but definitely some space with pillars that only one person could get through at one time . . . parallel., fine, sequentially, fine, but no more than one by one. Some three or four years later, my client announced that he . . . yes, he . . . had completed his first year of his transitioning from female to male.
So there was this one client who wanted a reading . . . about six years ago, and as I recall there was something about her marriage to her husband, oddities, instabilities, really need to have really solid communication or everything falls apart . . or something . . . . where she absolutely confirmed that no, no, no, no, completely wrong, she and her husband were going to be together to death, absolutely stable marriages, no issues . . . . . . I just now did a quick bit of googlemancy . . . the husband is indeed still alive, still at the job he was at six years ago . . the most recent info on the client is that she and her wife of some less than two years or something had settled down at some place near the wife’s new job . . . . . .
I don’t do a lot of assorted readings, but have done ‘em . . . and my personal experience is that A) Oooooh, Yeah, there is a lot of crap, occurrences, what-the-hell-was-that that really does goes bump in the daytime, whether one wants to admit to it or not. B) There is no pattern of ancestry, gay, straight, left handed, purple, chartered accountant, anyone can and does work with the skill set, and definitely and unfortunately, C) because this is not math, where one can simply and clearly write down 2*2=5—no wait, that’s easily verified as wrong . . .because these skills that anyone can have are indeed so personal, Oy+_(*$+*(#+()$&@#$ Veh does the related bullshit pile up exponentially . . . . . . and when it works, Oy, Veh does the message come through.

I would be The God-Steve, and my instrument of divine wrath would be the Ayatollah Fluffy, my Celestial Tabbycat.
Together we would rule the metaverse with an iron fist and a steel claw, and feast only on the finest of cheeseburgers.
How many of Peter’s Evil Overlord items would you implement?
I’d pay to see nos. 9, 15, 29, and 57. Especially 57, because I write user manuals and I’m convinced that no one but no one ever reads them. So I’ll be interested to see such a thing depicted without straining my credulity.

“We tend to empathize with our online avatars.”
Well… yeah. ::snort::

I’m sorry, did I read that right, “anarchist group building”…??? Isn’t that like the Dunkin’ Donuts Weight Loss Group?

You may appreciate Larry Correia’s fisking.
Re the fisking of Ms Bradford, it’s worth remembering that the big-fisted lady, our professional scold, isn’t obliged to be coherent, factually accurate or even sincere. In her circle, among her peers, such attributes would most likely be a hindrance and liability. What’s needed is bad faith. And a willingness to cultivate a kind of neurotic pseudo-piety. The objective is to rationalise and channel an obnoxious attitude, while indulging in that all-important social positioning. It’s about affecting superiority. As we’ve seen many times, it’s what professed egalitarians, warriors for “social justice,” seem to like to do.

“The standard off-the-peg Grauniad Weltanschauung…”
The Left, as exemplified by The Guardian, are full of contradictions. Here’s a simple game you can play with a Leftie; firstly, ask him in feigned innocence what they think of hydraulic fracking. Once you’ve wiped your face clean of the spittle, ask him whether he holds a similar position regarding mechanical fracturing (I can guarantee that about 99% of them fall for that). Clean your face again. Ask a few leading questions about carbon footprints and all that malarkey. Next, it’s Thatcher and mining, so have another tissue handy. Before you know it, you’ll have him arguing that to follow Leftie orthodoxy would mean committing a crime against nature by re-opening the mines, paying people to dig up the coal, and then immediately afterwards burying it again somewhere under the North Sea.

Hal,
Tarot card reading and other semi-charlatans are a sort of psychotherapist, they quite skill fully if dishonestly get women to talk about the things that pain them and women go away feeling happier.
Now I’m not saying it’s not a massive load of bullshit, but it does “work”.

how men can overcome patriarchal conditioning in order to participate effectively in leftwing activism.
So I can’t ‘participate effectively in leftwing activism’ unless I ‘overcome my patriarchal conditioning’? I think I’ll skip the leftwing activism then. ‘Anarchist group building’ sounds a bit shit anyway.

Tarot card reading and other semi-charlatans are a sort of psychotherapist, . . .
Oh, yes, there is a well established set of people with rather definite skills in reading people while shifting cards about. That is indeed a skill, of reading people, only capable if indeed the reader is indeed actually skillful . . .
And there is the immense majority of bullshit piled on bullshit, which is the hipster version of reciting paranormal related phrases, followed by the demand to be acknowledged as The Great Expert . . . . where with the first hint of anyone with any actual skill, the smokescreens and denials start pouring out.
And then there are those who scare the crap out of the posturing idiots, there are the actual readers:
. . . any sort of actual practitioner . . . not Great Expert . . is rather likely to toss in lots of disclaimers, and at most will state that you might try X . . . or Y . . . and when it works, Oy, Veh does the message come through—noting here, that I here state of my exemplary personal experience, Your Mileage Will Vary.
I put down a card one time, and about a minute later then explained what I would describe as a shifting cascade of layers of data that had been arriving, and then arriving and then arriving . . with no idea of the relation to the client, but ohhhh boy was the data there . . . And with the two clients above—particularly the one with the insistent denials—I had no idea what exactly I was describing, I just handed on the info that arrived . . . and then rather awhile later found out about the results.

Bad link, try: http://www.youtube.com >Watch > v = OMJUUOzWyA >

http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=OMJUUOzWyA
Not sure what’s turning your slashes into greater-than signs, but that’s what’s messing you up.

Davey:
I have an entry for your “Peak Guardian” series:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/23/if-britons-want-to-join-isis-let-them-go-london-schoolgirls
The money quote:
“Is it really so hard to discern the attractions of a journey, especially one with an altruistic and religious purpose, to girls who may have led very sheltered lives?”
Note also the mugshot above the article, the head turned to look, slightly angled to suggest superior intelligence and discernment. When, in reality, she’s just another mad old bat at the Guardian.

A recent troubleshooting phone call has reminded me of regional situational pretentiousness and complete cluelessness . . .
Are you in The City?
No, I’m in San Francisco, haven’t been in London in years . . . .

The comments section of the “Don’t read cis white male authors” article led me to this:
http://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/
A lot of good stuff here. Trans* is transphobic apparently. Spell check is telling me transphobic isn’t a proper word. How’s that for transphobia?
About halfway down the page you’ll find a post from a person of some sort lamenting that it’s easier to find large men’s clothing than large women’s clothing. I say person because the author reports being of “butch” gender which seems pretty fast and loose even by the non-cis crowd’s terms.
Also, someone named Kerli is problematic because she had two girls with dreadlocks in one of her music videos. David, I think you’ve commented on racist hair before. I wonder if Jess Zimmerman would applaud those white girls for empathizing with the people of color.

Also, someone named Kerli is problematic because she had two girls with dreadlocks in one of her music videos. David, I think you’ve commented on racist hair before.
Oh yes. And it’s amazing just how often hair is the fuel for bedlamite theatre, a parlour game for the passive-aggressive. You could choke on the accumulated dishonesty of it all.
The list of things found “problematic” is of course extensive. Apparently, just about any fashion acknowledgement of non-Western cultures is “racist” and “appropriative,” even if done to celebrate that culture’s aesthetics at a politically correct fundraiser. And any attempt to disagree with this supposition is itself “racist,” “triggering” and inexcusable. Because everything must be mentally balkanised, categorised, and ranked in a hierarchy of grievance. No woman must ever participate in an “objectifying” photo shoot, regardless of how she, the model, feels about it, and the ladies who choose to model in them should presumably be made redundant in the name of gender piety. The adjective “native” (as in indigenous to a place) must never be used, about anything, at least not by white people. And no non-black Marvel fan is allowed to dress as Nick Fury.
It’s incorrigibly pretentious, but it can be fascinating to watch. It gets very competitive and the rules seem to change very rapidly, in some cases practically by the hour. The object seems to be to catch someone out for using the “wrong” pronoun or adjective, or for failing to add the obligatory politically correct qualifications, which also grow in length and convolution. It’s basically a game of Gotcha! and even the hosts of these tumblrs can find themselves being scolded for the slightest infraction or for not being up-to-date with the very latest Rules Of Pretending™. And scolding is what it’s all about. It’s the pay-off for all that uptight pseudo-piety.
You can imagine the kinds of people, the kinds of personalities, to whom that might appeal.

Would that be Sergeant Nick Fury, leader of the Howling Commandos?
Heh. Quite.