A goalpost‑moving tactic that demands the target prove their work is not “just astrology.” The perpetrator sets an impossible bar: they insist the target must show empirical validation to standards far beyond what is usual in the field, while simultaneously mocking any attempt as “trying to make astrology scientific.” When the target provides evidence, the goalposts shift to “well, that’s just what astrologers say.” Astroloposting is designed to exhaust and discredit by forcing the target to defend against a category error.
Example: “She provided qualitative data, longitudinal studies, and theoretical grounding; he dismissed each as ‘astrology dressed up.’ When she asked for specific critique, he said ‘if I have to explain it, you’re already lost.’ Astroloposting: a no‑win game disguised as skepticism.”
Fogey/fogy /fougi/ sl. (early 18C+, orig. Scot) old-fashioned, stuck-in-the mud.
Person with old fashioned ideas which he is unwilling to change: Come to the disco and stop being such an old fogey!
You think me an old fogeyand an old tory, his thoughtful voice said. I saw three generations since O’Connel’s time. I remember the famine. Do you know that the orange lodges agitated for repeal of the union twenty years before O’Connel did or before the prelates of your communion denounced him as a demagogue? You fenians forget some things. (James Joyce, Ulysses. Penguin Books,1992. p. 38)