Compelled by law to trivialize their culture... market value is externally reduced to restrain the potential harm of open fraud. Meanwhile property and construction services are allowed and encouraged to service religious institutions every day without any attempt to meaningfully rein in the consequences of their bazaar behaviour.

The reason for the law? It hurts communities and economies when too many people purchase irrationally. Economies will literally collapse if the substantive producers are starved while consumers get pied pipered into self-destructive purchasing. Modern economies can take a lot but there is a point where nothing can sustain the waste. We’ve seen this happen in every socialist country and much of the Middle East.

Very little is said about once prosperous neighborhoods being harmed by too much religious activity; warping the local culture. The entire message gets high-jacked by supremacists. Too much of anything is bad. How many businesses have to go under before we acknowledge this reality? Challenge is healthy, but overwhelming disruption is the very thing our government is supposed to protect us from. Why do we pay taxes otherwise?

Where is the balance? We don’t like cults because they destroy lives. Nobody questions the problems with Waco or the Manson “Family”, but what do we do when a mainstream religion does the same kind of damage? So many iconic destinations have disappeared in the last few years. Sometimes the result of well intention-ed belief hurts people.

“Heksenfluit” — Witch flute, with Death’s head & rat leg (1850) (Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp, Belgium)

Psychics don’t generally mean any harm. Very few actively exploit or criminalize.

Many think of themselves as affordable psychologists. Some people just need to be listened to and if crystals and multi-coloured lamps help set the mood then who are we to get in the way.

I don’t like people claiming they can talk to the dead any more than you do, but there are worse things in life. Especially while other equally fictional belief systems are allowed to sell all manner of lunacy every day. What is cable news if not 24/7 bullshit for profit.

The fact remains that like it or not it is illegal to make money off claims of supernatural powers and yet a new mosque or cathedral is built every day. Bending entire markets; lots of money being made by some. So to be fair, even though psychics are just as fictitious as religion…

They should be allowed to sell their services and crystals and bobbles without claiming “entertainment only”. By not allowing them to do what religion gets away with every day we are legitimatizing discrimination.

Psychics are a gender in essence. A form of trans identity. We need a new pronoun for the Psy gender or the kids won’t understand any of this...

How about right beside “vis” we put “wic”.