[THREAD]
1/24
Just received this on WA. Claim is, a 14 year old astrologer named Abhigya Anand had predicted the pandemic a year and a half before it showed up. As always, plan is to rain some facts on this miserable hindutva circle jerk. Read on...
2/24
Claim: A viral pandemic will blow up in Mar 2020 and will kill 20% of all humans by May end. Boy had made these predictions 1.5 years ago on a YT channel called "Conscience."

Here's the video in question:
3/24
It's a 21-minute gig, dead boring and with terrible audio, but I'd still suggest you give it a listen before proceeding if you can afford the time. If you can't, don't worry, you'll get a blow-by-blow account right here in this thread anyway.
4/24
So first things first, the entire 15-min rant (balance 5 mins being Hindu translation of the same thing) is about predicting wars and bad economy. No mention of any pandemic whatsoever. Words like tension, Jupiter, and eclipse have been repeated ad nauseum.
5/24
So what DOES he say then? Like I said before, wars and economy. Here's a blow-by-blow:

Kid starts off with "dangers to the world between Nov-2019 and Apr-2020." The video is uploaded on August 22, 2019. This date is important, make a mental note of it.
6/24
What dangers? "Tensions and troubles in nations to the northwest of India." Then he follows it up with "Iran is to the northwest on India and it's been in a big tension as we've seen over the past 2 months." Well, kid, that's current affairs, not astrology.
7/24
"Pakistan has also been in trouble. Afghanistan also has been in trouble."

Sure, they've been in "trouble" for years now, what's the astrology in this again? Also, buy a thesaurus. There's alternatives to "trouble," you know, mix it up!
8/24
2:40 is the point where he finally starts giving "predictions." To reiterate, the window he gives for these is Nov-2019 through Apr-2020. Today is April 16, so just 2 more weeks for his predictions to come true. Let's look at them one by one. How has he done? Let's see...
9/24
"Iran will go to war with the US"

Which war? When? Iran may have a million issues to deal with right now, but an imminent war doesn't seem to be one of them. At least not for now. Nor over the next 14 days. As for "tension" with America, well, it's been on since the 80s.
10/24
"India-Pakistan war."

Again, sensational much? Sure there's cross-border skirmishes, a terrorist killed here, a jawan killed three, but...what exactly is new about all this? And what are the odds of the two nations going to war in the next 14 days? Or 365?
11/24
Then he goes on to give the odds of an Indo-Pak or Iran-US war. Exactly 99%. On what grounds? How do you calculate the probability of a war? Okay, you may if you have all the variables that could trigger it but am sure Jupiter and Saturn don't figure amongst those.
12/24
Not only these two wars, but he even slips in a WW3. Kid sure is high on hormones.

"Gold prices will see a big hike on Nov 4."

Well, gold on...

Sep 4: $1,546/oz
Oct 31: $1,511/oz
Nov 4: $1,509/oz
Nov 12: $1,452/oz

How's that for a "big hike"?
13/24
"Along with gold, other commodities will also rise in price. Silver, oil, gas, everything will rise powerfully."

So Brent crude price per barrel...

On Oct 31: $ 59.30
On Nov 4: $62.52
Today: $27.95

Looks like a "powerful rise"?
14/24
Also, gold typically runs with inflation. Oil, against it. The keyword here is typically though. What this means is that it's rare for both gold and oil to rise or fall in price simultaneously. That's why today, gold is getting dearer while oil, cheaper.
15/24
Oh, he also mentions silver prices. Let's see...

On Nov 1: ₹41/g
On Nov 4: ₹41/g
On Nov 12: ₹39/g
Today: ₹38/g

"Powerful rise," again?
16/24
By the 7:25 mark, kid's uttered the word "tension" at least a dozen times over. Then he goes on to vaguely predict "bomb blasts and what-not, dangers, etc. will happen" around Mar 31. Why? Because "Mars and Saturn in very close conjunction," whatever it might mean.
17/24
Oh and also war, of course. The way this kid predicts wars, you might wonder how much time he spends on PUBG each day. Now I need not point out that 16 days since his deadline, there's been no war and no Hiroshima-like (yeah, he was specific like that) bomb blast.
18/24
His March 31 prediction again repeats the hike in gold and oil prices. Oil price at the moment is in the 20s, the lowest it's been in 16 years, over 65% below what it closed 2019 on.
19/24
"INR, USD, all major currencies of the world will come crumbling and start losing their value against gold."

Ummm...but that's not how currencies work. It's a zero-sum game. One rises, another falls. INR fell, USD rose.
20/24
Also, we don't value our currencies against gold anymore. Most modern economies abandoned the gold standard decades, if not centuries, ago. Currencies today are mostly valued against the American dollar, the denomination of choice for international trades.
22/24
As mentioned in the previous tweet, Abhigya also predicts a bad phase for Indian aviation around March 31, 2020. But then, this sector has been bleeding for a while already. Who needs astrology and planets to say it's looking bad? https://www.bloombergquint.com/charts/worlds-fastest-growing-aviation-market-is-slowing
23/24
From the 10-minute mark onward, he vomits a bunch of woo-science a la @SadhguruJV. "India is a hotbed of energies...India is the center of the world...all countries are in different directions from India...Hindu scriptures are scientific...atheism causes all problems."
24/24
I don't think anything uttered during these last 6 minutes of the video warrant debunking. Some claims are just too fantastical to even bother refuting.

So go ahead, watch the video, and should it ever land in your WA, use this thread to exorcise.
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