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Perhaps past lead usage in fuels will indirectly lead to collapse of the civilisation: Lead is known to decrease empathy and increase crime. I don’t want to g
by DethNinja 5y ago
Perhaps past lead usage in fuels will indirectly lead to collapse of the civilisation:
Lead is known to decrease empathy and increase crime.
I don’t want to generalise an entire generation but boomer generation was heavily poisoned by lead and perhaps this made them more selfish and less emphatic. Maybe this is the primary cause of many current problems? I wonder if humans were supposed to be more emphatic in past before all lead poisoning happened.
- Buttons840 5y agoMaybe, but the events that proceeded the boomers weren't always empathetic. [Rephrased] Was leaded gasoline being used in WW2? I presume so?
- mschuster91 5y ago> Were Nazi's eating lead for breakfast or something? German here. The root cause for Nazism was not just a widespread acceptance of antisemitism, but especially the economic hardships following WW1 that gave rise to populism. A poor and desperate population is always liable to fall for a skilled demagogue.
- watwut 5y agoAnd loss in WWI which was considered unfair along with wish to report it and win this time again. Stab in the back myth, the militarization of all government services and so on and so forth. The antisemitism was not unique to Germany. It was all around the Europe for centuries.
- fullshark 5y agoCrime rates have fallen historically until COVID. I think it's more likely the post WW2 and post Cold War (perceived) eras were periods of irrational exuberance culturally in the west with uncommon optimism in western lead globalism and its future (What you consider civilization I take it). The last few years were a big time reality check on the collective interest in that future.
- ch4s3 5y agoThe rate of violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991 in the US. Even with the COIVD bump, rates are comparable to the mid 60s, and aren't tracking the previous climb.
- gordian-mind 5y agoWhat's the big change that happened in the 60s and started this trend?
- ch4s3 5y agoA lot of baby-boomers started reaching the prime age for committing crime all at once.
- discardedrefuse 5y agoAccording to the article: Leaded gasoline consumption rose rapidly in the early 1960s and peaked in the 1970s. As a result, Reuben and his colleagues found that essentially everyone born during those two decades are all but guaranteed to have been exposed to pernicious levels of lead from car exhaust.
- gordian-mind 5y agoSo lowering the general IQ in a society by a few points means an explosion in crime?
- mark-r 5y agoI don't believe it is the decrease in IQ that causes the crime, rather that both effects are correlated because they have the same root cause.
- DFHippie 5y agoIs this a rhetorical question? Leaded gasoline.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kixiQu 5y agoFWIW the article is claiming Peak Lead would be Gen X.
- fallingfrog 5y agoYes- older gen x and the youngest boomers.
- rootusrootus 5y agoIs there any reason to believe that post-boomer generations are more empathetic? If anything, it feels as though empathy has been decreasing across the board amongst all age groups as time goes on, right up until the present. Maybe the Internet is stronger than lead.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoThis is untrue. The "rome collapsed because of lead" revisionary history is bunkum.