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"There's a secret cabal of beings that are making my life personally miserable" is already a common enough position that cyclically occurs in human history ever

"There's a secret cabal of beings that are making my life personally miserable" is already a common enough position that cyclically occurs in human history every hundred years or so that I don't think it's a fiction. I don't think it's an untenable premise to suspect that toxoplasmosis pandemics are cyclically-occuring in humans already and are responsible for revolutionary periods and/or imperialism. What people might find unpalatable is the idea that parasitic infection could determine so fundamentally political beliefs and ideology, but consider that the idea of not cleaning your hands directly led to disease was considered literal insanity (see the tragic history of Ignaz Semmelweis) prior to germ theory. Sometimes it's the smallest catalysts that cause the largest changes. For the want of a nail...

hindsightbias 4y ago
“Cats began their unique relationship with humans 10,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, the geographic region where some of the earliest developments in human civilization occurred ” Correlation or causation?
- treis 4y ago
  Surely causation. Farmers store crops which attract rodents which attract felines. Wild cats that mind their manners do better in this environment. Eventually wild cats become the kitty cats we know today.
  - wpietri 4y ago
    I think they were suggesting that causality could run the other way.
    - shkkmo 4y ago
      That wild cats infected humans so that humans would develope agriculture that would attract rodents for the cats to eat? That hypothesis doesn't seem very plausible...
      - wpietri 4y ago
        That civilization bootstrapped due to brain chemistry changes via human/cat association.
      - klipt 4y ago
        This catspiracy goes all the way to the top!
      - klyrs 4y ago
        Cat infects human A, who feeds cat in a fit of unprecedented affection. Human B sees another human with a cat and wants to be their friend. Repeat until cat friend puddle is too large for local flora to sustain. Human Z invents agriculture, attracting rats. I'm not sure this is terribly plausible, but I do have a cat on my lap.
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> consider that the idea of not cleaning your hands directly led to disease was considered literal insanity (see the tragic history of Ignaz Semmelweis) prior to germ theory I was under the impression that it wasn't so much that people considered the idea insane, as that they hated Semmelweis and were therefore strenuously opposed to anything associated with him.
californiadreem 4y ago
The Article: > Wolves infected with a common parasite are more likely than uninfected animals to lead a pack, according to an analysis of more than 200 North American wolves1. Infected animals are also more likely to leave their home packs and strike out on their own. From Wikipedia, Toxoplasmosis Gondii ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii ): > Although under-studied, penguin populations, especially those that share an environment with the human population, are at-risk due to parasite infections, mainly Toxoplasmosis gondii. The main subspecies of penguins found to be infected by T. gondii include wild Magellanic and Galapagos penguins, as well as blue and African penguins in captivity.[78] In one study, 57 (43.2%) of 132 serum samples of Magellanic penguins were found to have T. gondii. The island that the penguin is located, Magdalena Island, is known to have no cat populations, but a very frequent human population, indicating the possibility of transmission. From Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the Earth ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kdDeGXUjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kdDeGXUjI ): HERZOG: Dr. Ainley, is there such thing as insanity among penguins? I try to avoid the definition of insanity or derangement. I don't mean that a penguin might believe he or she is Lenin or Napoleon Bonaparte, but could they just go crazy because they've had enough of their colony? AINLEY: Well, I've never seen a penguin bashing its head against a rock. They do get disoriented. They end up in places they shouldn't be, a long way from the ocean. HERZOG: These penguins are all heading to the open water to the right. But one of them caught our eye, the one in the center. He would neither go towards the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony. Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight towards the mountains, some 70 kilometers away. Dr. Ainley explained that even if he caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains. But why? One of these disoriented, or deranged, penguins showed up at the New Harbor diving camp, already some 80 kilometers away from where it should be. The rules for the humans are do not disturb or hold up the penguin. Stand still and let him go on his way. And here, he's heading off into the interior of the vast continent. With 5, 000 kilometers ahead of him, he's heading towards certain death.
JoeyBananas 4y ago
You should go on Joe Rogan podcast and give a lecture on this theory

hindsightbias 4y ago

“Cats began their unique relationship with humans 10,000 to 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, the geographic region where some of the earliest developments in human civilization occurred ” Correlation or causation?

treis 4y ago
Surely causation. Farmers store crops which attract rodents which attract felines. Wild cats that mind their manners do better in this environment. Eventually wild cats become the kitty cats we know today.
- wpietri 4y ago
  I think they were suggesting that causality could run the other way.
  - shkkmo 4y ago
    That wild cats infected humans so that humans would develope agriculture that would attract rodents for the cats to eat? That hypothesis doesn't seem very plausible...
    - wpietri 4y ago
      That civilization bootstrapped due to brain chemistry changes via human/cat association.
    - klipt 4y ago
      This catspiracy goes all the way to the top!
    - klyrs 4y ago
      Cat infects human A, who feeds cat in a fit of unprecedented affection. Human B sees another human with a cat and wants to be their friend. Repeat until cat friend puddle is too large for local flora to sustain. Human Z invents agriculture, attracting rats. I'm not sure this is terribly plausible, but I do have a cat on my lap.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> consider that the idea of not cleaning your hands directly led to disease was considered literal insanity (see the tragic history of Ignaz Semmelweis) prior to germ theory I was under the impression that it wasn't so much that people considered the idea insane, as that they hated Semmelweis and were therefore strenuously opposed to anything associated with him.

californiadreem 4y ago

The Article: > Wolves infected with a common parasite are more likely than uninfected animals to lead a pack, according to an analysis of more than 200 North American wolves1. Infected animals are also more likely to leave their home packs and strike out on their own. From Wikipedia, Toxoplasmosis Gondii ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii ): > Although under-studied, penguin populations, especially those that share an environment with the human population, are at-risk due to parasite infections, mainly Toxoplasmosis gondii. The main subspecies of penguins found to be infected by T. gondii include wild Magellanic and Galapagos penguins, as well as blue and African penguins in captivity.[78] In one study, 57 (43.2%) of 132 serum samples of Magellanic penguins were found to have T. gondii. The island that the penguin is located, Magdalena Island, is known to have no cat populations, but a very frequent human population, indicating the possibility of transmission. From Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the Earth ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kdDeGXUjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7kdDeGXUjI ): HERZOG: Dr. Ainley, is there such thing as insanity among penguins? I try to avoid the definition of insanity or derangement. I don't mean that a penguin might believe he or she is Lenin or Napoleon Bonaparte, but could they just go crazy because they've had enough of their colony? AINLEY: Well, I've never seen a penguin bashing its head against a rock. They do get disoriented. They end up in places they shouldn't be, a long way from the ocean. HERZOG: These penguins are all heading to the open water to the right. But one of them caught our eye, the one in the center. He would neither go towards the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony. Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight towards the mountains, some 70 kilometers away. Dr. Ainley explained that even if he caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains. But why? One of these disoriented, or deranged, penguins showed up at the New Harbor diving camp, already some 80 kilometers away from where it should be. The rules for the humans are do not disturb or hold up the penguin. Stand still and let him go on his way. And here, he's heading off into the interior of the vast continent. With 5, 000 kilometers ahead of him, he's heading towards certain death.

JoeyBananas 4y ago

You should go on Joe Rogan podcast and give a lecture on this theory