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Maybe the plastic is telling us to not worry about the plastic? It's interesting to wonder that if something in the environment did cause widespread cognitive
by Mountain_Skies 2y ago
Maybe the plastic is telling us to not worry about the plastic?
It's interesting to wonder that if something in the environment did cause widespread cognitive impairment, how long would it take for us to realize it was happening?
- iinnPP 2y agoBahahahahahhahahhahHAhaa We wouldn't. Not as a society at least. It would be "fringe conspiracy theories" to say such things to protect big plastic or something. Potentially.
- electric_mayhem 2y agoGood question. I wonder if the Romans knew they were getting dumber from sweetening their food with lead.
- flyinghamster 2y agoNot just the Romans, but anyone over 50, particularly in urban areas, got dosed with plenty of lead as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraethyllead
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoHas anyone plotted the amount of lead in the electorate over time?
- slater 2y agoIt'll be interesting to see as the baby boomers pass away [0] if the political pendulum swings from "rah rah fu got mine, cruelty is the point, suck it libt*rds" conservatism, back to liberalism. It'd give me hope that Tr_mp winning again was just "one last hurrah" of those right-of-center (or by international standards, far-right) in the US. [0] https://incendar.com/baby_boomer_deathclock.php https://incendar.com/baby_boomer_deathclock.php
- JumpCrisscross 2y agoIf one had to pick a single demo that propelled Trump in ‘24, it was young men [1]. [1] https://apnews.com/article/election-harris-trump-women-latinos-black-voters-0f3fbda3362f3dcfe41aa6b858f22d12 https://apnews.com/article/election-harris-trump-women-latin...
- oftenwrong 2y agoLead does not readily degrade, either. It is still in the soil, the dust, our building, our foods, et cetera. People seem to be generally less exposed in each successive generation, however. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/1570 https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/1570
- xyzzy_plugh 2y agoThe best example of this in recent history is probably lead. This sort of thing is likely to be multigenerational. If you ask the average person today why we stopped putting lead in gasoline (or why we started, but I digress) I doubt you'll get a consistent or correct answer. I've no doubt the same could be said with respect to these plastics in fifty years.
- yapyap 2y agoWhy we stopped, health. Why we started, can’t be anything other than profit.
- titzer 2y agoDon't forget the part where we tried really hard to stop but denial and corruption meant we kept at it for decades too long.
- snozolli 2y agoWhy we started, can’t be anything other than profit. It was a technical issue. The lead prevented valve seat wear. IIRC, Honda was the first manufacturer to use hardened valve seats that didn't need lead. So, ultimately, you can say that it was profit, but then every human activity can be reduced to profit and it no longer means anything.
- mistrial9 2y ago> It was a technical issue. The lead prevented valve seat wear. no, that has been debunked. see https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/secret-history-lead/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/secret-history-lea...
- snozolli 2y agoHow does that article debunk anything? Yes, lead has anti-knock properties. There are other ways around knock, including chemicals that are described in your link. There was no way around accelerated valve seat wear until hardened valve seats became universal, which finally happened because lead was being banned.
- darth_avocado 2y agoPlastic waves its hands: “this is not the plastic you’re looking for”
- blooalien 2y agoThat only works on the weak minded...