Boomers are missing 800,000,000 IQ points as a consequence of lead poisoning.
Genuinely speaking, low level lead poisoning is linked to increased aggression, criminal behavior and lack of empathy. It may be directly tied to the reason we so rarely see serial killers now, but they were relatively prevalent in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. This is at the height of pollution related to leaded gasoline. It might explain Boomer and Xer MAGA conservatives too.
serial killers just don’t make the news…for fucks make mass school shootings don’t even make the news anymore
What explains the Milennial and GenZ Trump bros?
Microplastics.
The internet
Is this why we can’t have nice things?
Blasted interwebs…
While it can be comforting to find something external to blame, assholes have always existed. You don’t have to look farther than human nature to explain their behavior. In fact, doing so can in some ways prevent us from fully understanding the problem. We can’t combat it effectively if we don’t understand it.
Reducing it down to a vague concept of “human nature” is shortsighted and ignores the science into environmental factors that affect human behavior on a societal level. There is no one, singular “human nature”. We are products of our environment and our upbringing.
They never said assholes don’t exist. They said there were more cases of violence and serial murder due to the increased level of lead exposure.
You don’t have to look further than the surface, no, but neglecting to do so is just myopic and willfully ignorant behavior. It’s hilarious that you then end it by saying we can’t fight it if we don’t understand it. We can’t understand it if we don’t study it and the factors that influence it.
Cool, so all we need to do is keep lead exposure to a minimum and in a generation fascism won’t exist, right? If you’re agreeing with the statement “lead exposure explains Boomer and Gen X MAGA conservatives” then something along those lines must be what you’re trying to say.
And you said I’m oversimplifying things, sheesh.
I wonder what unforeseen consequences await our micro plastic brains!
My gawd! This whole situation makes so much more sense to me now.
You’re body
Haha, perfect! Man, it’s the little things.
I mean… It’s still technically correct. You are body. 🤷♂️
No YOU ARE BODY!
We are all body!
Comrade, together it’s our body.
The real body was the friends we made along the way.
Add nice leaded gasoline puffs to that leaded water, and you get big beautiful lead poisoning
Fun fact, basic ethanol works excellent as a fuel additive to reduce knocking, but because it’s already a well known compound, fuel companies couldn’t patent it as an additive, that’s why they invented leaded petrol instead, so they could patent it.
(E: For full completeness, it should probably also be noted that potential legal difficulties surrounding reliably obtaining or producing industrial quantities of Ethanol alcohol in prohibition era America probably also played some role, but the patent thing was definitely the main reason)
I got a solid few years of leaded gas fumes in me when I was born. I’m fine!
Tap for spoiler
No, no I am not.
I was 13 when leaded gas finally went away. I am fine.
Now kids growing up in houses with peeling or oxidized lead paint OTOH… Ooooo, that shit killed and maimed…
and we still have lead water pipes all across the country…
We just got a letter from our water company that the part of our outside line they own may or may not be lead-based. And that they are not sure about the part we own. They also have no current plans to investigate or replace the part they own unless we decide to replace the part we own. Then we need to call them to coordinate the installation.
Unbelievable.
It’s very rare anymore that you find lead pipes in houses - even old ones.
Modern water supply pressures being what they are means that the pipes mostly have failed. Going on almost 60 years now since the “old school” leaded piping was made and used. Lead was used because it lasted longer then iron or copper, - but not THAT much longer.
Leaded pipes usually would get brittle and crack.
I grew up in a few places where the pipes were old and the standing rule was ALWAYS let the water run for a few minutes before you got some to drink, as you were bringing in fresh water that wasn’t going to have much leachate in it.
Also, the cracks in the lead pipes would get bacteria in them and the water would just smell and taste metallic.
You can have copper pipes and the solder to join it will have lead in it. Some of that still exists because it wasn’t until the late 80’s/ early 90’s that all lead was finally banned from plumbing materials.
After the mid-60’s that was where the main “new plumbing” source of lead leachate into water supplies in homes came from - not so much pipes anymore so much as the solder used in valves, faucets and joints.
Thing is, you can STILL buy leaded plumbers solder (50/50 its called), but it’s used for HVAC, sheet metal applications and wastewater - NOT supply.
You’re more likely to come across old leaded paint in houses that long ago had the plumbing redone. The ceilings, walls and trim - well that just got covered over with a nice new coat of paint.
Lead poisoning
Ain’t nothing wrong with drinking from the water hose
Well, no, but its not the hose that’s the problem - it was the lead pipes.
Also many cheap hoses have lead in them that leach into the water. Lead in hoses help keep them bendy in the cold.
The devil we always were taught about was the leaded paint that was peeling and oxidizing on the ceilings. Lead white to this day is still a nightmare for anyone doing restoration work on older homes. Not even painter’s bane - calcimite (calcium white) is as problematic and THAT shit makes me want to scream and pull my hair out when I encounter it.
And public water is even worse now in most of America.
