Sometimes we have those little epiphanies in the shower.. sometimes they come from other places. This is a home for those epiphanies.
I don’t think microplastics are having that effect.
It could just as likely be the decrease in airborne Lead following the removal of Lead Paint and TetraEthyl Lead in Petrol has caused people to be much more aggressive.
They still have the brain damage from growing up breathing in heavy metals, but no longer have the soporific effect of heavy metals.
Oh now that's a theory to conjure with!
The impact of micro plastics cannot be studied because there is no control group. Hard to say what microplastics do to the human brain when the researchers might find it hard to form a group without brain plastic
Couldn't you still study populations with more or less plastic, even if "zero plastic" cant be found? Or is the amount of it more or less even across groups?
Throwing in my $0.02, a correlation study is technically an option, where you look at differences as microplastics increase in concentration. But. my instinct is you would see some really unfortunate covariance - that is, another variable that increases (or decreases) at the same time as microplastics and is known to impact your variable of interest, e.g. socioeconomic status.
Would have to use historical samples
The stressors and demands on people a single generation separate are so vastly different that it would not work.
Wouldn't work in a serious scientific study, no. You're absolutely correct. But since we're setting the bar of inquiry at Kennedy levels...?
I'm just trying to put aside my despair for a few minutes.
I am having to admit that human kindness and empathy only extends to one and theirs and to all others only competition and hate, that is the hallmark of humanity. The greatest trick ever performed was convincing anyone that it was ever not thus.
It's probably doing all sorts of bad shit including lowering intelligence in general.
Oh guess what else lowers intelligence: Extreme heat and humidity!
I would like to think so, but humans historically have done some really uncomfortable shit ages before plastic turned up.
I hate to break this to you but this shit level of empathy has been with humans for thousands of years. This is not a new phenomenon. It's not caused by microplastics.
What is new is empowering those without empathy to decide world leaders that have an obscene amount of power. That's a relatively new development for humanity.
Honestly, that's been around forever too, whether by votes or force of arms... Come to think of it, it's mostly the force of wealth and always has been.
The love of money is the root of all evil etc
Probably. There has to be something going on, right? Microplastics are as good a guess as anything else.
Organophosphates
Plastics probably affect hormones though.
Y'all really gonna come up with every excuse for the DNC being garbage?
Regardless of how shitty the DNC is, it seems to defy logic that anyone could support Trump, and yet half of the US does. Because of that, I can see why someone might start thinking there must be some sort of external cause or something.
US self-entitlement.
the land of the free has always had a “more important than every other country” mindset which has infected their citizens with the same selfish mindset.
McCarthyism and subsequent witch-hunts have resulted in such an anti-socialist zeitgeist that it has morphed into an anti-social zeitgeist where any empathy for any other person is seen not only as a weakness, but as also being “Un-murikan”.
Why empathy specifically? If it causes damage, then it's probably global
I'm "trying" to link it to the recent rise of fascism. And general breakdown of society.
You have a point though, a rise in stupidity is part and parcel of the same phenomenon.
recent rise of fascism
I'd look for the reasons to back when fascism has risen in the first place in early 20th century
I mean, we've seen plenty of authoritarianism and facism before plastic was invented, so that seems like a dubious notion
That's why this is in showerthoughts rather than science