I have been thinking a lot since the election about what could explain the incredibly high numbers of Americans who seem incapable of critical thinking, or really any kind of high level rational thought or analysis.
Then I stumbled on this post https://old.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/16ires5/lead_exposure_from_shooting_is_a_much_more/
Which essentially explains that “Shooting lead bullets at firing ranges results in elevated BLLs at concentrations that are associated with a variety of adverse health outcome"
I looked at the pubmed abstract in that Reddit post and also this one https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5289032/
Which states, among other things, “Workers exposed to lead often show impaired performance on neurobehavioral test involving attention, processing, speed, visuospatial abilities, working memory and motor function. It has also been suggested that lead can adversely affect general intellectual performance.”
Now, given that there are well in excess of 300 million guns in the United States, is it possible lead exposure at least partially explains how brain dead many Americans seem to be?
This is a genuine question not a troll and id love to read some evidence to the contrary if any is available
As an outsider (most people in my country don’t shoot guns for fun, but we still have our fair share of morons) I think not educating oneself/not being educated may be a more important cause.
My personal opinion is that it’s more related to the way people spend (waste) their time. All of us, I mean. The way we (do not) educate ourselves, the way we do (not) value intelligence and knowledge.
That lack of education and an overall cheerful ignorance of all facts that dare not fit their viewpoint, no matter which one it is, seems to me a much more likely cause to explain why more and more people around the world (not just Americans) ‘seem cognitively impaired’. And that’s because, well, they are. Sadly.
We don’t value knowledge anymore, we value money and success. Once again, suffice to ask people: how many essays did you read in the last 12 months? Or to look at kids, how many of them want to be, say, a doctor, a scientist of some sort or, even funnier, a writer? And how many want to become ‘an influencer’ on YT (or TikTok, or whatever) or to become some star singer or sport star?
Kids have not suddenly become allergic to smartness. They’re only the mirror of what our real values as a society are (not the ones we pretend to have). Which are not being smart, not even talented as a matter of fact. They are: easy money and success.
imho, this is the main cause of dumbification going on everywhere. Obviously, I may be wrong and maybe I should stop eating lead bars as a snack?
I didn’t mean to suggest that it was the only explanation, rather that it might help explain some of the phenomenon of the lack of critical thinking that seems so prevalent in america these days, while also sort of flying under the radar as I don’t really notice people talking about it.
There has always been an anti-intellectual portion of the population but it seems to be expanding rather than contracting over time, whatever the reasons.
That Atlantic article is pretty crazy, I didn’t realize the kids these days don’t read books basically at all in school anymore.
Here’s an archive link for anybody else who wants to check it out since its paywalled
https://archive.is/xr5Jd
Neither would I, just wanted to… how do you say that in English… to compare two hypothesis and say that between the two, alas, I think the lack of education (which is closely linked to the anti-intellectualism you mention) may be a more important factor.
And frightening, and sad.
Thx! I did not realize it was now paywalled (I read it a few months ago).
It definitely could be and I appreciate the contribution to the discussion