I’m hoping the microplastics will coat the lead, but I’m probably not being realistic about it…

I expect it’s mostly us older folks who grew up during the leaded gasoline era.

Sure does explain a lot.

That explains why in 2019 40% of Americans believed in young earth creationism.

You only get the micro plastics to electroplate the lead if you got your 5G turned on.

Yep.

The average lead-linked loss in cognitive ability was 2.6 IQ points per person as of 2015. This amounted to a total loss of 824,097,690 IQ points, disproportionately endured by those born between 1951 and 1980.

Boomers and X’ers.

During the peak era of leaded gasoline in the United States, which ran from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the average blood–lead level (BLL) for the general US population was routinely three to five times higher than the current reference value for clinical concern and case management referral (3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood) (3–5). Consequently, millions of adults alive today were exposed to high levels of lead as children. While these exposures were deemed harmless at the time, animal studies and epidemiological evidence accrued in the intervening years reveal that such exposures likely disrupted healthy development across multiple organ systems (particularly the brain, bone, and cardiovascular systems), resulting in subtle deficits to important outcomes, such as cognitive ability, fine motor skills, and emotional regulation (6), that may influence the trajectory of a person’s life (e.g., their educational attainment, health, wealth, and happiness). These deficits largely persist across time and, in some cases, worsen (7, and are now hypothesized to put individuals at risk for difficult-to-treat chronic and age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease and dementia (9–11)

I have been saying for a decade now, 90% seriously, 10% jokingly, that a reason why you see ‘Karens’, Boomers have baby-like tantrum breakdowns way before something like dementia would be setting in, is significantly due to many of them having lead poisoning, because they match the symptoms caused by it.

… and such people usually have an extremely immature, flippant or rude reaction when you say that to them.

Oh well, I’m sure the millenials are killing the blissful wrathful ignorance industry as well.

No, America was founded by corporate towns, but it was religious fanatics that really swollen its ranks.

Yes, the Baby Boomers have extreme lead poisoning. The leaded gas got slowly phased out and then basically banned in all but a few stations in the 1990s. Gen X likely has mild to severe lead poisoning

I think you’re missing the point. The number of people in America who believe in young earth creationism is rising pretty steadily.

Some of that has to do with things like poor education (the education system deliberately being undermined).

Some of it has to do with environmental factors like lead in paint or gasoline.

Some of it has to do with religious nut but jobs grifting.

Some of it (maybe a lot of it at the source) has to do with capitalism.

But my comment was sarcastic. As in, I know there’s other reasons, but I’m sure that at least some of these young earth creationists are ate paint chips as kids.

I did not know creationism was on the rise. What a grim turn of fate.

Yeah. God I’m tired of this timeline.