#1
It was supposed to boost the economy, but in reality it only made the state and its citizens poorer, widening inequalities like never before. In fact, there is a consensus among economists, which is rare, that trickle-down economics does not work.
But now we find ourselves with a society where the tax burden was shifted from the richest to the middle class, which has been stagnating ever since. The rich are getting richer, the middle class is being strangled, and the poor are getting poorer.
Forty years later, we are still suffering from this s****y model.
Millions of people around the world put fuel or gas in their cars' tanks without giving it too much thought. But up until 1996, in America, gasoline contained lead...
According to health experts, there is no safe level of lead exposure at any point in life. That's because lead is neurotoxic and can erode brain cells after it enters the body.
“Lead is able to reach the bloodstream once it’s inhaled as dust, or ingested, or consumed in water,” says Aaron Reuben, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at Duke University. “In the bloodstream, it's able to pass into the brain through the blood-brain barrier, which is quite good at keeping a lot of toxicants and pathogens out of the brain, but not all of them.”
Reuben adds that one major way lead can get into people's bloodstreams is through automotive exhaust. This means that anyone born before 1996, when leaded gas for cars was banned, was exposed to "concerningly high" levels of lead.
#2
#3
Reuben was among a group of researchers who investigated the effects of leaded gasoline on Americans. Their paper, titled “Half of the US Population Exposed to Adverse Lead Levels in Early Childhood,” was published in 2022 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The team used publicly available data on U.S. childhood blood-lead levels, leaded-gas use, and population statistics to determine their findings. "From this data, they estimated lead’s a*****t on our intelligence by calculating IQ points lost from leaded gas exposure as a proxy for its harmful impact on public health," explains the Duke University site, adding the researchers were "stunned" by the results.
“I frankly was shocked. And when I look at the numbers, I'm still shocked even though I'm prepared for it," said co-author of the study Michael McFarland, a professor of sociology at Florida State University.
#4
It turned dozens of countries aggressively homophobic that weren’t that way before, and it’s also the leading cause of people being persecuted for alleged witchcraft… in 2025.
It was an American preacher, Scott Lively, who was the main sponsor of Uganda’s infamous “K**l the Gays” bill.
#5
Social media continues to be a weapon for strategic political disinformation and fueling division, not just in the U.S. but also Ukraine post-2014 and several other countries.
#6
The researchers noted that as of 2015, more than half of the U.S. population (over 170 million Americans) had "clinically concerning" levels of lead in their blood when they were children.
"Leaded gasoline consumption rose rapidly in the early 1960s and peaked in the 1970s," Duke Today reported. "As a result, Reuben and his colleagues found that essentially everyone born during those two decades are all but guaranteed to have been exposed to pernicious levels of lead from car exhaust."
This means they're at higher risk for long-term health impairments like reduced brain size. They also have a greater likelihood of mental illness and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood.
But it doesn't stop there...
#7
#9
On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024. 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). link.
Childhood lead exposure may have blunted America’s cumulative IQ score by an estimated 824 million points – nearly three points per person on average, the researchers found.
They calculated that at its worst, people born in the mid-to-late 1960s may have lost up to six IQ points. "Children registering the highest levels of lead in their blood, eight times the current minimum level to initiate clinical concern, fared even worse, potentially losing more than seven IQ points on average," reports Duke Today.
And while dropping 3-6 IQ points might not seem like a lot, the experts warn these changes are "dramatic enough to potentially shift people with below-average cognitive ability (IQ score less than 85) to being classified as having an intellectual disability (IQ score below 70)."
#10
#11
It is said that the average American consumes as much microplastics in a week as there is in a credit card.
Every biome is littered with microplastics. They are in our rainclouds. In the deepest jungles. In the permafrost of both poles. Scientists have found microplastics in the brains of still-born children. It could be our world-ender if we don't stop.
Many countries started adding lead to gasoline in the 1920s. While it improved vehicle efficiency and engine performance, it was proven to be a toxic pollutant, particularly for children. Despite knowing this, governments took a while to act.
Japan became the first country to ban leaded gasoline in cars completely in 1986. Three and a half decades later, in 2021, Algeria became the last country to ban it. And, if you think about it, that really wasn't too long ago.
#13
#14
#15
The show and the media empire it eventually created became a creduluous, uncritical platform for some incredibly stupid and frequently dangerous people/ideas for FOUR F*****G DECADES, like an aircraft carrier that launched a million bastards.
I absolutely despise Oprah and everything she stands for; genuinely believe the modern world would be a better place if Oprah™️ (the media phenomenon, not the person) had never existed.
“Millions of us are walking around with a history of lead exposure,” warns Reuben. “It's not like you got into a car accident and had a rotator cuff tear that heals, and then you’re fine. It appears to be an insult carried in the body in different ways that we're still trying to understand, but that can have implications for life."
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
