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> “The drinking and cooking water for the Tikal rulers and their elite entourage almost certainly came from the Palace and Temple Reservoirs,” wrote Lentz and his colleagues. “As a result, the leading families of Tikal likely were fed foods laced with mercury at every meal.”

This makes me think: what if today's rulers are being poisoned by something making them act like idiots?



> This makes me think: what if today's rulers are being poisoned by something making them act like idiots?

Leaded gasoline! With how old politicians are in the US, they are almost certainly affected.


They're also old enough to have drank tap-water from lead pipes daily for decades (I learned on HN that it was mandatory for building companies in Chicago to install lead pipes until the 70s).


It could be that there is something making our leaders mentally ill, or it could be that only the mentally ill think that they should be leaders.


Greed is a poison. Has been recognized as such for at least 2,500 years.

https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/three-poisons/


Claiming that today’s rulers are acting like idiots seems off topic. And subjective too; even if only because yesterday’s rulers weren’t different.


Or maybe the populace is being poisoned and their leaders need to behave like idiots to control a herd of dumb'ed down and stupid beings.


It's called "social media"


Ha! that's the best theory yet


Imagine people 100 years from now asking themselves "how did they not understand the effect that microplastics were having?"




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