“For comparison, American children in the 1970s had average blood-lead-level enhancements of around 15 micrograms more lead per deciliter of blood before the phasing out of leaded gasoline and leaded paints. Their corresponding average I.Q. decline was about 9 points.”
The comparison was with ancient Rome that would have an IQ decline of 2 to 3 points.
Whenever I hear any comparison to the US and the Roman Empire I immediately tune out whatever the speaker has to share. There’s far more differences than there are similarities which are only surface deep. Also I think it’s hubris and an underserved sense of our own importance.
We’ve only been around for a few hundred years, the Roman Empire was around for well over a thousand especially if you count the Byzantine/Eastern Ronan Empire, and we’ve only been on top for maybe 50/60 years so of course we’re just like the most power European empire ever to exist.
The British or even the Spanish Empires are far more worthy of such a distinction.
A number of things all came together to give Trump just some 1-2% more in a few states: inflation, vaccinations, wokeness and a good number more. It’s kind of like the Santa Ana winds promoting fire. They just happened at the right time. Many of those will not be repeated in 2028, so let us look at some factors that DID make him the favorite among MAGA and the undecideds.
Donald Trump is a showman. He liked to be on stage, he likes audiences. He is at home at a Trump Rally. In fact he is still campaigning. He will do this for several months. His major plan to deport all the migrants that he labeled a danger will very likely start in 2025. The cost and details will need to be worked out. Laws covering immigrants have just border partol funding. Not deporting millions.
And he is a con man. None of that was convincing for me. I do not support mass deportations. Since I had no fear of immigrants, I also did not see it as an urgent issue to solve. So how did he create the intense fear of foreigners for tens of millions? Rejection of all culture not your own.
It took me a few books of MAGA type of politics and explanation of the support to learn one thing. The supporters do not see Trump as a politician. Somewhow that makes him on their side. The voters can “smell” a poltician right away, and that is what Harris and Biden are. Politicians who do not say exactly what the voter thinks are on “the other side.”