What are your favorite ways people have invented idyllic pasts in order to pretend that the present is exceptionally bad?
Show this thread
-
And similarly the idea that native Americans left the land pristine and were therefore a symbol for environmentalism
Show this thread
I have (at least) two beliefs roughly of this form- that a shift from meat-based to grain-based diets caused pervasive nutrient deficiency, and that massive deworming initiatives caused autoimmune disorders and allergies
-
-
Ooh, I hadn’t heard the deworming one? I’ve been reading about the current science on the causes of asthma and autoimmune disorders and my blame-stick lies on antibiotics in <1 yr olds and caesarians
-
Those are also likely implicated- my main source for this is “An Epidemic of Absence” by Moises Velasquez-Manioff
-
Can I register some arms-length skepticism of the C-section hypothesis? I’d love to hear “actually the evidence is pretty good” from the two of you, but it strikes me as prima facie implausible.
-
I mean, basically all of the research about neonatal gut flora influencing basically anything is like two years old, so there’s a lot of ‘uh, maybe this is a factor, but more research is required’. I could dig out a meta review maybe.
-
Really that invokes the microbiome should be taken with a huge grain of salt
-
I think you accidentally a word. Can you say more about this?
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
"Have" as in these are beliefs that you're aware of? Or that you actually subscribe to?
-
subscribe to
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
There’s also ‘hunter gatherers were egalitarian because they had no way to store their surplus, storing grains led to patriarchy’
-
I like to frame this one as “malnourished soldiers pwn well-fed generalists”https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/969418906837311490?s=21 …
-
Surplus => more kids => specialisation, right?
-
I think so... Imo you don’t even need to add “more kids” into the equation to make sense of it - it could be “not everybody has to go hunting/gathering -> some of us get good at other things instead”
-
IIRC farming is actually less efficient in terms of labour per person though - farmers working more hours per week than equivalent hunter gatherers.
-
have to be careful to disambiguate 1. farmers work more hours per week than hunter-gatherers, because farming itself is labor-intensive (long process) 2. farmers produce *much* more calories in sum than hunter gatherers, enough to feed others on top of themselves
-
it's certainly more efficient for an individual to hunt and/or gather to feed themselves than to farm, but a farmer can feed an army that then enslaves the hunter-gatherers
-
as recently as the 60s, !Kung bushmen were working 25% of the hours that people in modern cities werehttps://twitter.com/visakanv/status/988368773831835648 …
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
-
-
most jobs spent sitting --> significant loss of movement, physical health [have to imagine an atrophying body affects other systems too]
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
pervasive electric lights & monitors distort our circadian rhythm & ruin sleep cycles plus we don't get to see the stars at night anymore :( personally imagine this has a huge psychological effect but not aware of any real research
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.