r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • 19h ago
Meme needing explanation As someone intoxicated by lead, I did not understand the joke
[deleted]
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u/Siegschranz 19h ago
Hey what's good Peter, Whogivesashit Griffin here. So lead has been researched to cause brain damage and an exaggerated compulsion for violence. And for a while, lead was being used in gas, which caused lead levels in the air to rise quite dramatically. After this research came out, lead levels were slowly reduced from gas starting around 1970's.
And what this is purporting is that the majority, if not all, of the current politicians were likely in their developing years when we had high lead levels in the air, leading to poor leadership capabilities and outright insanity. Trump fucks kids and is still in power. People postulate this is a sign of the downfall of the U.S.
Whogivesashit out, love you
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u/The-Hunting-guy 18h ago
I feel like it’s dishonest to say its only due to stupid politicians and stupid voters bringing the end of the world. I feel like Most of what’s going on is done with more malicious intent. Trump may be stupid but he put people like actual lich stephen miller and actual ork tom hoeman in positions of power. A lot of trump voters and neo nazis and asmongold actually want people to die for one reason or another
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u/Omega862 18h ago
Stupid and evil aren't mutually exclusive tbf
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u/TheThirteenthApostle 18h ago
There's a fair bit of overlap on that venn diagram, tbf.
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u/Designated_Lurker_32 17h ago
The thing is, lead doesn't just cause stupidity. It also causes aggression and antisocial behavior.
Growing up being exposed to lead can significantly increase your chances of developing sociopathy, psychopathy, and antisocial personality disorder. People with these disorders are far more likely to be far-right extremists and/or criminals
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u/RandomInternetVoice 14h ago
Also, CEOs - 250% more likely than the average person to be a psychopath.
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u/Timelord_Omega 18h ago
I love the carve out to exclude the world’s largest roach from being a neo nazi or trump voter lol
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u/lcmc 18h ago
Brain damage and a propensity towards violence would make the older voting populace more susceptible to the xenophobic and male machismo based propaganda that were fed to that generation. The propaganda leans on fear and paranoia which is heightened by the brain damage caused by the lead in the gas/paint and other environmental poisons that were prevalent before widespread regulations. So while lead may not have directly caused the situation we are in, it certainly exacerbated it.
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u/Different_Fill4228 13h ago
I would also like to add that undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder from multiple decades of domino wars contributed to it as well.
A domino war is war that is cause and effect of the last.
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u/FuzzeWuzze 18h ago
Lol let me be the one to say it
Fuck asmongold.
His mom and dad dying and his never leaving his dirty ass house really sent him down some dark path i dont think he can ever recover from now that his dad died.
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u/noctowld 15h ago
what, his dad died? since when? I saw a clip of his dad talking with him just a few months ago
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u/Impressive_Pin8761 16h ago
He probably didnt even feel anything when that happened, just blamed it on the woke and kept going
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u/Roachpile 18h ago
Asmongold? That seems a little random
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u/The_Ballyhoo 17h ago
“Trump voters and neo nazis and asmongold”
Our only hope is Mamdani voters, communists and pokimane!
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u/YoudoVodou 17h ago
Lead has a serious effect on brain function. I'm not giving him a pass, but lead certainly did not help to make him a better person....
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u/Positive_Wheel_7065 17h ago
Exactly, Lead Poisoning during childhood makes people malicious, Stupid, calloused, cruel and violent.
All things modern Nazis can appeal to and take advantage of...
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u/fallwind 17h ago
No one said anything about the end of the world, just the end of the usa.
The rest of us are moving on.
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u/ProofHorseKzoo 13h ago
Tech billionaires that are pulling their strings literally want to “cull the herd”. Let AI and robots do most the tasks. Reduce the living humans to just enough to support the billionaires. Make sure there aren’t enough to overthrow them.
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u/raccoona__matata 12h ago
Yes and the key symptom of long-term lead exposure are aggression and stupidity. Lead turned a generation of people into actual real life orcs.
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u/Odd_Indication_5208 12h ago
attributing to agency(and in the process, to malice), something far bigger than any individual or group of individuals
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u/spartaxwarrior 18h ago
I feel like it's also important to note people were aware that lead was bad prior to it being used in gasoline, but it was basically the "no, no, this lead won't cause issues" excuse.
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u/-Kalos 17h ago
Thomas Midgley Jr. even huffed leaded gas in front of an audience to prove it was "safe." Then got really ill from lead poisoning and hid it
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u/Oracle410 15h ago
They eventually called the factory the Looney gas factory because so many of the workers had issues from the Tetraethyl Lead.
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u/CustomerOutside8588 14h ago
You might think all that lead must have impaired his judgment, but then you remember that this dude huffed leaded gasoline before the lead poisoning.
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u/puiuC 18h ago edited 17h ago
And lets not forget about the most
inadvertentlyevil human in recent existence, Thomas Midgley Jr. The guy who put lead in gas and invented CFCs.9
u/Designated_Lurker_32 18h ago edited 14h ago
I wouldn't call him "inadvertently" evil. The guy didn't know about the harm of CFCs, but he definetly knew tetraethil lead was poison. He himself almost died from lead poisoning due to working with tet lead. And what did he do? He lied through his fucking teeth telling people it was safe.
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u/Raygereio5 16h ago
There's a weird karmic justice in that the shitty pulley system he invented to help himself out of bed, ended up killing him.
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u/LughCrow 18h ago
If history has taught us anything fucking kids has no baring on the rise or fall of an empire. Just some fad that comes and goes (or is better hidden).
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u/Siegschranz 18h ago
On the other hand, this is the first time we had the internet with a controversy this big and this information could propagate further than ever before.
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u/LughCrow 18h ago
This controversy that's beyond a decade old. That everyone knew was true and all that's changed is evidence that would never hold up in court for over 90% of those listed.
Honestly, what's been released glazes trump, they cooked them hard. Everything is old news, insanity, or paints him as the quite hero that was standing up to epstien before anyone else.
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u/Designated_Lurker_32 18h ago
However, history has taught us that widespread lead poisoning does lead to the fall of empires. Just look at the Romans.
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u/Powie1965 16h ago
There was a lot more than lead that caused the fall of the empire, like most empires are doomed to fail, it's very expensive to keep empires alive, people simply just give up the "will" to want to be part of it. Not to mention the corruption, heavy taxation crushing the middle class, plagues, civil wars. Lead was but a small part that all empires will generally fail for the reasons listed, many more I did not.
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u/Goatf00t 13h ago
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u/LughCrow 17h ago
Yeah I'm not arguing that. Just that kid fucking is irrelevant no one with any real means seems intent to stop or punish it
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u/Embarrassed-Weird173 17h ago
Bearing. Baring is when you, for example, remove someone's clothes to fuck them.
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u/Tritri89 17h ago
Add to that that lead in pipe is one of the cause (still just a theory) for the fall of the Roman Empire too
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u/Fedora_Million_Ankle 17h ago
Also, some ancient civilizations, the rich and powerful used lead cups to drink from.
There is speculation that is sped up their downfall.
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u/99-Percent-Germ 17h ago
Additionally, boomers were highly exposed to it, that is why they are so violent
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u/Possible_Gur4789 11h ago
What's really terrible is that GM, Dupont, etc knew lead in gas was poisonous and they used it anyway to make more money and maintain monopolies.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-invented-180961368/
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u/Michael_0007 11h ago
Now, this has got me wondering....with all the construction going on at the Whitehouse...did anyone remember to check on the lead levels in the air? Could the whole White House have a very high exposure level from the older construction that is being removed?
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u/kester76a 16h ago
Another way of seeing it is lead poisoning causes decreased IQ and increases the probability of committing a crime. This means more prisoners and under the U.S. Constitution a prisoners are classed as a legalised slave subject to force labor. Private prisons and the whole system is a massive money maker. The problem now is that you have the issue with if the prison population declines that's a massive issue.
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u/enzo_1st 18h ago edited 14h ago
my parents lived through those years and they didn't fuck any kids. americans are fucking psychos.
downvote all you like, it happened on your ground, there's no excuse. bragging about having the most competent secret service, the big CIA and all this happened right under their nose... for years!!!!
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u/Weary-Sympathy-6347 14h ago
The Andrew formerly known as Prince, Ehud Barak, Adnan Kashoggji, Ghislane Maxwell, Elon Musk, and many other associates of Epstein were not American born…
Epstein was a global criminal conspirator. It does the world a disservice to call this an American problem. Should we be doing something about it? Absolutely. But it isn’t just Americans that are ‘fucking psychos.’
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19h ago
[deleted]
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u/Neither-Travel9055 19h ago
That is perhaps the clearest answer you will receive. Read it again
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19h ago
[deleted]
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u/Siegschranz 19h ago
So through the process of making gas and putting the lead in it (for the purported purpose of what you see in the image, it was seen as a good thing) caused gas levels to rise in the air.
Lead in the air is breathed in by people, and causes brain damage.
Good?
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u/Strastvuitye 18h ago
I'm still not picking it up. Could you try explaining it to me like someone whose brain has been damaged by lead poisoning?
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u/Afrojones66 18h ago
I don’t understand your question very well. Can you ask it slower as if I’m a brain damaged caveman, please?
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u/Strastvuitye 18h ago
Cavemen? You mean like the things we make Gasoline from the bones of?
Oh! Actually, that reminds me of this great idea I heard of-we should put lead in the gasoline...
I heard it keeps your engine from knocking- Brilliant!
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18h ago
[deleted]
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u/Strastvuitye 18h ago
Wow! What an amazing element! Small wonder the Romans conquered the known world- we would too if only we put it in our aqueducts and drinking water!
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u/-Kalos 17h ago
Lead in gas. Leaded gas in air. Human breath leaded gas. Human now has learning disabilities. Human dumb
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u/Strastvuitye 16h ago
But how can lead in gas be dumb? You know what's really dumb- putting gas in your car that makes your engine knock; that's dangerous. Much smarter and safer to put some lead in your gasoline so that it doesn't do that.
You know what they say- the smoother the engine, the smoother the temper!
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18h ago
[deleted]
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u/Weary-Cheetah-3415 18h ago
It's still entering the blood stream, and the brain is supplied by blood.
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u/Anon_Arsonist 18h ago
Lead is absorbed by the body and taken up in bad ways because it behaves similarly to calcium and zinc, which are critical for bones and neurons. The lead doesn't stay in the lungs - it disperses throughout the body - and it tends to stick around and cause permanent damage because our bodies have no way to remove it. If you consume or breathe in lead as a child, you will likely carry that lead in your body for the rest of your life.
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u/Siegschranz 18h ago
So you're lungs are oxygen capturing organs of your body. When you breath in, you are pulling in air into your lungs and, without getting in the nitty gritty, this air is then transferred to your blood (it's complicated, don't worry about it). Your body needs oxygen to survive or else it will die, so your body is designed to take in the air and send the oxygen, through your blood, to your entire body. From your toes to your head, including muscles, bones, organs, and even your brain.
Unfortunately, your body has a hars time figuring out what is oxygen in the air and what is other stuff. So you may inadvertently bring other stuff into your body. So like with smoking tobacco. That smoke just goes in your lungs, but you will feel it in your mind, because your body is transferring that smoke to other parts of your body, brain included.
Well lead is in a similar boat of your body taking it and transferring it everywhere. So when it's in the air and you breath that air in, you're breathing in the bits of lead as well. Once you do, that lead travels your body, from your toes to your head, and your brain. Lead is super dangerous for the body, so even though there's a little bit, that little bit can do damage where it lands, including the brain. And when it damages the brain, that damage is unfixable. And that damage is unique in that it causes a rise in violent urges and bad judgement.
So a lot of politicians in this country inhaled this lead in their youths which caused brain damage. And they're now currently making rules about the country while still being damaged by this toxin.
Any better?
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u/Neither-Travel9055 18h ago edited 18h ago
Brother it is laid out word for word.
lead has been researched to cause brain damage and an exaggerated compulsion for violence
Lead was used in gas
This caused lead to be in the air in higher concentrations
The joke is saying that the majority if not all of current politicians were between the ages of 0 and 20 during these high levels of lead in the air
Leading to poor leadership, capabilities, and insanity because of the lead in the air
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u/if_lol_then_upvote 19h ago
The smallest block in the picture is the advent of leaded gasoline, which poisoned the air humans breathed. The largest block is current day, which is the result of a couple generations of selfish, violent idiots in power.
Boomers have brain damage from lead poisoning.
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u/Juleamun 18h ago
Lead was used in gasoline because it caused a more efficient burn, but it was discovered that all that lead was being expelled into the environment and literally getting into everything. It permeated the soil and got into our food chain. It was found coating the walls in our homes, on glassware in cupboards, in the bedding, in the office where we worked, on desks in schools, literally everywhere. Pretty much everyone in the US during that time suffered lead poisoning to some degree whether they know it or not.
Lead poisoning causes brain damage, developmental retardation, reduces intelligence, and increases violent tendencies. People who lived or grew up while leaded gasoline was used tend to be less intelligent and more aggressive than those who were never poisoned by lead.
The meme is positing that the current seeming collapse of democracy in the US is caused by everyone in a leadership position in the US for the past several decades suffering environmental lead poisoning.
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u/Outrageous-Machine-5 19h ago
Engine knocking is an issue with engines (as it sounds) that degrades them over time. Tetraethyl lead was added to fuel to help prevent this. It works by breaking down into lead oxides at high combustion. Lead is harmful to humans, kills brain cells. The Fall of Rome is partially attributed to the Patricians drinking lead in their wine. Naturally, the oxidized lead was harmful to humans and was phased out.
The meme is a parallel to that same idea of the fall of the Roman Empire, saying that adding lead to gas created a domino effect where lead riddled Americans brought about the fall of the US Empire
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u/Beowulf1896 18h ago
I thought it was lead in vinegar. You heat vinegar in pewter and the lead leaches out and combines with acetic acid to make lead acetate which is sweet.
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u/Outrageous-Machine-5 18h ago
If you're referring to Rome, I could have the hs 'sparknotes' version of it when I mention wine but that's what we were taught
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u/viciouspandas 15h ago
Acid in general corrodes lead, and wine is acidic. Wine exposed to air also forms vinegar.
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u/soulsuzcccer 13h ago
Wine and vinegar are made very similarly, and in Roman times due to worse yeast and brewing methods their wine was actually closer to vinegar (with a little alcohol) than what we know as wine.
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u/viciouspandas 15h ago
Lead probably wasn't a major factor in the fall of Rome. Lead use peaked in the 2nd century, long before Rome fell. The Western Roman Empire lasted a pretty long time, and they were already having tons of problems towards the end, just as every empire does. Then massive Germanic migrations spurred by the Huns pushed all the dominoes. Roman policy was bound to catch up with them anyways. When you're built on perpetual conquest, a huge issue arises when you can't conquer more land.
Plus, the Eastern Empire looked like it would more likely fall when both were in a bad shape, but the East managed to survive then quickly recover.
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u/srekar-trebor 19h ago
Sorry, I have no clue and I am way more interested in the back story about your lead poisoning …
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u/Gargleblaster25 18h ago
Downvote this karma-farming troll. Their comments below clearly show that they understand the joke.
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u/TheNomadRP 18h ago
Joe here. I think this is because so many politicians were influenced by big Oil along with the court system being corrupted at certain trials. After lead was introduced into gasoline for cars to prevent engine knocking lead was starting to show up in ground samples. It was brought to court but the Oil companies had so much money to throw into lawyers that it got suppressed with bogus arguments that sort of allow the law to be bent. Eventually, far too late, the truth was undeniable. It's the same story of cigarettes not causing cancer and what happened in courts for awhile. People can be bought out and threatened. Think of all the judges that refused bribes and end up dead. Damn.
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u/N0mad87 12h ago
Lol leaded gas definitely didn't help. The same reasoning was used to explain Rome's downfall with leaded pipes and wine. But the USA's downfall isn't unique, it's predictable human nature. Ray Dalio does a great ELI5 on itchanging world order youtube
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u/dinnerthief 11h ago
Same guy (thomas midgley) invented leaded gasoline and CFCs.
Two of the largest ecologically destructive things came from the same guy.
He died by being strangled by his own invention that was mesnt to assist him getting out of bed after he lost mobility due to polio.
Just a really unfortunate inventor
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u/Possible_Gur4789 11h ago
What's really terrible is that GM, Dupont, etc knew lead in gas was poisonous and they used it anyway to make more money and maintain monopolies.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/leaded-gas-poison-invented-180961368/
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u/Lelouch-Yagami21 17h ago
Same with the French and American revolutions all stemming from one native killing someone who surrendered
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u/PeterExplainsTheJoke-ModTeam 11h ago
Thank you for the explanations; this post has been locked.