Originally published at: Could capitalistic ambition be driven by a feline-borne parasite? | Boing Boing
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Frequently, a selfish arsehole is just a selfish arsehole.
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…and it turned out he was the real parasite all along.
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Sure, personalities definitely always exist along a spectrum, but it’s still interesting to consider how environmental factors might influence things and shift the spectrum slightly, at least along the fringes. For example, several studies indicate that childhood exposure to lead can statistically increase the likelihood that a person will have somewhat less impulse control, and therefore may be more likely to commit acts of violence later in life. Eliminating lead obviously won’t stop all murders but it could still make a meaningful difference. Maybe a given population might have 100 people grow up and commit murders in the absence of lead, vs 120 people commit murders if they had lead exposure during childhood. You’d never be able to tease out which specific murders wouldn’t have happened without lead but the population-level data could tell a story.
In the case of this parasite theory they aren’t claiming a huge effect, just a statistically significant one that would be interesting to see if other researchers could replicate:
Who knows what other confounding factors they might not have accounted for though. Maybe certain professions or small businesses just happen to involve more frequent exposure to cats for some reason.
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You do all sorts of weird things when you’re hungry.
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Just wanted to call out a terrific turn of phrase from the linked article: describing when Toxo-infected rats engage in riskier behavior and get eaten by cats, how the protozoan “jumps out of its host like ships escaping a sinking rat.”
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Interesting to me, because I don’t know many high-powered business people who even.like cats, much less own them. They’re more driven toward animals who are slobberingly devoted to them, like dogs. Managed by staff, of course.
I do see small business entrepreneurs with cats, but most are empathetic and generous.
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Muskrat: “We are being infected by the woke mind virus!”
Medical professionals: “Naw, man, its just toxoplasmosis.”
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Can you catch that parasite through the internet? 'Cos the internet is mostly cats.
And some porn and nazis obviously.
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Maybe they were infected as kids if there were cats in the household then?
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We should rerun this simulation with and without cats, as well as with and without leaded gasoline, just to see if the world is better or worse off.
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Poor lonely brain parasites
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Huh, I hadn’t considered that Elon might actually be a visionary tech genius who just needs to eat a Snickers.
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I wasn’t talking about Elon
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