This is a fascinating angle, I just looked at a couple of pubmed articles as a result of your comment and this one stuck out right away

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38829253/

“Long-COVID is characterized by persistent symptoms following COVID-19 infection, with cognitive impairment being a prominent feature. Symptoms include brain fog, difficulties with concentration, memory issues, and executive function deficits.”

At the end of the day hardly anything has just one cause, and you may be correct that long COVID has had a big impact on the critical thinking problem in America.

Great comment, receiving contributions like this is why I posted the question in the first place, thank you

It definitely could be and I appreciate the contribution to the discussion

I find this comment super compelling, especially in combination with some of the other good points in the comments here. thank you

Yeah some of the replies have good points about lead damage being cumulative and showing up later, so maybe the workers in those studies I mentioned showed impairment because they were chronically exposed over some lengthy period and the impairments they measured were because of the cumulative exposure?

That also makes me think again though that, like you said, going to the indoor range a few times per year and not taking proper measures to clean oneself could cause some cumulative effect over time?

I mean check out this post where this person’s lead level was over 15 and decreased to 8 after a month of no shooting. Idk but reaching a blood lead level of 15 can’t be good right? Especially if you’re exposed repeatedly over a long period of time?

https://www.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/1h6qtis/update_on_lead_levels_from_shooting_30_days_of_no/

I didn’t mean to suggest that it was the only explanation, rather that it might help explain some of the phenomenon of the lack of critical thinking that seems so prevalent in america these days, while also sort of flying under the radar as I don’t really notice people talking about it.

There has always been an anti-intellectual portion of the population but it seems to be expanding rather than contracting over time, whatever the reasons.

That Atlantic article is pretty crazy, I didn’t realize the kids these days don’t read books basically at all in school anymore.

Here’s an archive link for anybody else who wants to check it out since its paywalled

https://archive.is/xr5Jd

Oh that’s interesting, and I hadn’t really thought of that, so even if there is some percentage of the population suffering the cognitive impairments associated with the adverse effects of lead, it’s probably more likely that they were exposed many years or decades ago vs recently

That’s a good point, especially the fact the most people who own guns don’t shoot them that often, but re: lead in the water, hasn’t the issue of lead in water become less significant over time?

This post by New York City government states that actually construction work is the most common source of lead exposure for people in the city, followed by sketchy consumer products. https://a816-dohbesp.nyc.gov/IndicatorPublic/data-stories/adult-lead/#%3A~%3Atext=This+continued+drop+in+blood%2Cair%2C+paint+and+consumer+products.

Maybe just generally we’re not taking the adverse cognitive effects of lead exposure, whatever the source, seriously enough?

Edit: someone else in the comments made the connection between the high numbers of lead water pipes in Florida and the “Florida man” phenomenon. Maybe lead in the water is still way more significant of an issue than I thought