'Toxic masculinity' may be caused by an actual, infectious, brain-altering parasite [View all]

https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/26/2140309/--Toxic-masculinity-may-be-caused-by-an-actual-infectious-brain-altering-parasite?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email

'Toxic masculinity' may be caused by an actual, infectious, brain-altering parasite

Image of Mark Sumner, author
by Mark Sumnerfor Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Monday, Dec. 26, 2022 at 8:00:09am PST

When you look around America these days, it’s hard to feel like there hasn’t been some kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers event. So many people seem not just anxious, but genuinely militant in their desire to bend back the arc of history. So many seem to be willing to work against their own best interests only because it brings other people pain.

People have looked for explanations, from prolonged exposure to Fox News to frustration over the slow decline of rural America, to a whole swath of isms: racism, sexism, etc. Watching people frothing at a Donald Trump rally, or beating police on the steps of the Capitol, or carrying an assault rifle to the grocery store, or screaming at their local school board, it all seems so … irrational. And, has long been noted, no amount of facts or reasoning seems to work in getting someone back once they have boarded the Q-train or decided that vaccines are the work of interstellar lizard tpeople.

But what if the problem behind these seemingly irrational actions isn’t just caused by listening to AM radio and feeling resentful about that girl who turn you down in high school? What if it’s a disease caused by a genuine brain-eating parasite?

In November, Communications Biology included a paper from researchers looking at the behavior of grey wolves in Yellowstone National Park. They identified a series of “risk-taking” behaviors in these wolves, including leaving their pack, fighting to achieve dominance in the pack, and approaching people or cars. These behaviors all came with the risk of increased death, either at the teeth of other wolves or from the vehicles and guns of humans in and around the park.

What they found was simply amazing.

…more…

(As long as we’re speculating, consider mad cow disease which was hushed up by the beef industry.)