betascience
2yr ago
Mental illness is caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain.
betascience
2yr ago
I’m just thinking it through out loud.
My family has a lot of mental illness of the OCD and bipolar type, and those family members insist this is a well understood science and then make claims that seem essentially religious. I’m feeling out the edges of where measurable physiological issue versus vague “chemical imbalance?” meet.
betascience
2yr ago
These are a blast. They just have a ton of fun discussing something they both clearly love. Good times.
betascience
2yr ago
To the question of an effective drug counting, I would say no. I’m more concerned that there is a physiological symptom from which the supposed mental condition is diagnosable.
I’m not sure that someone having a physiological withdrawal symptom from a substance to which they’re addicted would count either as someone who is not an addict will still experience those.
The sleep disorders seem a better candidate.
betascience
2yr ago
I think two cops peppers sprayed themselves inadvertently. The first during the initial stop. He and his partner then stay behind to treat his injury, probably saving both of their jobs and freedoms.
A second officer does this during the beating. This may actually be what led to the killing as that officer steps aside to regain his composure, then returns with his baton extended and yells “I’m gonna baton the fuck out of you.” Things proceed from there about as one would expect.
betascience
2yr ago
Slightly aside from this, is there even such a thing as a biologically defined mental illness? Is there a single mental illness that’s diagnosed with a blood test or some other empirical measurement that doesn’t involve a checklist of symptoms that the patient describes to the physician?
I’ve thought about this a bit and my initial response was probably like everyone else’s. These would be things like:
- Don’t you care about diversity? We’re robbing our students by not having diverse classes.
But that is the legal argument and most of them don’t actually realize that.
- Some appeal to affirmative action as a correction of prior injustice.
Sure, I think this is closer to what they actually believe, but it’s not knee jerk enough for internet hate. They would want to say something nastier.
So my guess that it’s probably something both stupid and nasty. I’ll go with “something racist about Asians.”
Huge whiff
Most of them are either Asians expressing the unfairness of the current system or people saying that race-based programs should be replaced with socio-economic based programs.
betascience
2yr ago
trying to force everyone into a vaccine was a huge risk management error. a reasonable approach would have been to try to guide the outcome towards 25% rate for each of the three approved vaccines and 25% unvaccinated rate (especially in low-risk populations). vaccinating children was pointless, all risk, no upside.
Higher rates of underreporting of income is absolutely evidence of higher rates of intentional underreporting of income. It’s not proof, but it’s what you would expect to find in the case of intentional tax fraud.
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