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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   4169 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 12, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Someone on Twitter, jokingly creating fake discourse, writes

Mothers who drive cars subject their babies to accelerations of greater intensity, duration, and frequency than any they'd survive in the premodern world. Every time you hit the breaks it's a mild case of shaking baby syndrome and the effects are cumulative

This was made up in jest, but now it has me genuinely wondering. Wouldn’t quick breaking in a car cause a whiplash-like effect similar to shaking a baby? Is it possible that breaking and certain kinds of exercise are invisibly harming the health of babies while in the womb? I can’t see how there would be a difference between the infant whiplashed outside of womb and in womb except maybe a small reduction in force. I glanced at some studies and falls during pregnancy are associated with fetal complications (also, “falls during pregnancy occur in 25–27% of women and can cause serious harm to both the mother and the fetus” is insane and makes me think every girl ought to take part in a balance-based activity).

A quick cross-cultural comparison: Wife-beating is common in Eastern-European cultures (say, 1-in-10 couples). A stereotypical Russian phrase, uttered by a Russian wife about to get beaten, is "Just don't punch the stomach!". It's reasonable to suppose that, in the past, the rate at which pregnant women got beaten was higher than now.

I recon that the force experienced from a car deceleration is smaller than an occasional drunken punch on the womb.

With this evidence, we could also say that Russia’s relatively lower IQ and relatively higher behavioral problem scores are related to how often the women are beaten… though I would guess that most wife-beaters target the face and not the womb, but I don’t know.

Russia doesn’t have lower IQ scores, though?

(taps calculator) Ah, so it's the prenatal beatings keeping them smart!

(this is intended as a joke)

The other way around. If it weren’t for the beatings, the average Russian would reach his natural IQ of 130.

If you think about it, many Russians are East Asians. Technically. Geography at least.

The mind reels (again).

I thought it was lower but just checked you’re right

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