We Just Got More Evidence That Long COVID Is a Brain Injury
The exact nature of long COVID is still coming to light, but we just got some of the best evidence yet that this debilitating condition stems from a brain injury.
Using high-resolution scanners, researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have shown microscopic, structural abnormalities in the brainstems of those recovering from COVID-19.
Signs of brain inflammation were present up to 18 months after first contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“We show that the brainstem is a site of vulnerability to long-term effects of COVID-19, with persistent changes evident in the months after hospitalization,” the authors of the study conclude.
https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awae215
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These people are addicted to this feeling that they have discovered some secret that destroys conventional wisdom and sheds a whole new light on everything. They are addicted to this feeling that they’ve found a big lie everyone’s swallowed and they’re going to spit it out.
Every part of their worldview has to have that quality or they can’t hold onto it with their brains. There’s a great deal of straightforward, plain-as-day information that’s totally missing from their worldview because it doesn’t contain the drug their brain is addicted to.
My theory is that the type of person who falls for conspiracy nonsense is the same type of person who also succumbs to solipsism. They have a core belief that they are the protagonist of their own story, and their story can’t be plain, humdrum, or boring like their daily lives had been up until the moment they “uncovered” the grand plot to deceive the world. Acknowledgement of the fact that they are not special or somehow inherently different from any other individual is psychic death, so they retreat into safe spaces and echo chambers that validate them, which make them easy targets for pseudoscience and quasi-religious beliefs.
Conspiracy allows them to indulge in the fantasy of grandiosity, while also introducing them to a community of like-minded people who will welcome them and their beliefs, and never challenge them. That makes it all the more difficult for them to break out of the spell, even when presented evidence that runs contrary to what they believe.
Yep, agree. What makes this more complex is that movie culture has relentlessly programmed all of us to think this way for decades. I don’t think it’s just a case of genetic predisposition toward solipsism, though that is surely in there as well.
Virtually all blockbuster movies and many smaller ones are about some kind of chosen hero who shatters a corrupt system, often with a single act of redemptive violence (killing the bad guy, destroying the evil machine, etc).
From Star Wars: A New Hope to The Matrix to The Hunger Games this formula has been virtually the same. It’s so relentless and consistent, and people grow up on it from an early age. Is it any surprise, with this kind of programming, that people grow up lacking the will to dedicate themselves to making a small contribution toward incremental change? No. They need shattering upheaval that saves the world, and everything less is complicity in the evil of the system.
As Zizek said: you never get to see what the hero does the day after shattering the machine. How do they rebuild a better society? Okay, redemptive violence, then what? Popular culture has no answer to this. In real life it’s about compromise, hard work, incremental improvement. But we have generations of people who’ve been fed compelling narratives about everything but that.
I wonder if you’re on to something there. What if they do get a hit of dopamine every time they think they’re being clever even though they’re completely wrong, and so they deliberately lean towards all the crazy that makes them think they’re being clever just for the dopamine? That would explain a lot about the MAGA crowd, as they are actually physically addicted to the crazy in that case,
“The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.” — Frank Lucas Many dumb people I’ve met simply get off by hearing themselves talk. They 100% get a dopamine hit every time the make a “point”.
Yes and there is one other aspect. When they get into this conspiracy shit, there is a whole community of people ready to welcome them. They are congratulated for seeing the light and joining the movement. This fulfills a social need for a lot of these people, who are lonely or in some cases estranged from family.
This process of feeling like you’ve drawn back the curtain on life, and, in the same stroke found “your people” is incredibly exhilarating to them. It’s like a whole new day in their lives. And THAT’S why they’ll defend their crap beliefs to the death. Because giving them up means going back to the humdrum world where they are just a nobody again.
There’s also a large community of conspiracy haters ready to welcome anyone who believes anything an authority figure says. They are congratulated for seeing the light and joining the movement. This fulfills a social need for … etc.
Is there? I don’t know of anyone who gathers together to bad mouth conspiracy theorists
There are many in this thread. I replied to one.
People who casually dismiss conspiracy theories are exactly as bad as those who unquestioningly believe them.
the occams razor is a crucial part of scientific thinking for a reason.
the space of all possibilities is infinite. the space of what people believe and say is enormous. the space of what is actually truth is comparatively smaller, unrelated and uncaring about either of those.
you can’t possibly consider everything everyone says - especially if what they are saying keeps changing as they see fit. you’ll just burn out if you try and end up in endless “discussions” with the people who are “just asking questions”…
that doesn’t mean i should dismiss or ridicule people, but it does mean i will not spend a single heartbeat thinking about another “proof” that the earth is flat or controlled by lizard prople or something.
Holy shitballs. NO. Occam’s razor may lead you to a solution faster, but the scientific approach is to exhaust all possibilities. Occam’s razor implies the sun goes round the earth. It is not scientific.
Of course you can. You may assign it a credibility of almost 0, but you can still consider a theory. In science this process is decentralized and heavily delegated.
Then they become even less credible.
Well, at least you were open enough to consider one argument.
Honestly, I was on board with the lizard people right up to the point David Ike insisted that it wasn’t a metaphor.
Did you see someone whose social life is built around dismissing conspiracy believers or did you just reply to someone who rejects conspiracy thinking? I suspect it’s the latter.
Did I say there was someone whose social life is built around dismissing conspiracy believers? No.
I’m point out that people who automatically reject conspiracy thinking have exactly the same mentality and online support groups as those who blindly believe them. I illustrated this by mirroring their exact words.
Go back to the furst comment of yours that I replied to. You claim there’s a community of anti-conspiracy people and what Im suggesting is that the conspiracy thinkers are a ral community. If you buy into flat earth there are conventions to go to, merch to buy and shows to listen/watch that are all part of the flat earth community.
Skeptics don’t have that in the same way. My unwillingness to accept Bigfoot isn’t because im searching to belong but the Bigfoot hunter might be.
The kind of person that latches onto one detail in an argument and doesn’t let go. Especially when it has nothing to do with the disagreement. You know the type.