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After recently observing that Trump has had a “Cluster B” , Typhoid Mary-like effect on society, I had an interesting observation regarding Trump’s cult following….1/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1188071727412269057
….and the apparent “infection” and “retransmission” of Trump’s psychopathology throughout certain segments of society… 2/ https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1188067047470764032
Specifically, the observation/epiphany about Trump's cult following involved something that the brilliant endocrinologist/Stanford professor, Robert Sapolsky, has studied: the neurobiological effect of Toxoplasmosis in rats. 3/ https://www.robertsapolskyrocks.com/toxoplasmosis.html
Toxoplasmosis (“Toxo”) is a disease caused by a parasite that can only reproduce in the gut of cats, which, when defecated, gets eaten by rats. In order to find its way back into the guts of cats, the parasite has learned how to override the evolutionary neurobiology of rats,…4/
…..where instead of experiencing an instinctive fear-based reaction to the smell of cat urine, the toxoplasmosis rewires the rats’ brains to cause them to be sexually aroused by and drawn to cat urine. 5/
This puts more rats in closer proximity to cats, who eat the rats & ingest the parasite, which is then reproduces in the cats’ guts & complete its life cycle. This process relies on the parasite rewiring brain region called the amygdala that regulates fear reaction/response. 6/
Essentially, the Toxo short-circuits the rats’ fear response to the predator by eliminating the release of stress hormones, & instead activating the sexual arousal circuitry in rat brains by causing sexual arousal (and enlarging their testes) when the rats smell the cat urine…7/
Another interesting aspect of Toxo: it takes over the brain chemistry to secret dopamine, which is related to the reward system of the brain (which is associated to the pleasurable experiences related to sex, cocaine, gambling, etc.)…8/
As mentioned above, my initial thought process was simply that I found it analogous that similar to toxoplasmosis, people (Trump’s base) who were most at risk of being exploited by Trump (a predator), for whatever reason, found him irresistible, and were drawn to him…..9/
Basically, that Trump’s “Trickle Down Pathology” had parasitically infected them in a way where the pathology was essentially delivering Trump’s cult following (the rats) to the predator/cat (Trump)…..10/
Hell, I even found it ironic thinking about how when you watch Trump’s rallies, for many in the audience, the experience appears to almost be orgasmic, which is consistent with the role of dopamine in the experience…..11/
But then I started to really think about the effect of toxoplasmosis on humans. Research shows that about 1/3 of the population is infected with Toxo, with infection rates higher in underdeveloped, rural countries where people are more likely to walk barefoot. 12/
Other statistics show Toxo-infected men are more impulsive, which may be connected to a testosterone component related to the sexual arousal/enlarged testes seen in rats, which, when present (elevated levels of testosterone) in humans, can lead to high risk behavior. 13/
As a result, people who are toxo infected are 3-4 times more likely to die in car accidents that involve reckless speeding (similar to rats recklessly tempting fate w/cats)...and, similarly, the donated organs of people who die in motorcycle accidents have high rates of Toxo. 14/
Another interesting area of research is the link between Toxo and schizophrenia (paranoia/delusions). Schizophrenia is linked to excessive levels of dopamine in the brain. Similarly, when people overdose on cocaine, they often experience dopamine-induced paranoid delusions. 15/
This results from the cocaine blocking the reuptake of dopamine in synapses, thereby resulting in excessive levels of dopamine in the brain. Furthermore, Parkinson’s disease is caused by deficient levels of dopamine, which when treated with dopamine producing medication,… 16/
….can result in the medication overshooting its mark, causing excessive dopamine production/levels,….which, similar to a cocaine overdose, may result in the patient experiencing paranoid, delusion-like side effects that then have to be treated with anti-psychotic drugs. 17/
Interestingly, when drawing parallels with the Toxo research with rats….. when rats who are infected with Toxo are given dopamine-reducing, schizophrenia-managing drugs….. they suddenly stop finding cat urine arousing, and once again become fearful of the predator’s scent. 18/
OK, so what may all of this mean? What the Hell does Toxo have to do with Donald Trump and his cult following? Well, as mentioned above, initially I simply found it to be analogously interesting how, similar to the rats, for a certain segment of the population,….19/
….the more vulnerable these people are to Trump’s exploitative demagoguery, the more they are “aroused” by his pathological gaslighting and exploitation. But when applying the research to the political climate there seemed to be even more interesting parallels. 20/
First, similar to the Toxo-infested rats, there clearly is a dopamine component to Trump’s cult following where the reward centers in their brains are activated and aroused by his demagoguery in a way that almost appears orgasmic. 21/
Furthermore, similar to the rats, the levels of hyper-masculinity or even “toxic-masculinity” that exists in the Trump movement would seem to be consistent with the “enlarged testes” effect of the Toxo in the male rats. 22/
Moreover, the recklessness of the Toxo-infected rats engaging the predatorial cats, and that of Toxo-infected humans who engaged in reckless auto and motorcycle activity…..23/
....could be analogous to Trump’s cult’s reckless desire to “burn/tear the whole thing down”…to destroy our institutions, to recklessly/fanatically root for, sycophantically enable, and assist in Trump’s pathological desire/impulse to recklessly tear down our democracy. 24/
Essentially, Trump’s cult following is metaphorically riding on the back of a “crotch rocket” motorcycle, with their arms clutched around Trump’s midsection, while they recklessly/deliriously scream for Trump to not only go faster…..but to weave in & out of oncoming traffic. 25/
And similar to the link between Toxo and schizophrenia, the elevated levels of dopamine may be creating/sustaining paranoid, delusional conspiracies such as “deep state”, “Q”, & other alternate realities/revisionist histories that Trump & FOX continue to concoct. 26/
Interestingly, studies have found that Toxo is more prevalent in the Southern and rural areas of the U.S……which incoincidentally happen to be the heart of Trump’s base/support. https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/63/4/468/2595100 27/
As Sapolsky points out in the video linked above, the military has taken interest in Toxo. It would be really interesting to see research conducted to determine whether there is any statistically significant rates of Toxo among the various political affiliations. 28/
29/
Thread that expands upon the dopamine theory/concept: https://twitter.com/Nick_Carmody/status/1274703718315851776
