Americans might have been a whole lot more intelligent had it not been for lead-based gasoline. Lead was first added to gasoline in 1923, apparently to keep our car engines ‘healthy.’ But the move came at the expense of our own well-being.
Leaded gas was banned in 1996. But a 2022 study revealed that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today. To put it into perspective, that’s about half the population of the United States. But we should also remember that the U.S. was not the only country to use lead in gas. And some countries still did so right up until 2021.
If this is the first time you’re hearing about this, it might be because the lead-gasoline era was one of the most downplayed, damaging events in history. It left a lasting impact on society, the effects of which are still being felt today.
Someone recently asked, “Which historical event induced more damage to society than people realize?” and the answers came pouring in faster than a car’s tank being filled with gasoline… From leaders who wiped out millions of people, to Chernobyl’s contribution to climate change, netizens dug deep to draw attention to the incidents and eras that they believe need to be shamed.
Bored Panda has put together a list of the best answers for you to scroll through while you contemplate how different the world might have been today. We also unpack the findings of the leaded-gasoline research paper a bit more. You can read that info between the images.
#1
Mitch McConnell refusing to allow Obama’s supreme court nominee get a hearing a full year before Obama’s term ended. This was the start of the end of the Republic.
Image source: bowens44, Drew Angerer
#2
The historical event that did more damage to society than anything that came before it was the re- election of orange donny. i fear that the US will not recover from what he has already done and it isn’t over. well, it isn’t over unless he has a heart attack and drops dead tomorrow. and it is those warm and fuzzy thoughts that keep me going.
Image source: AdrienneMint, Michael Judkins/Pexels
#3
The exportation of radicalized evangelical Christianity from the USA to Africa.
It turned dozens of countries aggressively homophobic that weren’t that way before, and it’s also the leading cause of people being persecuted for alleged witchcraft… in 2025.
It was an American preacher, Scott Lively, who was the main sponsor of Uganda’s infamous “K**l the Gays” bill.
Image source: PotatoAppleFish, Pixabay/Pexels
#4
I would say the arrival of Tatcher/Reagan in power. They managed to lower the tax rate for the wealthiest individuals from 70% to 30%, with the biggest nonsense ever proposed in economics, the trickle-down theory.
It was supposed to boost the economy, but in reality it only made the state and its citizens poorer, widening inequalities like never before. In fact, there is a consensus among economists, which is rare, that trickle-down economics does not work.
But now we find ourselves with a society where the tax burden was shifted from the richest to the middle class, which has been stagnating ever since. The rich are getting richer, the middle class is being strangled, and the poor are getting poorer.
Forty years later, we are still suffering from this s****y model.
Image source: Wonderful_Context_85, White House Photographic Office
#5
Citizens United. This ruling guaranteed we would be where we are today. Owned by oligarchs, with laws bought by the highest bidder. Two separate systems of Justice, and no checks and balances for those in power. Foreign agents running rampant. Zero accountability…
Image source: shwarma_heaven, Senate Democrats
#6
*The Oprah Winfrey Show*
The show and the media empire it eventually created became a creduluous, uncritical platform for some incredibly stupid and frequently dangerous people/ideas for FOUR F*****G DECADES, like an aircraft carrier that launched a million bastards.
I absolutely despise Oprah and everything she stands for; genuinely believe the modern world would be a better place if Oprah™️ (the media phenomenon, not the person) had never existed.
Image source: SevenSixOne, INTX: The Internet & Television Expo
#7
The leaded gasoline era. It literally lowered IQs worldwide.
Image source: Macata289, Joe Mabel
#8
The creation of smart phones and social media.
Image source: IllustriousCod5957, Tracy Le Blanc/Pexels
#9
The rule of Genghis Khan. Estimates differ, but his rule wiped out around 30-40 million people and entire cultures. Those that were left had their countries effectively set back a millennium. The death he caused also regenerated enough forest to allegedly cool the planet.
Image source: Fancychocolatier, Wikimedia Commons
#10
Invention of social media, specifically Facebook. It was weaponized and single handedly swung an election in Trump’s favor. And now, we’re here during the sunsetting of democracy in the U.S.
Social media continues to be a weapon for strategic political disinformation and fueling division, not just in the U.S. but also Ukraine post-2014 and several other countries.
Image source: bean930, Pixabay/Pexels
#11
The decision to allow children schooled at home to have accreditation as if they went to a public school with a controlled curriculum has done irreparable harm to the world and we’ll be feeling the impact of it for generations.
Image source: Medical_Revenue4703, Kampus Production/Pexels
#12
COVID. A whole generation of kids were locked indoors during their formative years, and academic performance is really starting to show it.
Image source: whalemango, Alberto Giuliani
#13
The introduction of microplastics to our ecology.
It is said that the average American consumes as much microplastics in a week as there is in a credit card.
Every biome is littered with microplastics. They are in our rainclouds. In the deepest jungles. In the permafrost of both poles. Scientists have found microplastics in the brains of still-born children. It could be our world-ender if we don’t stop.
Image source: puppypuntminecraft, Tara Winstead/Pexels
#14
Chernobyl: I wonder what the climate change projections would look like now if that didn’t (rightfully) fuel the anti-nuclear energy fire.
Image source: Hot-Requirement-3103, IAEA Imagebank/Wikimedia Commons
#15
The introduction and monetization of the 24/7 news cycle.
Image source: SuumCuique1011, J.B.
#16
The 1918 Spanish Flu is one of the most underrated historical events in terms of damage to society. It k**led more people than World War I, wiping out entire communities, overwhelming healthcare systems, and leaving long-term scars on economies and families. What’s wild is how little attention it gets in schools or conversations compared to wars. It reshaped public health, medicine, and even politics in ways we’re still feeling today, but most people barely know the scale of its impact.
Image source: TheTyRoderick, Wikimedia Commons
#17
The No Child Left Behind policy. It’s lead to the dumbing down of our country and the lowering of standards for education.
On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024. 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024. 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level). link.
Image source: GirlnTheOtherRm, Paul Morse
#18
GamerGate. It seemed like silly online discourse about video game reviews to a lot of people back then, but it was the ground zero for many people (especially young men) down the alt-right pipeline and shaped an environment that would help Trump win the first election.
Image source: Pyryara, Susanne Nilsson
#19
I only recently learned about the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Apparently it caused the ‘year without a summer,’ leading to famine and all sorts of knock-on effects, but it’s not something people really talk about much.
Image source: erod1993, Jialiang Gao (peace-on-earth.org)
#20
Vietnam war ig,a section of Vietnamese still deals with birth defects and other complications.
Image source: Classic-Sentence3148, Bill Hall
#21
The 1976 US Presidential Election. It’s the most overlooked US election of the 20th Century.
Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Gerald Ford, in fact Ford came close to carrying the Electoral College. Ford famously pardoned Richard Nixon dinging his popularity and leading to a strong primary challenge from Ronald Reagan. Carter oversaw an economy in full stagflation from the 1970s and the failure to rescue the hostages from Iran.
Had Ford won that election, it’s very likely that a Democrat wins in 1980 as Ford would’ve been ineligible to run again, the economy would’ve been poor, and Reagan couldn’t have run against an unpopular incumbent.
Reagan’s conservatism would’ve been looked at as an electoral failure and the entire past 40+ years of US and global politics are changed.
Image source: JA_MD_311, White House
#22
The Clinton administration not signing the Rome Statute. A lot of the bad s**t we’re seeing in the 2020s is only happening because authoritarian leaders don’t have any fear of the International Criminal Court.
Image source: ciaranmac17, White House
#23
Honestly, the US presidential election of 1912. When you consider the ramifications of that election going differently, the entire world changes.
Had Teddy Roosevelt not run third party, the Republican candidate likely wins that election. While Taft wasn’t as supportive of entering World War 1 as Roosevelt was, Taft likely would have entered the war faster than Wilson.
The United Statea entering the war earlier probably brings a faster end to the war, which means less deaths. Less deaths likely means the Versailles treaty isn’t nearly as nasty to Germany as the one in the present timeliness.
Without Germany getting hit as hard by the peace treaty, it’s less likely that a certain painter rises to power… and if that doesn’t happen, World War 2 takes on a completely different appearance. And considering how much of modern foreign policy is based off what happened during World War 2, the entire world looks vastly different.
Also, we don’t have a Lost Cause mythologist in the White House giving that mythology more credence…
The more and more I’ve read about history, the more and more I consider that election a linchpin in the timeline.
Image source: Severe-Independent47, Adam Cuerden
#24
The Treaty of Versailles (1919). I think it fueled further conflicts for much of the 20th century.
Image source: Janet_CM, David Lloyd George
#25
The partition of India. The bloodshed and the permanent enmity between two countries.
Image source: chickenkebaap, Amar Preciado/Pexels
#26
Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Changed Britain significantly and the empire made those changes go global.
Image source: Spudgun2, Hugh Venables Edit this at Structured Data
#27
A storm in the English Channel in 1066. It delayed William the Conqueror’s invasion by a couple of weeks, meaning that Harold Godwinson, the King of England, fought the Danes under Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge first and was weakened when he faced William. If Harold had faced William first, he might have beaten him and the Normans would not have ruled England. Instead, either the Anglo-Saxon Harold or the Danish Harald would have been king, and the world and the English language would both be very different today.
Image source: YVRJon, Beate Vogl/Pexels
#28
The fall of Constantinople. Before that Europe had no reason to look west, and the best sailors were focusing on the Levant as the gateway to Asia and its markets. 1453 changes everything.
Image source: Old_fart5070, Talha Güney/Pexels
#29
The burning of the library of Alexandria. Pretty much had the history of the old world in its volumes. There may not even been the Dark Ages. Who knows?
Image source: Altair580, O. Von Corven
#30
The internet. It’s considered a great leap forward but it’s harmed more than it’s helped. The information age was supposed to herald a new era for humanity, a compendium of all humans knowledge at your finger tips.
No one could’ve predicted that facts would become optional. People now choose the truth that suits their world view. The irony that a tool designed to educate humanity actually had the opposite effect and spread ignorance to the gullible instead.
Image source: Tudor_Cinema_Club, mikoto.raw Photographer/Pexels
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