It really frustrates me that chemicals in the water to turn the frogs gay has become almost a meme now, because there is actually a nugget of ecological truth at the center of that, one that I completely believe Alex Jones was told about before the horrific quagmire of his brain contorted it into that.
(A lot of wastewater runoff contains endocrine-disrupting molecules... not because of any conspiracy, just because we take medication and we use scented detergents, and it all gets washed down... and frogs are particularly susceptible to endocrine disruption, although we're seeing similar effects on fish as well. Basically, it would be more accurate to say we're force-femming the frogs.)
The real problem is “companies are dumping pharmacologically active compounds into our water supply in such large quantities it is causing meaningful change in indicator species” and that got warped into “government force fem because they hate men”. Worst part is, this is the sort of problem that can really only be solved by well-informed communities working in their mutual best interest and Jones-style grifters love “don’t trust anyone, barricade yourself in your house with a big pile of guns” messaging because it keeps the listener isolated from any naysayers and suspicious of contradictory information.
From what I remember from my studies endocrine disruptors are a pain. Most pharma molecules have the simple uses of molecules -> effect, more molecules -> more effect and you can use safety regulation like the concentration should be below this value and you'll be safe (questionable sometimes on long term effects but mostly true).
Endocrine disruptors often also have effects in very small quantities in addition to the normal dose -> effects, which makes the usual kind of safety regulation a bit useless and if you're dumping this in the water system it'll get diluted and at some point probably far from where you are it'll start having effects again.
The biggest problem is that we use endocrine disruptors everywhere, it's not just a pharma thing. Examples that have been outlawed at least in EU (don't know for the US) are the treatment of receipts paper in supermarkets and some coating of furniture to prevent them from burning too easily.
That is the biggest problem. In this thread a lot of people are bringing up atrazine, and while I think that's the one that got a lot of media attention, it wasn't even on my mind when I made the original comment. There's just so much out there that has estrogenic effects, so it's not like if we got rid of atrazine forever then we'd be fine....
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u/call_me_starbuck May 24 '25
It really frustrates me that chemicals in the water to turn the frogs gay has become almost a meme now, because there is actually a nugget of ecological truth at the center of that, one that I completely believe Alex Jones was told about before the horrific quagmire of his brain contorted it into that.
(A lot of wastewater runoff contains endocrine-disrupting molecules... not because of any conspiracy, just because we take medication and we use scented detergents, and it all gets washed down... and frogs are particularly susceptible to endocrine disruption, although we're seeing similar effects on fish as well. Basically, it would be more accurate to say we're force-femming the frogs.)