One of the scariest things, to me, is when people are in a deteriorating situation that progressively undermines their ability to understand it, like when nitrogen narcosis makes it harder for a diver to recognize the warning signs of nitrogen narcosis.

Aug 21, 2025 · 4:08 PM UTC

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I read that Murakami book with interviews of people from the Tokyo subway sarin attack and so many of them report knowing something was wrong, and seeing that other people on the train knew something was wrong, but most people couldn't think straight long enough to open a window.
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¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Panda
 @VivaLaPanda
Aug 21
If you wanna get blackpilled, go watch presidential debates from the 60s like JFK v Nixon Just a wildly higher degree of cogency
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I don't mean this as a simple dunk - "people are getting dumber lol" - it's more like the whole cultural machine that let us make collective decisions has become deranged, and the worse it gets the less we understand what our options really are.
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Replying to @pavedwalden
nearly died of CO poisoning earlier this year. sleeping in shipping container in rural NC, friend gave me space heater & I didn't bother checking fuel type, assumed it wasn't propane. woke up sick hours later, thank God. went outside to piss, took a breath, and went "oh, Christ."
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yikes. glad you're ok
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Replying to @pavedwalden
Had a dive buddy go into nitrogen narcosis in a cavern dive a long time ago. He was fighting my attempts to bring him back. Wild.
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Glad you were there for him. Did he remember the experience well enough to explain why he was resisting you?
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Replying to @pavedwalden
Oxygen deprivation on aeroplanes 😬 Carbon monoxide anywhere
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Oh yeah, I forgot about those stories where someone has a gas leak in their house and get more and more deranged over several weeks without understanding what's wrong.
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Replying to @pavedwalden
Even alcohol consumption presents a superficial version of this
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yeah I've run into that problem... well, let's just say "more than once"
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Replying to @pavedwalden
It's pretty wild to get narced. I have a dive spot that's at like 42 meters with a sandy bottom that I go down to get a little hit and watch the garden eels sometimes.
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That sounds amazing
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Replying to @pavedwalden
My dive club organized a hyperbaric chamber experience for us and I could finally prove that I was unusually resistant to the nitrogen narcosis. It was very eerie to see everyone around me slur their words and act erratically.
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Any idea why you're different?
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Replying to @pavedwalden
I've walked into a cooler full of CO2 and could feel myself getting dumber by the second. Thankfully my friend was on the outside, the door was open, and he saw me becoming stupid and pulled me out. IIRC it was like 2.2kPPM CO2
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Oxygen-deficient enclosed spaces are so scary - things go wrong quickly. Glad he knew what to do!
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