Slop.

assuming a causal direction without demonstrating it by anything but a hypothetical just-so account

The demonstration is the vast body of evidence of severe brain damage among countless millions of people

Again, you can assert that entire populations suffering from compromised brain development has no MAJOR causal links or effects on the course of society (despite the fact the symptoms manifest as anti-social behavior) be my guest, believe in idealism

Do you not see how this was already my basic claim

And do you not understand that claim is completely dwarfed, subsumed, made subordinate to the reality that brain damage across entire populations has far more valence, for the simple fact that thing between our ears is little more important than ideological conditioning

Certain ideologies do not stick to people who have brains geared towards empathy, so what do you think happens to a society where millions of people thru childhood poisoning literally lose the ability to empathize? Yes, then certain ideologies become more popular than they were ever meant to be, that's my point