A Book Devoted To Crooked Smiles

A commenter linked to this site in the comments, and I just found its fascinating to view.

First it noted that in old images, faces were symmetrical and often did not smile, and it showed this image as an example:

They all actually look a little unusual to me, because of their symmetry. And yet I like it.

He then showed pictures of people smiling in olden times, and noted that even though smiling in photos was rarer, when you saw it the smiles were symmetrical.

Then he showed modern pictures, where people smile, and noted how the smiles are so often crooked:

Notice they are all right sided smiles. And strangely enough, I will bet all of those bottom people are ardent leftists, and the top people would be horrified by their beliefs and desires for the nation. I can’t help but wonder if that is related.

There are other images at the link, click over and check them out. The author offers an interesting hypothesis.

I don’t know enough to make a conclusion from the smiles themselves. I see too many possibilities. Are neurological systems dialed back and weaker for some reason, and the left side of the expression is failing before the right side? Is there an increase in psychological Machiavellianism, and the disparity in smiles on left and right is a sign of a more manipulating psychology that is accustomed to smiling consciously to manipulate, and not reflexively. Is it just more customary to smile a practiced smile in photos in these days of conflict-avoidant rabbitry, something taken to the extreme when soyboys throw their mouths open in photos in a silent scream of exhilaration? Were the olden smiles only gained by genuinely making the object of the photo laugh honestly, and since the smiles today are social/conscious and not organic/reflexive they are crooked? I can’t say.

I look at the older photos though, and I do feel neurological systems in those people that are “popping.” It is almost like they are more alive. I even notice the eyes are a little more open, and awake. I feel much more relaxed looking at them, even as I ponder how wild those guys would probably look when jacked on adrenaline, and in the heat of a battle.

In contrast, look how sleepy the modern eyes look. I look at the newer photos, and the eyes are just a little more like slits and the faces look just a little more sleepy, especially among the children at the site. I feel like if you jacked those lower photos on adrenaline, and activated their nervous systems, the eyes would open up a little more, they would sit a little more upright, the faces would look a little more alive, and maybe they would smile less and look more focused. They would look more like those first pictures.

I find that interesting, because heavy metals do dull nervous systems. Nerves transmit their impulses by allowing small metal ions like sodium and calcium to explode through ion channels in large numbers all at once, explosively. Large heavy metal ions like lead wedge into, and clog those ion channels, slowing the flow of the smaller ions and dulling the nerve impulses by reducing their explosiveness. With sufficient heavy metal exposure, and clogging of the ion channels, nerve transmission is killed, beginning with numbness of the extremities like the fingers and the toes, where long nerve-lengths produce a cumulative loss of signal to the dulling of the heavy metal toxicity.

I am puzzled by this phenomenon though, and see several options.

First is heavy metal toxicity. We do know arsenic has been infiltrating our food supply, in everything from rice, to apple and grape juices our children love. Fluoride is added to drinking water and may alter the metabolism of metals like Aluminum, and alter brain development in children. Lead paint has been around for some time as well. Mercury in seafood is everywhere, and people rarely keep track of how much they ingest. All of these may be a major difference from the colonial American environment.

Then there is the r-ification of society. Does dulling amygdalae through reduced development produce people who are not as engaged in the world, and whose neurological systems are not as turned on?

And of course, there are infective agents. Herpes viruses infect nerves, creating infection and inflammation, to say nothing of other, uncharacterized viruses which might not be characterized or noted if the only symptom of them is a slightly crooked aspect to expressions and diminutions in energy which barely anybody notices anyway.

And there are always vaccines, which basically have young children mounting immune responses to pathogens which they would not have seen in the past.

It is an interesting trend, if true, which might bear much more rigorous research and analysis.

Tell everyone about r/K Theory, because you can’t trust a two-face