Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved.
Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred.
As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers who were themselves rattled by Fetterman’s behavior, according to a second person who was briefed separately on the meeting.
Probably the immediate about-face he took on every single stance he had prior to his stroke…
People tend to get mad when you campaign on helping people then turn into a fascist supporter
It’s incredible how many passes he’s gotten since his stroke. He’s been spiraling hard. Megalomania, paranoia, and overall reckless behavior have become more common traits, but according to him he’s fine, he says while seething through clenched teeth.
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I have had to watch this happen to a close friend.
Back in 2015, I had a buddy who got into a nasty bike accident, and suffered a TBI. He was always a bit of a snarky asshole, but we definitely did see eye to eye on political matters before that happened. But during his recovery, he became a lot more viciously vindictive and outright mean, and also ended up going full MAGA later on. It was weird and depressing to watch a close friend spiral out of control and lash out at people who were previously his very close friends, to the extent that he alienated basically all of them.
It sucks, and it’s very real.
Same happened to my uncle, in his case due to a stroke in the temporo-frontal region when he was in his late 50s. He was a kindhearted man of moderate habits. After the stroke, he went full Mr Hyde, seemingly intent on burning through his retirement in pursuit of cocaine and prostitutes. Luckily for his family, he had another stroke within a year and that was game over.
I wonder how much high school athletics have contributed to conservatism via head injuries and groupthink?
Honestly, probably a lot
Total Breakdown of the Id?
TBI = severe bump to noggin
That’s SBN. C’mon, mate, it’s like you’re not even trying.
Thanks!
Oh that was just for other readers. Of course you and I know it’s from the German teurer bescheuerter Irrtum.
Edit: adjective case agreement
Yet with your combined superior intellect Democrats have lost control of all 3 branches of government and the supreme court. Maybe you guys are not as superior as you believe you are?
I’m not a Democrat.
And don’t be patronizing while victim-blaming.
The Judicial system, which includes the Supreme Court, is a branch of government.
“Nuh uh!”
-MAGAt
I think it was more like money damage… Being offered enough to completely abandon former thoughts and goals.
I have had a couple concussions, and I am generally intolerant of religion as a whole, doesn’t sound like any of the study findings any research on people who weren’t religious to begin with. Unless I’m reading this wrong, which I could be you know, because of the concussions🤣🤣🤣
A link doesn’t mean every single person did - maybe each concussion is rolling a die on the gullible idiot check and you got lucky.
It also depends on which area of the brain is injured.
Do you realize that your anecdote is literally meaningless in the context of statistical analysis?
Based on what the article said, your general intolerance of religion might be the very symptom they were referencing.
Their research doesn’t suggest that damage to that particular area of the brain causes religious beliefs, but rather that it more or less locks you into your beliefs religious or otherwise.
The injured brain becomes less able to consider other viewpoints, so changing beliefs becomes less likely even when confronted with facts that disprove the belief.
Right, it bears pointing out that atheism is in itself a faith, or at least its adherents treat it very much like one to the point that it might as well be one. For me it is the faith in the non-existance of a supreme being or deity.
For me it is the faith in the non-existance of a supreme being or deity.
I agree. I prefer to consider myself agnostic rather than atheist.
I’m really a dishonest agnostic since I can’t really imagine a proof of deity that I wouldn’t discount as a hallucination.
I did have a dream many years ago in which I woke up with absolute proof that God existed, but then I went back to sleep.
When I woke later, I couldn’t remember what the proof was. If the proof was real, and God let me forget it, then he’s an ass and he doesn’t deserve my belief.
I think the problem is that most people think of god as non material. In my view m whatever you want to call god is a material thing and you are touching it right now. And there’s absolutely no conclusive evidence to prove that this isn’t true and most thought exercises will have you reach the conclusion that there is a high likelihood that we are indeed part of a bigger thing that could be defined as god.
I guess a big divide here is how you define god, for most people it’s this intelligent and willful being. But that’s just what a human, who fashions gods in his image, thinks a god is.
For me intelligence is not a requirement for supremacy. I believe the universe itself for all intents and purposes is god. It has no will and no intelligence but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.
It doesn’t require faith to NOT believe in something. It requires faith to accept religion which cannot be proven.
It does require faith when you’re disbelieving something that has as much proof of its existence as of its non existence. There is no conclusive proof against the existence of a supreme being, in fact like I said in another comment there is physical evidence of one if you observe the universe, which is that all of existence collective is god.
If you zoom into a human being there are millions of microorganisms and bacteria that inhabit us, and at that level of zoom they all look like they inhabit their own little planets, zoom in more and you start to see the very molecules that make us up. But you zoom out and see a person, zoom out and see a planet, then a galaxy, then clusters and so on. Who’s to say that if you looked at the universe from outside of it, it would not be the very body of another living organism?
As somebody that has suffered from a stroke, I can pretty much relate to what John is going through here as I used to suffer from emotional outbursts early into my recovery as well. While I cannot promise you that it’s the same thing exactly it sure seems awfully familiar and hopefully he can recover like I did.
You’re the only commenter on this post who mentioned his stroke in the context of hoping for his recovery- rather than using it to mock him. So much for tolerance
Sounds like everyone else is weirdly angry that he’s STILL IN OFFICE causing problems when he’s clearly not fit for the job, regardless of the reason? Isn’t that the more pressing concern than his health, him being an utter stranger to almost everyone?
Why do people need to be kind and sensitive toward someone’s recovery while that person insists on keeping a position of extreme responsibility, and constantly fucks it up, while “recovering”?
Crappy take, friend. And the “so much for tolerance” is such a loaded phrase, you almost sound insincere, to boot. We don’t owe these politicians a fuckin thing, CERTAINLY not some prioritized level of compassion. Get real!
Why do people need to be kind and sensitive toward someone’s recovery while that person insists on keeping a position of extreme responsibility, and constantly fucks it up, while “recovering”?
The “so much for tolerance” is a bit much. But there is a very real conversation to be had about this.
It’s because it’s brain damage. The thing that thinks. The organ in his body that would normally explain to him that something is wrong and that he is no longer capable of making rational decisions… that organ is what is damaged.
The man clearly needs help. This isn’t some Kanye West megalomaniacal breakdown, this is just “the part of his brain that should know better could literally be dead”.
If we had a functioning society, government, and recall system, he would have been removed by now. But expecting a stroke victim to make the right decisions when he’s clearly significantly altered from his baseline mental state… that’s just wishful thinking.
Or, it terms I understand:
"Your shit's fucked up." I said "Doctor, how" He said "The shit that used to work? Well, it don't work now."So be it. It’s been a LONG time in this state. That sucks for him. The outsized damage he’s able to do makes me unsympathetic. He’s just one guy. Boo fucking hoo. The extraordinary damage happening to countless lives in this fucking country today, and we need to have a chat about how much compassion to give this guy? Again, get real!
Edit: I guess your point is about his own inability to see the problem, which I acknowledge. I don’t think he’s due any outsized compassion, at all.
I guess your point is about his own inability to see the problem, which I acknowledge
Yeah, it’s just this unfortunately.
I don’t know how anyone can help or fix the situation directly while it benefits the fascists in power, but being upset at him for not stepping down is like being upset with an Alzheimer’s patient for not remembering your name.
I just don’t agree. It’s more like being upset at an Alzheimer’s patient for totally blowing an important debate.
Compassion should not be reserved only for those that are good, but for everyone, and I think especially for those that are bad and may not realize that they are bad. Right and wrong are not black and white things and it is very difficult to be objective about one’s own situation, and realizing that hey “I’m doing wrong”. In this case I would argue that for Fetterman, he might not even yet realize how irrational his behavior is, maybe even the people around him have not fully realized it. So instead of trying to eat him alive, you can point it out, explain how his actions are harming people and kindly ask that he step down instead of acting rabid about it. Berating him is not gonna make him want to step down more than being kind about it so you might as well be kind, unless this is about realizing some kind of gratification for you.
I don’t care. You are completely missing the point. Everything you said is obviously, like painfully obviously, true in a general sense. It’s Morality 101.
Do you see the state of this place?? Are you aware that Fetterman has been causing these kinds of problems for a LONG time now, and do you agree that we desperately need every fucking scrap of pull to bring this country and it’s people back from the brink?
Giving a shit about the man’s well-being is someone else’s goddamn job. Miss me with your pearl clutching bullshit.
Ok internet tough guy.
Y’know, trump is literally demented and a malignant narcissist. The article talks about Fetterman repeating himself over and over - we’ve already seen multiple staffers describe trump doing exactly this. Does throwing a plate full of ketchup at the wall count as an ‘outburst’? He’s got more. A lot more.
Just sayin. He does this shit daily and doesn’t get an AP article written about it. Both of them need to step down but only one of them would ever be pressed by their own party.
The article talks about Fetterman repeating himself over and over - we’ve already seen multiple staffers describe trump doing exactly this.
That Last Week Tonight bit with the interview about Abrego Garcia was painful to watch.
That entire segment made me sick to my stomach.
Homan is an absolute fucking demon
That journalist was doing their very best to let him off the hook and move on. That wasn’t even a gotcha situation, he even conceded that the tattoos could be interpretted as MS-13 bit that he was no expert, and tried to move on. But Trump wouldn’t let it go, and kept trying to pull it back to “it wasn’t photoshop, he actually had the MS13 tattooed in print on his knuckles” and openly said that the journalist should just say yes and accept it before he’d move on. Jesus.
