Look I feel for the guy, but why is he still an active member of the Senate?? Focus on your health, step away, but my god don’t vote on policies that affects hundreds of millions.
Those last two paragraphs sound a lot like how Trump has acted the past 10 years. "high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room....."
Yeah, and after that, the bit where he falls asleep at the wheel while speeding, after refusing to take a cab after a red-eye flight and almost kills her (and the woman in the car he rear-ended)? She had spinal fractures! She could have died! That's straight-up abusive behavior.
I'm also sad that the senate race was so off-the-rails insane (Dr. Oz!!!!) that keeping momentum / the campaign going was the priority, as opposed to continued treatment and rehabilitation.
Having had a stroke, I can confirm that depression is one of the things about which they warn you. It’s apparently a known aftereffect unrelated to anything like mobility or speech pathology. Your brain broke. It may not fix perfectly.
I often tell people I came out with only the defects I took in - my whole personality - but sometimes I wonder if maybe there haven’t been changes I don’t notice because I’m on the inside. Fetterman doesn’t strike me as introspective enough even to ask that.
incredible that we have a legitimate case study in brain damage leading to right-wing radicalization and yet no one can see it for the disease it clearly is
As a citizen I had a feeling he couldn't be trusted and it wasn't just based on his health, the bro mentality the minimal if any professional approach to any office he has held now we find out the pressure is to much
His wife and kids are in serious danger. I understand this is traumatic and she is trying to save things but this honestly reads like the story you see about a husband who had a severe change in behavior then did a murder suicide with their whole family.
this is all so revealing and sad. I don't mean any disrespect, but in a way I'm sort of relieved that I wasn't somehow vicious in thinking "gosh, he seems to have gone insane a bit?" the brain is a hungry organ, its damaged appetites often devastating.
He’s shown up in my district, #NY21, conspicuously dining at the hangout of GOP types, a diner called Poopies. (I’m not making that up)
Whatever they eat in there clogs people’s brains. (Okay, that part maybe I'm making up)
Heavy (fatty) red meat consumption...like burgers is not good for the brain. Sounds like he is eating burgers daily (from the articles).
He may have preexisting issues, but the buildup of plaque in the arteries/brain is bad all around for circulation, and also brain health...accelerating dementia.
Fetterman's mental health comes up at every social function I attend; everyone wonders if something changed or if he was always like this and we missed the signs.
My first teacher practice I was placed in a school with a well-known & loved principal. He had sadly had a stroke the year before but came back. After 3 days, I asked to be moved. He had completely changed: cruel, militant, chaotic. Shouting at 6 year olds over the PA randomly during the day.
It wasn't his fault. He wasn't that way for his previous 50+ years of his life. But he shouldn't have been given that position of power back. It destroyed that school community.
Brain injuries are terribly cruel as they steal so much of what we think of as our unique selves.
This is enlightening, thank you, and I'm so sorry. The article really encapsulates how a lot of PAns feel: incredibly sympathetic, and bewildered. Thing is, we're wondering if JF was always like this? He flew a rainbow flag outside the Capitol, invited local kids to swim in the LtGov house pool!
Some racist behavior surfaced in the primary that he never sufficiently answered (I voted for Kenyatta in the primary), so again, did we miss something? Or did the brain injury completely flip him around?
Brain injuries can be weird and managing them can require constant vigilance. I do think the stroke damaged parts of Fetterman’s brain and that he was not like this before. (I have experienced something similar with my own father).
I'm just a random person with no medical expertise and even I know depression and mood swings can occur after a stroke. I get that it doesn't always happen, but this seems like a pretty obvious shift before and after his stroke. It's really sad.
Comments
Those last two paragraphs sound a lot like how Trump has acted the past 10 years. "high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room....."
A fascist Fetterman familiar.
‘“They are bombing refugee camps. How can you support this?” the staffer recalled her saying with tears in her eyes.
“That’s all propaganda,” Fetterman replied.’
and even a few small changes can change your entire trajectory of thought
scary stuff
She needs to take the kids and leave.
Is his rightward turn neurological? Is that why he seems different? There’s a lot to unpack here.
Whatever they eat in there clogs people’s brains. (Okay, that part maybe I'm making up)
He may have preexisting issues, but the buildup of plaque in the arteries/brain is bad all around for circulation, and also brain health...accelerating dementia.
Brain injuries are terribly cruel as they steal so much of what we think of as our unique selves.
PA Dems need to ramp up his replacement *now*.
He needs to be removed from office long before that, if even half of this report is accurate.