• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    You think CTE causes people to become assholes?

    A stroke like Fetterman’s often produces even larger personality changes. Sometimes it’s for the better, but often it tends to effect the forebrain where things like empathy and critical thinking happen. If it gets other parts in the hind brain that’s where you get the other stereotypical stroke symptoms of slurring speech and poor muscle control.

    Fettermen wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t this huge of an asshole before the stroke

    It doesn’t excuse any of his shit behavior either. I just always think “why” is an important question when talking about someone’s behavior. Ironically enough when it happened Republicans called for him to resign and Dems blindly defended him. After the personality changes he’s Republicans favorite Dem and most of his own party hates him.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if he runs as a Republican next election.

    Edit:

    Guess I should have “more of an asshole”.

    • quixotic120@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think it probably has a lot more to do with the fact that pro Israel pacs gave him 250k. You’re just viewing the corruption in realtime

    • Sundial@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      The man got 250K from pro-Israel lobbyists. He’s in a position of authority and is being paid to endorse a specific viewpoint that is in direct violation of US and international humanitarian law. I’m not going to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        It’s not the benefit of the doubt.

        If a stroke changes you it changes you. If it makes you an asshole, it’s not just ok to be an asshole.

        Every other asshole also has a reason to be an asshole, recency doesn’t matter.

        But I legitimately don’t know if he took AIPAC money in the primary before the stroke. If he did, then yeah, he was already an asshole before the stroke. Doesn’t mean a stroke couldn’t make him a more blatant asshole. Lack of impulse control is also a common symptom, people lose their filter and that’s rarely a positive thing.

        It’s not excusing it, but we need to understand it so we learn how to deal with it and hopefully prevent the next person from being an asshole.

        • Sundial@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          The man is able to connect the dots of receiving lobbying money and advocating for a certain position. He should be able to connect the dots of civilians dying, and saying that’s bad. Lots of people who suffer from strokes learn to control themselves and their personality changes. Fetterman just isn’t one of them.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            We’re saying the same thing.

            An asshole is an asshole, it doesn’t matter what lead them down that path.

            Understanding why people are assholes is worth it because we learn how to deal with them, and maybe even prevent less people from becoming assholes later.

            Every society has X% of assholes, there’s never zero assholes, but it’s worth getting that number as low as possible.

            I think everyone agrees there’s more than there used to be, and would enjoy less assholes.

            • Sundial@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              I see what you’re saying. My mistake, I misinterpreted your comment. You’re honestly a better person than me that would see someone have this kind of stance and say “Let’s see where they’re coming from”. To me, it’s just another asshole that society should not even have to tolerate.

            • Understanding why people are assholes is worth it because we learn how to deal with them,

              I guess the question here would be - if the stroke made him more of an asshole, then - as you seem to be implying - what’s the cure? Or if you acknowledge that there’s not really a cure, how does knowing that a stroke caused this help inform our ability to deal with this?

              and maybe even prevent less people from becoming assholes later.

              How would that work in this case? Preventing strokes definitely seems like a good idea, but that’d be something already being pursued to the fullest even without the additional personality change angle.

              Or are you suggesting that there’s a way to help a stroke victim prevent their personality change, lessen it, reverse it?

    • You think CTE causes people to become assholes?

      Not sure who mentioned CTE or how it’s relevant to Fetterman.

      A stroke like Fetterman’s often produces even larger personality changes.

      Agreed. This reminds me of a biography of FDR I read, explaining how his term went worse after his own stroke.

      Fettermen wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t this huge of an asshole before the stroke

      Credit to alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml for https://jewishinsider.com/2022/04/john-fetterman-says-hell-lean-in-on-u-s-israel-relationship-as-senator/

      Here’s a choice quote from a pre-stroke Fetterman,

      Fetterman said he is “equally passionate” in his opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

      Also remember that he

      backed legislation at the state level, signed into law six years ago by Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, barring the commonwealth from pursuing contracts with companies that participate in boycotts of Israel.

      Finally,

      Fetterman … confirmed … that he has … sought counsel from a variety of advocacy groups, including … AIPAC

      Again, that’s all pre-stroke. So he might have been better at hiding or spinning these things pre-stroke, but it doesn’t seem like his beliefs have really changed because of the stroke.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if he runs as a Republican next election.

      I would be. The closest I can find to that is this quote from him (from the above article), but this was pre-stroke.

      I’m not really a progressive

    • nbailey@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      My grandfather had a stroke at 81. He did not in fact become an asshole, he just got a little slower and spent less time working on his old truck. This is 100% on fetterman for having shitty opinions and being bitterly dug in. I don’t think it’s fair to all the wonderful people affected by strokes to give him that out.

    • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This is who hes always been, but the only thing VBNMW liberals saw was that D in front of his name. We tried to warn them, but they always seem to know better