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.
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.
He should probably do it in the privacy of his own home, not as a sitting US Senator.
I had a stroke (really, a multi-stroke trauma event). I spent many days in the hospital under close supervision. Unlike Fetterman, I listened to my doctors, took an extended leave of absence from work, slept almost the entire time so my brain could heal in those critical days and weeks, took my medication, and went to physical therapy.
Fetterman reportedly didn’t do any of that.
I recovered fully. Fetterman clearly did not. In his current state, he should step down for the sake of everyone, especially himself. The stress of his job is about the worst possible thing he could do to himself.
I agree, I also did a bit of consoling to rehab myself. John should too.
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!
I would feel compassion and I would highly appreciate it if he would take his time to recover, but he doesn’t, and yeah, sorry, in his condition he is clearly not for for this job.
Doesn’t vindicate cruelty towards him
Didn’t say that. I said he should shuffle off.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At this point, I’m more upset at whoever is in his orbit and is not at least attempting to take Grampa’s car keys away
I just don’t agree. It’s more like being upset at an Alzheimer’s patient for totally blowing an important debate.
…okay? If you think there are circumstances under which it’s productive or rational to be upset with an Alzheimer’s patient for having alzheimer’s… not much to say to that.
That was a reference to Biden, and the fact that it should not come to this, and when it does, compassion for the patient is obviously the wrong thing to prioritize.
Edit: clarity
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.
I think people should be compassionate to literally every other person.
Probably because he feels passionate about his beliefs and feels its important that he fights for them.
🤡
xd
Would you feel the same way if his stroke destroyed his ability to drive a car but he insisted on continuing to do so anyway and kept putting lives at risk? It would be great if if can make a full recovery, and I certainly hope he can, but he needs to get the fuck out of the driver’s seat until he does so.
Putting aside the fact that he is also literally doing that and has also hurt his poor wife
Being in political office isn’t driving a car. But regardless, even assuming the analogy were correct, yes I would say you should still be compassionate about it.
He got elected as a Democrat with a decently progressive policy platform, had a stroke, then said, “all the progressiveness has left my body” and turned his back on the constituents who elected him. He’ll get sympathy when he resigns for health reasons and not a moment before that.
Until then he’s just another brain damaged liar and a traitor to his constituents, like his new friend Lil Donnie.
So much for tolerance… in anonymous online forums? Schadenfreude for public figures is easy enough to come by in real life that it should be no surprise to see it shine through online
I mean yea, I think people should be nice on the internet too
I can understand both sides here.
On the one hand I have empathy with him like with any victim of such a life-altering injury and wish him a swift and full recovery. I don’t want people to suffer and, quite frankly, “the brain doesn’t work right anymore” is one of my personal horror scenarios.
On the other hand this kind of behavior is a huge problem in someone capable of making decisions that can alter the lives of other people – millions of them, in this case. He has enough power to ruin a lot of people’s lives, intentionally or not.
Even as someone who isn’t impacted by his mental fitness in any way, I’d agree that removing him from office seems like a good move. That man needs rest, not the stress of a high-profile political office during interesting times. And his state needs someone with a level head, which doesn’t mesh well with a semi-recent traumatic brain injury.
And, well, this is a politics community so guess which part the discussion will focus on. (Also, this is online so people are inclined to be assholes.)
This is a reasonable position. I just don’t think saying calous and cruel things then justifying it by saying “it’s online” is a good excuse. You can think someone is wrong and causing severe harm without also hating them, vilifying them, etc. Some people are cruel so it’s fair to be cruel back to them, but I don’t think anyone can fairly look at Fetterman and think he actually intends to hurt people.
Oh, please don’t take that remark as an excuse or endorsement. The intended tone is one of resignation – pseudonymity reduces the social cost of bad manners to near zero and there’s not much we can do about it.
I will forgive people for being blunt in their criticism, however. High-ranking politicians are exactly the people who have to be able to take a certain level of verbal abuse since their decisions can change other people’s lives in directions that justify the liberal use of expletives.
Which plays back into my perception that Fetterman is currently not suited to his role.
Fuck your feelings, and fuck his feelings.
Why though?
Because he’s a piece of shit in bed with Trump.
What did he do that makes you think he’s in bed with Trump?
Most folks are pissed that he is in office, which is completely fucken reasonable. Fact of the matter is a stroke is as much a mental health issue as it is a physical issue. Just like how I remove myself from people when I’m in an autistic meltdown Fetterman should remove himself from politics. But what do I know I’m just a bloodthirsty Californian who wishes to lash 99.9 percent of politicians to crosses.
As others have pointed out the stroke could definitely impair his ability to understand its impact on his mental state.
But also yea no, someone can be very wrong and you can think and state that without being needlessly cruel to them.
I’m an Inland Imperial, me not threatening to dump their still warm corpse off in Victorville is me not being needlessly cruel. Fact of the matter is some folks need to be told to fuck off.
yeah, why dont we all have more tolerance for people doing active harm? While we are on the topic, Who speaks for the CEOs here? They are human right? And has anyone asked the zionists about their feelings? their pains and fears?
But also, Fetterman is responsible for his actions and his actions suck. Thats how responsibility works, and leadership comes with a lot of responsibility. Fetterman is blowing it, so as a leader he deserves the ridicule. Politics is not all tea parties, playing patty-cakes, and talking about feelings. You perform or you get what Fettermans getting. Once he gets the eff out, he wont hold that responsibility and can be treated as just another human with human problems again.
Yes. Tolerating someone’s existence and humanity doesn’t mean you have to enable them to do things you disagree with.
Yes. Someone who genuinely believes they are acting morally, even if they do something evil, are not themselves evil. They are misguided. You shouldn’t enable them, but you also shouldn’t be needlessly cruel to them.
Yes, but context matters. People’s motives matter when you judge them. People’s circumstances matter.
Nitpick not about you, but just how people talk about congress in general: let’s just be honest, most of them are not leaders. Or at least not leading anything beyond their team of staffers. And they were not intended to be leaders, they represent their constituents, serving them not leading them.
What? Ridiculed and mocked by people on the internet who’s primary hobbies are thinking of creative insults and coping? I’m not being facetious, I’m asking what just saying cruel things on Lemmy does thats productive.
Why can’t he be treated as a human now? Just a human who at least you believe is wrong on serious issues, and therefore causing harm based on misconceptions.
The problem of evil is that many of the worst things in history were done by people who believed they were acting morally. The witch hunts, the crusades, the inquisition, and large portions of the genocide of the Americas were done in part with a belief that it was moral. Part of a good understanding of morality is self reflection to understand that one can twist themselves into evil. It’s why I think your calls for compassion here are valuable.
I’m angry at Fetterman, and I’d be fucking pissed if he was my senator. I don’t know if I think he’s outright evil. But I do know that to label a human as good or evil is valuable but risky. It helps us form accountability and to rally each other, but it also leads us to assign people as wholly good or wholly bad when all people have immense complexity to our motivations, beliefs, and actions.
Well, I’ve lived what he’s lived. That helps.
BTW, I’m glad to hear you recovered! Stay healthy :)
Thanks, so far so good. 20 years now.
As if people are nice here.
Lemmy is for being smug 3rd party and reconfirming your own self held superiority for the basic act of being here.
It was built by a lack of tolerance towards and from others.
I also think we shouldn’t tolerate him taking up one of only 100 seats of an important job while he is unwell and should do so privately.
Wait, are you being held here against your will?! Blink once for “no,” twice for “yes!”
Nah I can close this app and not care to check for days.
I want a news link aggregator and a vibe check on where the social liberals are at culturally and so I check here for both.
I have no intention of having the frequent comment and post history of those seeking validation and witnesses for their life actions.
I get the added bonus of about 1-2 hobbies with nearly empty communities though so maybe one day I will blink twice for you.
Edit: there is no formatting syntax escape I guess.
You’re so amazing. Can i touch you? Maybe it’ll rub off on me.
No unfortunately you have to develop your own life.
Any tips? At what stage do i come to an online forum and proudly declare myself above everyone on said forum? Is that, like, 101 level, or are there prereqs?
Nah you just start that way and never change or adapt your understanding of anything. Heck you are already there with being able to misread comments and jump to conclusions about other people’s statements cause it makes you feel better if you think they are looking down at you thus giving you early permission to be condescending back.
You make a great lemming and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise cause… Well, in proper fashion you won’t listen.
It’s not smugness, or being mean. This man is a sitting US Senator. His decisions directly affect the well-being of literally hundreds of millions of people.
Shit is far too important to be treated with kid gloves. If you’re getting into national politics, you better stop giving a fuck about people being “nice” to you.
Oh agreed that this is really important. Literally he is taking a seat on a council of 100 people who are supposed to be the best and most representative of their constituents and yelling about people being nice to him. He needs to step down.
But also the comments in here are smug. Lemmy is not a place for nuance or empathy but vague superiority based on some form of intellectualism that is not owed or earned.
People just feel good about complaining about him and view it as a space to dish out their milquetoast worse. Nothing here is helpful for the real world.