The liberal comedian then asked Fetterman whether his shift in various policies had anything to do with his recovery from his 2022 stroke, asking if his near-death experience had given him a "freedom."
"Absolutely," Fetterman responded. "There's a line from the first 'Batman,' Joker's like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It's very liberating.'"
"It's freeing in a way. And I just think after beating all of that, I just really [want to] be able to say the things that I have to really believe in and not be afraid of if there's any kind of blowback."
So basically yes, the stroke made him a Republican. Pathetic and disappointing, but all too predictable.
Of course they wouldn't vote for him. It's like a sports game to many Republican voters where they just vote for their team regardless of their position.
I'd bet that if a literal socialist ran for office as a Republican, many Republican voters would be on board.
it's usually simpler than that. conservatives pay more than liberals.
i know a few leftists who have now gone hard right... because they got paid more to spout conservative conspiracy nonsense than they did liberal/socialist stuff.
It must be so easy to grift money out of conservatives. Just spout some conspiracy theory about how 'they' are actually behind the bad things in the world and watch the money pour in, regardless of how little sense it makes.
In line with this, there's also an immense left-to-far-right pipeline in media simply because the left will hold you accountable even if you agree with them but the right doesn't give a fuck as long as you say the thing.
I listened to a podcast about one such author. I forget what about but she wrote a book based on IIRC a flawed interpretation of whatever subject leading the whole thing to be basically wrong.
People pointed out it wrong, sales plummet, author gets butthurt and defensive, now they're playing the antivax circuit I believe it was.
(Sorry, the podcast was background noise for powerwash simulator so I don't remember specifics lol)
When people are paying me to say things, it's always some kind of deception. Usually I am tricking risks into thinking they're merely costs in an elaborate post-hoc fashion.
I like that this implies the left just don't give enough fucks to bother to pay or even fight for their values which is what is hinted at in these articles. They're limp dicks and somehow always proud of it. I agree with the headline that people who lean left don't have any fight in them to pull together and actually rally like they do on the right. Seen many people on the left go to stand up for some values and get destroyed. The left can't muster anything more than "har har the right are stupid dumb dumbs" as every single person has watched the left choke for over a decade and lose tremendous ground on all their issues while the right votes in assholes like Trump who they only like because you all hate him so much.
Its as if the left has zero concept of what a leader does socially because they all stand by as right wing snipers continue to pick off every single one of them. And each time its a loud signal to never stand up for left values publicly or you risk massive harassment from both the left and the right.
"There's a line from the first 'Batman,' Joker's like ‘I’ve been dead once already. It's very liberating.'"
You... you get that the Joker was the bad guy right? Who went on to kill a bunch of people? I guess it makes sense that this is your reasoning for becoming a republican but what a weird quote choice.
Cotham rose to prominence with a speech on the statehouse floor about her own abortion that drew national attention in 2015.
She ran for her seat, which was heavily Democratic and included east Charlotte before redistricting, as a Democrat and strong supporter of abortion rights. But she switched parties in April 2023, giving the Republican-led General Assembly a supermajority in both houses. That allowed Republicans to override Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes at will and pass laws they had long sought, such as a stricter abortion limit that lowered the cutoff in most cases to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Cotham ran on protecting Roe V. Wade, then switched parties to help dismantle it. She's a true bottom feeder.
I have personally worked with Fetterman a number of times while I was working for Allegheny county. He had some moderate stances on things like Israeli support, but not like this. Also, he spent his entire time as mayor of Braddock pushing a lot of very progressive things. He actively turned down opportunities to not be living in his office, and get highly paid, in order to fight a large amount of resistance he faced, even among the people he directly worked with in Braddock. He had a provable, positive, long term, impact on Braddock. He demonstrated that a lot of progressive ideas works, because Braddock implemented them, and it worked. This had a impact on how Pittsburgh, and Allegheny county in general, looked at the future, and how to best design it.
He has demonstrated he is staunchly pro-labor and, in the past, has demonstrated so via sacrificing political payola to do that, among many other progressive things. So I am very conflicted at this serious increase in, what was previously a relatively moderate, stance on Israel. I have to wonder if it was the stroke, or did he strike a deal with AIPAC.
I think most people that were adults when 9/11 happened dont expect peace to ever be possible between the arabs and the west, and see hamas and all the other extremists as suicidially determined genocidal crusaders.
Especially so since Hamas knew they had no chance of winning any conflict they started with the Oct 7th attack but did it anyway, and maintain popular support in gaza even now.
It's not that older Americans necessarily want to see Palestinians slaughtered but don't see any peaceful alternative to ending the conflict, and see it more as a 'fuck around and find out' situation, so long as Israel doesnt start putting people in ovens (for some even if they do).
As an aside, geopolitically, thats kinda the point of (funding and arming and training and informing) Hamas. To make peace impossible, because peace benefits the west.
For the sake of spreading their ideology and increasing their support, their backers want a forever war.
I was an adult when 9/11 happened. From my personal experience it didn't push people to believe this. It simply drew those thoughts out of them. I didn't know a single person who decided to hate muslims when it happened, those people already hated people who look different, and have different cultures/religions. 9/11 just gave them an opportunity to run their mouths about their bigotry. Also, everything you just said about peace among arabs has also been applied to africans, and was also said about europe until after WW2, regardless of their culture/religion, and was a common line of BS well before it.
The only thing it may have done is make previously ignorant bigots aware of arabs. The one thing I have noticed that changed, is knowledge of just how much "the west" has intentionally done to destabilize anyone who wont bend to their economic empires, has become mainstream. People living in the west are far less generously minded about their own countries' current affairs, and histories, than they were 30 years ago. It has actually become a societal issue, in that a significant portion of the population just can't handle how shitty the reality of their birth place is, and is now one of the major talking points of the alt-right. Backlash to this has also been a growing sentiment to more than just the far right too.
europeans vs arabs is an old, old, thing. The talking points of how the arab world can never know peace is just as old.
Ok. What if I break into your house, lock you up in the toilet and regularly beat you and your family up? Worse, the Police is actively supporting it. Would you fight back any way you can? Would your actions be called "terrorism" or "extremism"? Would you not fight back even when you know the odds are against you? Fuck off, Zionist.
It's pretty crazy how Hamas has demonstrably agreed to a ceasefire multiple times, israel rejects it, and we still have people whining about how Hamas doesn't want peace.
i can't imagine anything more embarrassing than someone who seems to hold political views opposite mine having a stroke and suffering brain damage, only to come out the other end saying now with this freshly scrambled brain he thinks that I'm right.
it's a lucky coincidence that conservatives don't have to go through that because they have no shame.
He’s got some strange agriculture sponsored bills, banning oil sales from the strategic reserve, but most of his sponsored bills are aimed at helping low income people stay in housing, some pro union stuff, and a bit of fuckcars. He literally sponsored a bill to cancel school meal debt at the federal level. Not sure why he’s getting blasted here as a Republican other than idiocy that he’s not a AOC clone by the “Palestine became my only issue in the last 5 months” folks.
A bill to amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to ensure that striking workers and their households do not become ineligible for benefits under the supplemental nutrition assistance program, and for other purposes.
That's it? I'm reading this comment section for 5 minutes trying to find what right-wing things he's done that are making everyone so upset, and it's all just piling on with everyone nodding to each other about how bad he is. Comments like "the stroke should have killed him." Weird.
Fetterman is truly for the left, he stands for the working class against the wealthy.
Everything else is a distraction, and he realizes this fact. We need more lawmakers like him, not noisemakers like AOC going off about the unimportant issue of the week.
Seize back control our society from the rich and everything else will follow.
I'm wondering what Giselle thinks of all of this. I haven't heard a peep from her since he became a senator, and I feel like she was a good influence on him.
It's money. Yes to brain damage, but also... Yes to money. It corrupts people. It fucks them up. This guy didn't have much money, go watch the housing show he was on. I bet not many know about that...
I live in Pa and keep forgetting about him until he pops up in the news. Then I'm reminded that he is the biggest disappointment I've experienced in politics. I almost feel like my vote was wasted. Hopefully he at least keeps reproductive rights a thing in this state. I cannot function without my bc because it keeps my endometriosis at bay.
I mean, yes, disappointing (and yes this is the leftism community so I get it), but it doesn't look like he's doing a Sinema or a Cotham.
Maher then asked him to explain what he meant what he stated last year "I’m not a progressive, I'm just a regular Democrat" and how he separates himself from progressivism
Yup. Just not be the person who will actually abuse other humans and that's all you need. No values or standards. No connection to your voting base... Just not the other.
Was this stroke before or after that whole dress code thing? I remember his antics being amusing when they wanted to do away with the dress code rule that was never technically written down anywhere and he shows up in shorts and they immediately change their minds and codified it.
Or what he's really saying is that he never believed what he said before but felt pressured into agreeing with an ideology. And now that he knows the worst that can ever happen to him is death, and that's alright, he is a lot more candid. That doesn't agree with progressivisms mentality of agree with the correct thing or be shut up.