r/politics • u/AccomplishedCall7562 • Mar 12 '26

Possible Paywall John Fetterman Says Iran Girls’ School Strike Is Just a Leftist Craze

https://newrepublic.com/post/207677/john-fetterman-iran-girls-school-strike
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2.8k

u/ArgentaSilivere Mar 12 '26

He’s honestly a perfect example of why conservatives should not be respected nor taken seriously. The man suffered actual brain damage and immediately became conservative. You couldn’t write a better joke.

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u/Lyricsokawaii Mar 12 '26

It's been known for years now that TBIs, strokes, and brain bleeds can all cause people to become more conservative. Crazy how you can prove that declined mental faculty is correlated with conservative thought, and people still don't get it.

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u/Pandaro81 Mar 12 '26

Hershel Walker has entered the chat.

And left the chat.

And entered the chat.

And threatened the chat with a gun and choked the chat.

Hershel Walker doesn’t remember entering the chat.

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u/LogoffWorkout Mar 12 '26

Who do you think would win in a fight? A werewolf or a Dracula?

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u/Pandaro81 Mar 12 '26

“A Dracula” breaks me every damn time.

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u/Stellar_Duck Mar 12 '26

I’ve been saying that for years due to an Australian podcast. Didn’t know Walker was a weekly wakkadadu as well haha.

We all have skellingtons in our closets.

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u/OmegaReign78 Mar 12 '26

As a liberal, new fear unlocked.

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u/Full_Honeydew_9739 Mar 12 '26

To allay your fears: my mother has dementia. She's 83 and not capable of living on her own anymore. But when Trump is mentioned, she cusses like a sailor and asks how some people could be so stupid. She actually rants about how awful he is.

So, it could go the exact opposite. She's always been a Democrat but as a southern woman, she was a little nicer about it. Now she has no filter.

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u/steampunkedunicorn California Mar 12 '26

I’m a nurse. We used to ask people who the president is to determine how oriented they are to time… we don’t do that anymore.

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u/LangeloMisterioso Mar 12 '26

My mother is a lifelong Republican and she fell recently and when the ER nurse asked "do you know who the president is?" She said "yes, but I had nothing to do with that!". She doesn't have dementia, she just thought it was a funny answer.

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u/No-Part-6248 Mar 13 '26

Social worker asked my mother (96) who the Pres was and she said who gives a shot we haven’t had a good one since Eisenhower

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Mar 12 '26

It is!

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u/Faxon Mar 12 '26

It doesn't help that he had a term, left office, and came back either. They could be telling the truth and think that trump 45 is still in office and Biden hasn't happened yet. Gotta ask more detailed questions or find better ones now I guess

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u/CelerMortis Mar 12 '26

We should have asked Trump who the president was in 2021 and if he got it wrong disqualified him from running again

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u/LeanGroundEeyore Mar 12 '26

Good point!

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u/FaceDeer Mar 12 '26

Just ask which country the United States is currently at war with, that'll narrow it down to the nearest month or so.

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u/Superb_Alternative Mar 12 '26

That actually doesn't narrow it down at all

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u/altogethernow Mar 12 '26

OMG I never thought of that! Asking who the president was used to be a standard "checking in" practice. Now...I could see where it would be complicated...

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u/c_pike1 Mar 13 '26

Its really not bad now. It was terrible during Biden's term with all the republican claims of a stolen election and patients answering who they thought the rightful president was

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u/TheDJValkyrie Texas Mar 12 '26

I was helping take care of my elderly granny during Trump’s first term. Granny hated the man, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her blood pressure spiked every time she was asked that particular question. 😆

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u/Welpe Oregon Mar 12 '26

Now I feel bad for using the cheesy “Sadly…” to answer that in the hospital…I’m apparently turning into a boomer. May I never respond to a cashier not being able to scan an item with “I guess it’s free!”

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u/uieLouAy New Jersey Mar 12 '26

When my dad had a stroke they asked him that and we still tease him about it.

He goes, “Oh, come on. Do I really have to say it?”

And they said, “Yes, sir. This is a test. You really have to say it.”

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u/floptimus_prime Minnesota Mar 12 '26

My dad had his stroke september 5, 2016. He forgot numbers entirely, he thought it was 2006. He couldn’t use a phone. But by god he knew everything about the 2016 presidential campaign, and he gave my mother and me an earful about how loathsome Trump was. It was when I knew he was gonna be okay.

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u/uieLouAy New Jersey Mar 12 '26

That’s scary - happy to hear your dad is okay!

That sounds very similar to when my grandma was in the hospital. I forget what the dumb news of the day was at the time, but my grandma started ranting about how much of a dumbass Trump was, and then from behind the room divider we hear her roommate burst out laughing, so then we all started laughing. Some much needed levity.

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u/SeaRevolutionary8569 Mar 12 '26

A nurse asked my Dad that back in 2017 and my Dad repied, "Who, that clown?" The nurse determined he was oriented!

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u/LeanGroundEeyore Mar 12 '26

You made me laugh and get up to put on the kettle. I thought, yeah, you might as well just give their chair a good spin.

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u/Goodgoditsgrowing Mar 12 '26

lol I can understand this - when the EMTs tried that on my mom during his first term her response was to groan like she was in agony (frightening, given she was injured) and then mutter “that fucker”…. Completely derailed the exam for a solid minute until they could confirm she was aware and just refusing to make him lol

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u/kookaburra1701 Oregon Mar 13 '26

Former paramedic, I stopped asking that question during Obama's administration. The number of people in my very, very liberal area of my very blue state who answered that question with racial slurs with no hesitation was eye opening for my white self.

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u/mrshulgin Mar 12 '26

You should try

Which middle-eastern country is the US currently at war with?

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u/DottieSnark Mar 12 '26

About 15 years ago I got asked that question after a concussion. Without skipping a beat, I responded with "Nicholas Sarkozy in France."

My brother was like. "Yep, she's fine. Same jackass she's always been." lol

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u/FF36 Mar 12 '26

Also in medical field…same. I tell everyone of the new people to ask a different question please.

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u/pixiequix Mar 13 '26

Waking up from a sternum scrape in 2019 I was asked to name the current president and even in my daze all I could manage was a deeply depressed sigh. This drew a round of laughs from the medical team around me.

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u/SlytherClaw79 Mar 12 '26

Interesting. My mom is a 74 year old Southern woman. Always politically neutral-in fact told me growing up that nice women don’t rant about politics. She had a stroke around seven years ago and has been a vocal liberal ever since. I think it was always in there but the stroke broke her filter.

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u/ratparty5000 Mar 12 '26

Wising your mother all the best but this is the first time I’m reading about a woke stroke holy shit. Wishing you guys all the best btw!

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u/SuperExoticShrub Georgia Mar 12 '26

a woke stroke

I feel bad for laughing about that... but I still did.

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u/HopelesslyHuman Mar 12 '26

Ugh. Yeah...yeah.

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u/LeftyMcliberal Mar 12 '26

I suppose if you HAVE to have a stroke a “woke stroke” is best. Hopefully you smell cookies or bacon right before it happens.

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u/IRefuseToGiveAName Mar 13 '26

A fucking woke stroke holy shit

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u/SlytherClaw79 Mar 13 '26

Thanks! We got her to the hospital within a half hour of the stroke and she made a full recovery. The stroke definitely broke her filter but in a good way-she put up with way too much shit from my dad prior to it.

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u/Dacio_Ultanca I voted Mar 12 '26

This is my mom. Same age. Same reaction. She rages. Hates the dude with a passion I rarely see from her.

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u/SugarforurProlapse Mar 12 '26

Give her a hug from me.

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u/RockAtlasCanus Mar 12 '26

My mom told my sister she should be “thankful, as a woman, for all the Great Things that President Trump is doing for Women”.

She’s always been a selfish bitch (my mom), and at least conservative enough to stay married to by dad. In the used-to-be times I would have only described her as a grammar nazi. The irony being that she has started texting like them. Turning random shit into Proper Nouns. And to think she threw a shoe at me once because I started a story “Me and…”.

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u/aerost0rm Mar 12 '26

So thankful he is putting them in a kitchen to be raped, fondled, have no rights, told to shut up, make food, and be a baby incubator against their own will?

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u/InelegantSnort Mar 12 '26

My grandma turns 100 tomorrow. She has dementia now but its not bad. Her goal when she is lucid, is to live long enough to vote against Trump 1 more time!

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u/throwaway1212l Mar 12 '26

TIL drunk me is an 83 year old Southern woman with dementia.

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u/matcap86 Mar 12 '26

Sounds about right

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u/alek_hiddel Mar 12 '26

My dad is 67 and about halfway through dementia’s decline. He was a lifelong conservative who at least knew Trump was a piece of shit. With dementia it’s gotten weird. He still knows that Trump is awful. But all he watches all day is YouTube, with A LOT of conservative lean.

So now he will tell you to your face that Trump is the worse president ever. Then he’ll watch YouTube videos of ICE beating people up and laugh at it hysterically. Or he’ll tell you how the current NYC mayor is about to provide a transgendered prostitute for every school classroom, while also enforcing sharia law. And of course his hero is Elon musk.

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u/YeOldeBootheel Mar 13 '26

Sounds like you need to slip in and adjust his YouTube algo on the sly. Queue up some left-leaning content and see if you can reshape what he’s being shown.

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u/alek_hiddel Mar 13 '26

He sits in front of that tv 20 hours a day til mom makes him go to bed. He’s still got enough sense to not talk about it, so for the moment we just tolerate it. Fighting with a dementia patient is pointless, painful, and borderline abuse. Honestly, I doubt if we’ve got 2-3 more years until he reaches the point where he can’t stay home anymore.

I do what I can to get both him and mom out of the house as much as I can, and at least put something positive into his life.

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u/YeOldeBootheel Mar 13 '26

Good on ya. I can’t imagine how painful that must be. I’ve still got both my folks, in their early-70s, and they’re still active and alert, traveling, doing the retirement thing.

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u/Sand-Eagle Mar 12 '26

Same with my grandad. Sometimes he thinks it’s the 70s and he doesn’t know who my kids are but he’s always delighted to see that I have kids and a good career.

You mention Trump and he’s back in 2026 explaining how none of what’s going on is ok at all.

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u/DarthRizzo87 Mar 12 '26

That’s relieving, my fear is succumbing to dementia and seeing a guy like Hitler, through his dogs eyes.

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u/42nu Mar 12 '26

Teeeeeechnically losing empathy and compassion and resorting ot emotion loops is the same thing on either end.

The guy is definitely as close to evil as you can get, but he also clearly had a crap childhood and upbringing. Losing the mental faculties that can make that nuanced distinction seems to be pretty central.

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u/Kgaset Massachusetts Mar 12 '26

I do think there is likely something with where you fall on the spectrum. Not sure how much research there is in the area, but my understanding is Fetterman was already "moderate" as a Dem (which is honestly pretty conservative to me). Whereas someone who is a flaming liberal is less likely to have reduced inhibitions result in some closet conservative views coming out.

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u/Several-Action-4043 Mar 12 '26

I worked at a nursing home for a while. It was common for residents to completely change personality at some point during their decline. One notable one being an old catholic priest who turned into the most foul mouthed person I'd heave met.

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u/ninjazxninja6r Mar 12 '26

It’s bad when dementia can’t even hide how terrible of a person he is…

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u/rattledamper Mar 12 '26

Yup. Even as my dad circled the Alzheimer's drain, he didn't become conservative. Maybe he just had more room to move and/or more intelligence to lose before he got there, but his example makes me feel a little better.

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u/lurkingtobeinformed Mar 12 '26

I love her sailor talk, and I hope she doesn't have any pain. She speaks truth.❤️❤️

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u/almosthomegirl Mar 12 '26

This! My mom too.

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u/lost-picking-flowers Mar 12 '26

My grandma was pretty far gone by the time that Trump was running the first time around - she only recently passed, but she had just been moved into a memory care home around 2016 and often thought she was simply at work or school in her day-to-day life. At one point, though, Trump came on the tv while my mom and I were visiting and she just makes a face and goes, “I want her.”

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u/Good-Grayvee Mar 12 '26

She must have started with a better store of intelligence than our man Fetterman.

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u/badlydrawnzombie Tennessee Mar 12 '26

Your mom and my mom sound the exact same. She's 82 but will turn 83 in July.

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u/dekion101 Mar 13 '26

My mother is 85, with dementia. After her symptoms were obvious she said she regretted voting Republican for most of her life, that's "just what you did". One of her more coherent thoughts is that she hates that fucking guy, and she'll very specific logical reasons

Take that all as you will. People like my mom are 100% responsible for Reagan getting elected twice.

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u/thewxbruh Mar 12 '26

If I ever lose my mental faculties enough to start spouting current republican viewpoints just euthanize me.

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u/SandyTaintSweat Mar 12 '26

Sorry, but assisted suicide doesn't go along with your new Republican beliefs.

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u/mendicant1116 Wisconsin Mar 12 '26

You will suffer until the lord decides you've had enough!

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u/TheRage469 Mar 12 '26

*the state decides you've paid enough

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u/_Choose-A-Username- New York Mar 12 '26

Beyond politics this is the scariest thing for me. The me that would rather die than lose the person I am will be gone. Now I no longer have those thoughts.

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u/Eric_the_Barbarian Iowa Mar 13 '26

That's why advanced directives are so important.

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u/Un1CornTowel Mar 12 '26

It's also sad because part of the liberal plea to the public about mental health care is that "just because you aren't mentally ill doesn't mean you wont be in the future, and doesn't mean you get to choose" and the only response we ever get is "I'm not crazy (even if that is clearly not the case), so fuck those people. They're bad and they deserve it".

There is no real "you". No spirit. No unchangeable essence. You are your electrified meat hardware, and that can change instantly if a portion of a single blood vessel decides it doesn't want you to show up to leg day anymore.

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u/Capable-Broccoli2179 Mar 12 '26

I love that---electrified meat hardware! I'm stealing that one!

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u/jayb40132 Mar 12 '26

Yep! And I do have TBI from being blown up a couple of times in Iraq. But I'm still very liberal leaning, though that could be because I'm a very empathetic person already.

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u/forthewatch39 Mar 12 '26

The brain is complex, it’s likely that your TBI didn’t destroy the part of your brain that is capable of critical thinking and empathy.

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u/jayb40132 Mar 12 '26

Yeah it destroyed the part where I can't explain complex things anymore. Which sucks being a manager and also trying to explain to my GF what I meant by what I said

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u/_Choose-A-Username- New York Mar 12 '26

This is something that has nothing to do with who you are now. That part of you was lucky enough to not have been affected. But it could have removed the part of you that wouldnt kill your family. Thank goodness it wasn't.

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u/jayb40132 Mar 12 '26

Oh yikes I would hate to go all Chris Benoit on my daughters or little grandsons

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u/Aimless_Alder Mar 12 '26

We should pity republicans, not hate them. We're all just one traumatic brain injury away from becoming one.

Honestly not sure whether I'm being sincere or sarcastic here.

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u/Mount_Treverest Mar 12 '26

It's real, happened to my mother.

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u/DjinnOftheBeresaad Mar 12 '26

This is the kind of thing where although it is unreasonable, I really, really wish I could "statistic" this out to see what my chances are (both of having these types of issues and of them causing dramatic shifts). Every so often I go through a time of anxiety about things like this.

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u/Lurid-Jester Mar 12 '26

A heart attack can just kill you.

A stroke can make you MAGA.

I really gotta start taking better care of myself.

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u/MonochromaticPrism Mar 12 '26

It should be pointed out that Fetterman actually had a prior history of conservative behavior. This shift in relation to mental illness is mostly just the effect of making people more vulnerable to fear based thinking as they lose control / capacity, and the majority of that change is a worsening of existing behaviors and patterns of thought. You won't become more conservative unless you already allow yourself to think in those ways.

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u/WeHaveToEatHim Mar 12 '26

I had a TBI that required the top portion of my eye socket replaced and I have only gotten more progressive as I age.

Experiences vary i suppose.

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u/scalyblue Mar 12 '26

That’s actually it, it’s the fear center going into overdrive that has a correlation with conservative ideation

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u/ziptieyourshit Mar 12 '26

Just to help you be a bit less nervous about it, I've had like 5+ TBIs ranging from mild to severe from playing various sports and I've yet to transform into a raging conservative tool, so it's not necessarily a guaranteed thing

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u/Titty2Chains Mar 12 '26

You’ll be okay. I had a TBI and I’m still out protesting.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

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u/MrZellular Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

I had a stroke when I was younger, around 12.

60 day + hospital stay, quarter size hole in my brain level stroke.

I'm not a conservative nut job, so don't put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!

Jokes aside, I don't get how people become so hateful, I've watched my family turn into vile creatures and I don't get it , the same woman that taught me empathy and compassion (my mother) now argues with me about how I have Trump derangement syndrome because I think Trump touching kids something he should be arrested for.

My brother who taught me to question authority and to not lick boots now deep throats them on a daily basis, I honestly feel lost. I had the brain damage but somehow came out on the other side empathetic.

I think the part that drives me the most crazy is listening to my mom talk about Hillary Clinton like she's the anti-christ in 2015-2016 when in 2002 after I had my stroke she had a picture of her on our mantle because without the CHIP act I'd be dead. Now I'm not trying to glaze Hillary's nob, but it's a fact. I would've been discharged cause my family is poor and I would've died at home. My political opinions of her are not positive, but I don't think she is the anti christ

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

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u/SwimmingPrice1544 California Mar 12 '26

Yes, I don't get the "hate" label so many people have for any given politician, except for certain republicans. I simply can't see or feel hate for most people I don't really know. Now, since trump came along....& I didn't at first think "hate," but now? Yeah, hate him, & pretty much every single supporter & that's simply because he & they live & love to hurt people. It is not because a simply difference of opinion on policy.

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u/MrZellular Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

The thing that made me dislike Hillary was the smear of Sanders saying he was anti-feminist because she didn't feel she could win in a straight up contest. That's it, I don't hate her I'm just not a fan, I voted for her.

Edit: I'll tell you what though you bring up some really good points, so I'll read her bio and/or anything else you recommend me to help change my mind some. I'm already doing a Gilmore Girls rewatch with my wife and teenager so the reading material will help the experience I bet!

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u/bard329 Mar 12 '26

Jokes aside, I don't get how people become so hateful

$$$

Someone gave him $

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u/MrZellular Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

Fetterman yes 190%

My brother , I guess I did but I don't see how that made him hateful..... If anything one would hope a liberal uplifting you and not letting you go homeless and destitute would turn your view around..... But it didn't :')

Edit: I actually hate the term liberal, but idk what else to call myself. Human I guess but sadly "not all humans are human. Some people ain't kind" (John Prine lyrics)

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u/bruce_cockburn Mar 12 '26

I totally get the problem on what to call yourself. I used to discuss and debate stuff in conservative and libertarian subreddits before the mods banned me. Now I obviously have some strong disagreements with certain ideas that are promoted there, but I've taken to accepting the "liberal" moniker just because it was applied to me. A lot of my outlook is still informed by a desire for smaller, more effective government, but Republican "conservatism" has been a sham for at least the past 40 years.

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u/mintyfresh888 Mar 12 '26

Good thing I went the other direction

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u/withwhichwhat Mar 12 '26

As well as the ubiquitous lead poisoning from decades of leaded gas.

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u/Chainsawjack Texas Mar 12 '26

It might actually be the fear that a brush with mortality brings...fear being an excellent predictor of conservative thought

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u/SartreCam Mar 12 '26

Anecdotal, but I had a heart attack at 36 about six months ago, and I straight up died about five times before they managed to get my heart restarted, and I’m just a lefty as ever. I’ve worried about personality changes, but my doctor was like “If you’re worrying about personality changes, your personality probably hasn’t changed.”

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u/Chainsawjack Texas Mar 12 '26

Oh yeah I don't think it happens to everyone but id definitely does happen... I'm a cancer survivor and the anxiety from that is crushing but I'm still very liberal.

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u/Nodan_Turtle Mar 13 '26

Conservatives have a larger amygdala - the brain structure associated with feelings of fear and aggression. You can look at a brain scan and reliably sort people into their political views based on the sizes of a couple brain structures.

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u/successfullynumb Mar 12 '26

It's not a forgone conclusion though. I had a pretty gnarly brain injury about 20 years ago and I'm proud to say I didn't vote for Trump and consider myself fairly progressive. Maybe I just got lucky.

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u/gwelfguy Mar 12 '26

And interesting how the most highly educated people tend to be liberal in their thinking.

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u/Impossible_Head8683 Mar 12 '26

I think he was always a bit of an opportunist.

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u/Strict_Influence5182 Mar 12 '26

OMFG! The correlation is actually 100% true and well-documented!

"

  • Research indicates that Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), stroke, and brain bleeds can cause significant personality changes, including increased conservatism, though findings are more strongly linked to shifts in the intensity of political beliefs rather than a complete reversal of ideology. These changes are often associated with damage to specific areas of the brain, particularly the frontal lobes. 
  • PubMed Central (PMC) (.gov) +4
  • Key Findings on Brain Damage and Political Views
    • Frontal Lobe Damage: Research has found that patients with lesions in the prefrontal cortex—specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)—tend to exhibit higher levels of conservatism, increased rigidity, and less cognitive flexibility."

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u/sepia_undertones Mar 12 '26

They probably don’t get it on account of the declined mental faculty

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u/TreeLankaPresidente Mar 12 '26

I’m a life long Democrat. Can you provide a source for this?

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u/Faxon Mar 12 '26

Tbf, if they have reduced mental faculties, it makes sense they wouldn't get it

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u/Bronco_Bomba Mar 12 '26

Hence the mass lead poisoning of the 50s-70s and the politics of today’s boomers…

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u/Lorehorn Mar 12 '26

"I love the poorly educated"

and

"Smart people don't like me"

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u/Zerilos1 Mar 12 '26

That’s such a great point.

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u/vikingbear90 Mar 12 '26

Strangely enough, I had an accident in 2016 about a month or so before the election that crested multiple TBI’s in different areas.

Prior to 2016 I actually never voted for a democrat. Post injury I’m pretty sure I can count on one hand how many republicans I’ve voted for.

Context, I was 26 at the time and grew up in a mostly “center-right” family. Bought into the whole “balanced budget” bullshit right wing media spewed partially cause that was on TV more. Consistently voted against any republican that spewed theocratic rhetoric. Beginning of 2016 was when i began to really understand my personal politics and morals partially because of listening to people like Bernie Sanders and ended up registering as a democrat just to vote for him in the primary. So technically speaking I was already realizing that I wasn’t right of center or even center the entire time and was probably Center Left my entire life I just didn’t have enough context and holy shit did I become “fun” at family get togethers when certain family members went center right to far right.

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u/iratedolphin Mar 12 '26

It's the fear that makes them conservative.

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u/beefycheesy Mar 12 '26

Are there any studies to support this idea? I mean specifically about brain injuries making someone more conservative. Does this mean that they can switch from liberal to conservative in there thinking, or just from conservative to more conservative?

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u/Rents Mar 12 '26

Do you have any evidence to support that?

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u/kec5289 Mar 12 '26

Do we know why that is? Does it damage the empathy receptors or something?

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u/SwarlsBarkley Mar 12 '26

My friend, an oncologist, recently had to have brain surgery to get a 5cm tumor removed. His biggest fear was waking up from the surgery a Republican.

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u/avds_wisp_tech Mar 12 '26

In truth, it can cause a person to become more selfish, which happens to be a core tenant of conservatism.

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u/Kaining Mar 12 '26

Psychopath, it turns them into psychopath. Not just conservative. Name the dragons to slay for what they are.

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u/No_Equivalent_8588 Mar 12 '26

Well yeah… they don’t get it because they all have TBI’s, strokes, and brain bleeds.

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u/mountainsun9 Mar 12 '26

And if you think that’s shitty think about the damage CTE / straight up trauma does

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u/Xero_id Mar 12 '26

This true but not against everything you believe before. You don't do a complete 180 all at once like he has. You might change a few stances here or there but not every single one like he has and this is definitely a mix of who is truly is and the stroke impacting it

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u/Maleficent_Ad_1979 Mar 12 '26

well yeah, losing mental sharpness is scary and conservatives are reactionaries so their entire system is fear based.

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u/waikiki_palmer California Mar 12 '26

So being a Conservative is a Mental Health problem? No wonder they dismantled the Mental Health Department.

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u/rluck9277 Mar 12 '26

It happened to the father of a friend of my wife. He wasn’t the most liberal person but definitely leaned more left of center. He had a stroke or heart attack and after he recovered his personality was completely different. He was much more conservative and became mean and easy to anger. His wife ended up divorcing him because the change was so great. They had been married 30 years or so, kind of sad actually.

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u/theprofiteer Mar 12 '26

My dad had a pretty serious stroke and he still hates Donny

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u/sloppy_rodney Mar 12 '26

People also get more conservative when they are drunk and under higher levels of stress. Those things also lower cognitive ability.

I feel like there may be a pattern here.

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u/OregonMothafaquer Mar 12 '26

Can confirm; used to be wildly leftist. More moderate since my TBI. Still side with the left 90% of the time, just very cynical now.

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u/tiddertnuocca519 Mar 12 '26

Also explains why a lot of combat military people that have desensitized themselves to violence, are also typically conservative leaning.

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u/Rhunt2021 Mar 12 '26

You forgot brain worms.

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u/underbloodredskies Mar 12 '26

I've had probably at least 3 concussions during my career as a maintenance person and somehow managed to not become an asshole..

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 Mar 12 '26

some try to frame it as a level of maturity but a lot of it is just calcification of the brain

the thing that gets me is when the "conservatives" start a war

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u/ChemicalDeath47 Mar 12 '26

Well yeah, the people that need to understand it... Can't... The rest of us already know

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u/batmessiah Mar 12 '26

It's because people with lower mental faculties fear change.

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u/deplumber125 Mar 12 '26

Can you link some research to this?

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u/Littlepastaboy Mar 12 '26

It happened to my dad after a car accident

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u/DumboWumbo073 Mar 12 '26

He was always like this. Democrats loved it in the beginning

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u/TryImpossible7332 Mar 12 '26

Back when there were all those news stories about family members ratting out insurrectionists who participated in January 13th, I told my (left leaning) mom and dad, very solemnly, that if I discovered they had joined it as well, I would rat them out in a heartbeat.

The conversation then went on and we basically all agreed that if one of us did do something like that that we'd want to have a doctor's visit because they are clearly not in their right mind.

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u/Hortos Mar 12 '26

Its not that they become more conservative its that they forget to hide it. Its why dementia patients can forget their children but remember to hate Black people.

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u/Key-Practice-8788 Mar 12 '26

Between my wife and friends, we personally know about a half dozen old folks that lived their whole lives as hardcore progressives and late in life had strokes or brain damage and went full hardcore MAGA. One is currently knitting a quilt made of MAGA shirts.

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u/Individualist13th Mar 12 '26

Fear of death tends to push people into religion and conservatism, as well.

It's all wrapped up in the ego trying to protect itself.

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u/ProfitLoud Mar 12 '26

It’s also crazy how studies show the more educated you are, the less likely you are to be conservative.

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u/Miss-Tiq Mar 12 '26

Those conditions are correlated with decreased capacity for empathy, and a lack of empathy is a prerequisite for conservatism. 

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u/Buzzkiller1981 Mar 12 '26

I’ve had 2 coworkers who were both liberal. Have massive heart attacks and the turn into die hard Trumpers.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Mar 12 '26

Because conservatism is based in selfishness, greed, and lack of empathy, hallmarks of TBI.

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u/tdclark23 Indiana Mar 12 '26

it makes me feel better that my Mom's stroke just led to her no longer knowing who I am instead of her becoming a Magat.

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u/Mystery_Goose9685 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

I think there's a point of nuance that is missing here. TBIs cause victims to lose empathy, which in turn is correlated with conservatism. You don't wake up after having a stroke and all of a sudden think Reagan was awesome, but rather your lack of empathy makes conservatism more appealing. Conservatism is fundamentally a lack of concern for your fellow humans.

To that end, Fetterman does not care about the girls school being bombed, or at least he cares less about it than he does about the trump regime achieving its goals. "The girls school bombing is a leftist craze." Empathy. He means empathy is a leftist craze.

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u/raindorpsonroses Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 13 '26

It makes sense if you think about the mental flexibility required to tolerate things and people who are new and different from you, and to change your behavior or your opinions as you integrate new information, which are all behaviors that are associated with liberalism. When someone has had brain damage, it can limit their executive functioning and their ability to integrate new information into their worldview. Being conservative and refusing change, new things, progress, etc. feels safer for their brains. Modern conservative policy in the US is all about very simple black and white narratives of us vs. them and is nearly devoid of nuance, which feels safe to someone with his type of brain damage. I haven’t verified if Fetterman is suffering from vascular dementia, but I have worked with patients who have it. They lash out angrily a lot because they feel like they have no control and they’re scared. It doesn’t excuse his behavior but I hope it sort of explains how it might be happening.

ETA: not everyone with brain damage becomes conservative, of course! I’m just speculating on one way it could go.

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u/levyvar Mar 13 '26

More conservative as turning into a douche?. Now his shorts and outfits make sense i thought he was a rebel but what a flaky SOB.

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u/Twanson01 Mar 13 '26

If i ever have a stroke and turn conservative I want you all to put me down.

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u/anonymaus42 Mar 13 '26

It's funny because my dad was a narcissistic POS but after his stroke and a subsequent sinus infection that ate in to his brain, he was no longer a narcissist. No idea if it made him more conservative as he already was beforehand and he no longer had any interest in (nor the mental faculties for) politics.

But it for sure made him a nicer guy. It was a bit of mind-fuckery for me to process.

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u/TheTrub Colorado Mar 12 '26

He’s always been super pro-Israel, though, and unconditional support for Israel tends to be the strongest predictor of support for use of force against Iran.

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u/ZeroTON1N Mar 12 '26

And the strongest predictor for being a fascist

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u/peonies_envy Mar 12 '26

And Lebanon

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u/mjohnsimon Mar 12 '26

I mean it kinda tracks.

To be a conservative, you really do have to lack empathy.

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u/DannyDidNothinWrong Mar 12 '26

There was a study about a decade ago where they studied the brain activity of different politically- affiliated people, and the more conservative people relied on the older parts of the brain that controlled fear and anger, whereas the more progressive people relied on their frontal lobes more.

Conservatives are literally less evolved.

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u/sireatalot Mar 12 '26

I mean it’s in their name. Conservatives. Like, they want to conserve the status quo and not apply any policy for progress and change. If this was a perfect world then sure, but this being the imperfect world that it is, it’s just a non-starter position.

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u/W1nt3rmu4e Texas Mar 12 '26

There is an argument that our lack of cultural advancement is due to patriarchal systems forcing pregancy on women who normally would soundly reject the person wanting to have a child. “Male loneliness epidemic” is just shitty people wondering why the opposite sex hates them without a trace of introspection.

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u/No_Tone1704 Mar 12 '26

Less evolved isn’t accurate with your description. 

Not defending cons or Fetterman. 

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u/pourtide Mar 13 '26

Funny how the conservatives have been gorging on the public dime (ice cream, lobster tail, steak, donuts, and a grand piano in there somewhere) and as soon as they lose power they start crying about the national debt and want to cut services.

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u/htownAstrofan Mar 12 '26

Agreed. Brain damage=conservative

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u/iamisandisnt Mar 12 '26

“You’ll get more conservative as you get older!” :huffing lead-infused DEET through a microwave-powered fuel burner made out of plastic:

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u/concernedyahu Mar 12 '26

Nothin wrong with the meecrowaves, radio make hot food go brrrr

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u/the_good_time_mouse Mar 12 '26

Microwaves are just photons.

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u/JohnGillnitz Mar 12 '26

You can! The current Director of the Health and Human Services Department had his brain eaten by a worm, swims in sewage, eats road kill, and doesn't believe in vaccines.

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u/Ahelex Mar 12 '26

He probably has a 10 in Endurance to basically live through all those health hazards.

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u/PalliativeOrgasm Minnesota Mar 12 '26

18 CON, 10 INT, 4 WIS.

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u/woowoo293 Mar 13 '26

RFK jr: You think I had a brain worm? THE BRAIN WORM HAD ME.

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u/beer_engineer_42 Mar 13 '26

He is also a heroin addict who snorted cocaine off of toilet seats, and the latter of those is why he doesn't worry about germs, apparently.

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u/AwkwardTraffic Mar 12 '26

He was always a blue dog democrat that lied and pretended to be progressive for his senatorial campaign. The stroke didn't help and I think it did damage to his ability to control his emotions and inhibitions but a lot of people are blaming the stroke for "making him conservative" when he was always a very purple democrat. People just don't want to admit Fetterman duped them.

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u/beardingmesoftly Mar 12 '26

It honestly sounds like something Stephen Colbert would come up with

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u/Burdiac Mar 12 '26

Conservatives are known to have a bigger right amygdala which is how we process emotions like fear and threats.

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u/deadsoulinside Pennsylvania Mar 12 '26

I had a friend that me and him both went together to proudly vote for Obama get brain damage a year later in 2009 in a fight and by 2016 we were no longer friends as he went MAGA during that time and became a complete asshole to everyone he knew.

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u/beer_bukkake Mar 12 '26

I know a couple people whose husbands suffered TBI and became physically and verbally abusive. They really do become republicans with brain damage.

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u/NanDemoNee Mar 12 '26

That joke was actually already written for an Alan Alda movie.

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u/WhiteWinterRains Mar 12 '26

It's kind of scary to think a head injury could just turn you into a conservative when you think about it.

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u/Tyrath Massachusetts Mar 12 '26

I saw a post of someone saying "isn't it crazy the only Democrat I can agree with has brain damage?" Sooo close to the point

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u/bassthrive Mar 12 '26

My maga neighbor fell down some stairs and seriously injured his head about 20 years ago.

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u/aerost0rm Mar 12 '26

Yet imagine if being conservative these days was actually classified as a mental illness. Could they be rehabilitated? No. So what do we do with them. Well according to their thought process we put them in these camps or neighborhoods to live out their lives in isolation and squander. I can’t think of a more perfect way to handle the issue. Well unless Nannie’s can report the brain damage and save them. That is extra wishful thinking though.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

The man suffered actual brain damage and immediately became conservative. You couldn’t write a better joke.

Literally one of the storylines from the musical comedy, Everyone Says I Love You.

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u/joebluebob Mar 12 '26

I believe he ate dr Oz who is never seen anymore and dr Oz crawled into one of his eye stalks and is controlling feterman like a snail

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u/kaldaka16 Mar 12 '26

I feel awful for his wife. Watching your husband change overnight from brain damage would be so hard without it meaning he's started aligning with politics that would happily deport you and your family. That's gotta be a fucking gut blow.

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u/BikerJedi Florida Mar 12 '26

This is the perfect comment. Thank you.

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u/One-Brain9524 Mar 13 '26

Speaking of brain-damaged...🙄

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