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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   36196 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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What in the fresh hell, Pennsylvania?

Has the Motte discussed John Fetterman? If so, I missed it... I admit there are enough races I'm watching across the country that it is hard to keep track of them all. But in case you, too, have missed it, John Fetterman is the Democratic candidate for the seat of outgoing Senator Pat Toomey, one of 7 Republican senators who voted to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment circus. Seven days before winning the Primary, John Fetterman had a stroke.

I am not a medical doctor. For all I know, Fetterman will make a full recovery, eventually. But as of right now, the guy is one step above monosyllabic. Which made tonight's debate absolutely excruciating to watch. Over the course of the night, PredictIt shifted ten cents in favor of Fetterman's opponent, the Wizard of Mehmet Oz. And yet most media accounts of the debate are steadfastly reporting only the substance, such as it was. No surprise--the media has been carrying water for Fetterman for weeks. But like... really? You can't report a single sentence saying, "Fetterman was clearly not up to the task." Watching people hit Twitter to unironically praise him for "doing really well, for a stroke victim!" is shocking. The level of partisanship required to vote for Fetterman at this point simply boggles the mind. On the flip side, #Festerman was briefly trending on Twitter before (I presume) someone elbowed their censors.

Of course, we can trust our outspoken President to just tell it like it is. Perhaps President Biden understands better than anyone, given the possibility that he, too, might simply be functioning as a sock puppet for the Democratic establishment. The counterargument that criticizing Fetterman's cognition is some kind of "ableism" is just hollow. This is not a man who can do the job of Senator, at least not right now, and to pretend otherwise just seems exploitative to me. (And calling that a "bad faith" argument seems willfully ignorant. The man can barely speak, that's much more than an "auditory processing" problem.)

Of course, voting has been open for a month in Pennsylvania, and the state has already declared its intention to turn a blind eye to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling as it counts undated ballots. So in addition to potentially electing someone with the mental faculties of a young child to high federal office, Pennsylvania is also setting up a judicial crisis for its election process.

And all because Oz is, well, a Trumpist. If this is what midterms look like, 2024 is going to be... just something else. I can't even imagine. It's simply too much.

I just tried to find this debate on youtube to understand what you're talking about. Searche queries like "fetterman oz debate unedited" find me nothing but short clips chosen by the mainstream media.

Plausibly, some people voting for Fetterman might just be completely unaware of what you saw. I'm not completely sure - I couldn't confirm it, though I certainly see the signs of youtube trying to make it impossible for me to do so.

You can watch the full debate here.

Fetterman often appears to be working (or even reading) from a script, and when he gets off script it's extremely glaring. And yeah, the cut-and-paste jobs I'm seeing this morning on YouTube and news websites are Hollywood-tier movie magic.

My guess would be that he's literally reading from a script. Given that he's been given a monitor as a "reasonable accommodation", I don't see why they wouldn't also just put his lines in front of him.

The CC monitor was large and immediately behind the moderators. You could see it in some shots.

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