r/JewsOfConscience Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 22 '24

Discussion Dementia is Disqualifying, but Not Genocide

It's really disturbing to me that dementia is disqualifying for Joe Biden, but him doing a genocide is not. That shows how Palestinians are viewed in America by the political class.

If only Hitler had dementia, maybe we could've gotten rid of him sooner, since the Holocaust wouldn't have been a problem for him with his domestic constituency.

What do others think?

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u/Klutzy-Pool-1802 Ashkenazi, atheist, postZ Jul 22 '24

Biden doesn’t appear to have dementia. Don’t fall for propaganda. He speaks lucidly and at length, with great command of varied issues, and occasionally he has a brain fart. That’s not dementia. He’s always done that, and it’s also normal to have more brain farts as we get older. He also has a stutter, mostly under control, but sometimes it comes out.

It drives me crazy how people get into information silos. We need to be better consumers of information.

I take your point, that support for genocide or other war crimes should be a huge black mark on somebody’s record. That’s not how the US has ever worked. Most Americans are very distant from the impacts of our foreign policy - in information silos, even, where we don’t see a lot of the impact. We’ve always divided the world between our close allies and those we basically disregard. Biden is a product of this system, and I suspect any president will be. I don’t think anyone succeeds politically in this system without being pretty comfortable in it and with it.

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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 22 '24

He has evidence of cognitive decline which has become so obvious that even the top shitlibs came out against Biden. Even hardcore vote blue no matter who's like Pod Save bros and the Neoliberal sub are admitting this. You're correct in saying we don't know if he has a dementia diagnosis, but there's clear cognitive decline. The vote blue no matter who's were saying he has a good team around him, so that's what you're voting for too. I find it hard to understand not seeing what millions of others are seeing? Just in the past few weeks, we had the debate, calling Zelenskyy Putin, saying he's the first black president and the first black female vice president, calling Trump his VP.

This is far beyond normal screwups which we all make. If this was simply age-related screwups, why don't other older politicians like Bernie and Pelosi make these types of outrageous speaking errors?

I never gave him a hard time about thinking he's in New Hampshire when he's in Vermont or stuff like that, because when you travel so much as a politician, I can understand that.

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u/Klutzy-Pool-1802 Ashkenazi, atheist, postZ Jul 23 '24

You’re right, I shouldn’t call them brain farts. He’s had several moments like this that could be early signs of a more serious decline.

He’s also been speaking live lately, enough that it’s clear he’s got a good grasp of reality and command of the issues.

The dementia accusation has been flying around for years even when he had zero big flubs, just stuttering or a little mumbling. And by flying around, I mean a misinformation campaign. It bothers me to see a bad-faith accusation like that repeated by people of good faith.

I don’t think the media frenzy is the best indicator of a real issue. If it were, they’d be all over trump for his similar errors. They just like drama, and this is the kind of drama they eat up.

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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 23 '24

Sometimes republicans say things that are true. It doesn't mean they're not shitheads as well.

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u/Klutzy-Pool-1802 Ashkenazi, atheist, postZ Jul 23 '24

Sometimes they say things that aren’t, and people amplify that disinfo who should know better.

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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 23 '24

Joe Biden having cognitive decline is disinformation? Are you trolling?

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u/Klutzy-Pool-1802 Ashkenazi, atheist, postZ Jul 23 '24

You led with an accusation of dementia, which was exactly the disinformation line they’ve been pushing for years.

Now you’ve walked it back to cognitive decline. No? Or are you still claiming that he’s exhibiting dementia?

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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 23 '24

If shitlibs weren't in denial and lying for years, republicans wouldn't have an opening for a maximalist claim. Dementia is shorthand for cognitive decline and they were right while shitlibs denied it. Anyone on the left who brought this issue up was told they're just supporting Fox News lies and these are edited videos and you support Trump, etc. Now look at the result of all that. He has severe cognitive decline. I am not a doctor and even if I was, I cannot diagnose dementia in someone who's not my patient.

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u/Klutzy-Pool-1802 Ashkenazi, atheist, postZ Jul 23 '24

Dementia is not shorthand for cognitive decline. Cognitive decline can be very mild. Dementia means you can’t function normally.

He seems to be functioning normally. I don’t know how much you know about the subject, but this isn’t severe cognitive decline. It could be mild, or could be a sign of something developing that will get severe someday. If he weren’t functioning well now, they’d never put him in front of a camera for a live unscripted interview. They’d try to hide it. His team obviously thinks it’s not a serious problem.

But it could become one someday.

This disingenuous line of attack far predates the kind of misspeaking he’s done lately. And the neurological exams he’s passed as part of his annual physical.

I’ve seen a couple articles about neurologists discussing his recent verbal mixups. I’m not aware that any neurologists saw anything to discuss six months ago, or two years, or four years. Are you?

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u/PreparationOk1450 Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 23 '24

OK, sorry. He has evidence of cognitive decline. I shouldn't have used the word dementia. He may have Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia or something else. I don't know. I know he struggles to speak properly publicly and privately. I know I wouldn't trust him to drive my family at night. I know I don't trust him to prevent WWIII. I think he should step down immediately both for his cognitive incapacity and genocide.

His team knows it's a serious problem and it's going to get worse over time. It doesn't get better.