2y ago

Fetterman says he assumed speaking publicly about his mental health ‘would be the end of my career’

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said in an interview that aired Sunday that he believed opening up to the public about his mental health struggles earlier this year would negatively impact his career.

In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Fetterman opened up about his battle with clinical depression earlier this year and urged those facing mental health issues to seek help. He said that for the first couple of weeks while being treated for depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he felt scared about sharing his experiences publicly.

69 comments

Looking at this comment thread, everyone seems pretty quick to completely write off someone they generally agree with simply because they don’t agree with that person on one or two other issues.
Yeah, I don’t agree with his stance on the Israeli / Hamas war, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to encourage people to support destigmatizing very a common mental health issue that 1 out of 10 people have.
Hell, I have loved ones that I generally agree with politically that think Hamas’ atrocities and crimes justify going even lower in response. I don’t agree with them about that issue, but I’m not going to go nuclear on them about it. I’m still going to bond with them over common ground.
- It's the biggest problem in today's politics. People are willing to vote against their interests because of single issues.
  You have one candidate that meets 90/100 criteria but because they aren't absolutely perfect they instead don't vote for them again or they vote for the next guy who instead only meets 80 of the 100 criteria just out of spite for the first guy not being perfect.
  Then they get mad at that guy and vote for the next guy who only meets 75 of the 100. So on and so forth until the unicorn of a candidate which meets 90 of 100 finally pops up again like 40 years later.
- This is Lemmy though. The hive-mind is far worse here than it ever was on Reddit.
  
  Hive mind is when people disagree with me
  
  Every site with an upvote/downvote system will be a hivemind to an extent. You only think it's more of a hivemind here because reddit aligns more with your beliefs.
It’s not the speaking about mental health that will be the end of his career. It’s the bullheaded support of an ongoing genocide that will do it.
Him speaking so openly about his mental health was the one thing he had going for him in my mind, tbh. I’ve side eyed him ever since finding out he liked a shotgun on a Black man out for a jog, just because Fetterman thought he heard gunshots, and assumed the Black man out for a jog must be a criminal running away.
At this point in time, the only conclusion I can draw is that most of the people on Lemmy have the political maturity of a 13 year old.
- Most people on the internet, as it turns out.
  
  Supporting extremely documented genocide when your team does it is very mature, agreed, we're all very smart and adulting.
  
  Most people in general
- Anyone who still shows signs of having a conscience must be younger than me and therefore wrong.
  
  Anyone who disagrees with me has no conscience and is therefore wrong
  See? I also threw a strawman reply, so now you look like a jagoff! What a great contribution we have both made to the thread, let's keep at it /s
- It's very obvious after spending like 10 min on Lemmy. No one in the real world listens to these bullshit takes.
AIPAC paid him less than $10k for every soul they killed and kid they crippled for life for him to dance with their flag against protestors demanding ceasefire. His humanity, justice and sense of morality is just about who pays him more
- Or he knows that he’ll likely get primaried if he changes his stance? Money runs politics in more ways than one
Instead he continued on into a career that allowed him say all kinds of atrocious things in support of Israel.
Still better than Dr. Oz would have been though.
For all the people downvoting me:
Asked if he was surprised that so many on the left disagree with him on Israel, Fetterman responded, “I mean, of course, I expected that there will always be a diversity of opinions and that as long as things go that the Democratic caucus might splinter more.
"I would be the last man standing to be absolutely there on the Israeli side on this with no conditions.” He continues, “I grieve, and it’s awful the incredible civilian deaths and the suffering. It is awful. War is hell, as they say. But only one side has used civilians as human shields. Only one side has broken the ceasefires. Only one side will systematically rape, torture, and mutilate Israeli women and girls in the most unspeakable, awful ways. … Without destroying Hamas, there will be no enduring peace and a stable, two-state solution.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-fetterman-hamas-must-go-i-would-be-last-man-standing-for-israel/ar-AA1md0Ad
"If not for the horrific attacks by Hamas terrorists, thousands of innocent Israelis and Palestinians would still be alive today," Fetterman wrote on Wednesday.
"Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children," he went on.
"Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel. We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized," the senator added.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/john-fettermans-israel-remarks-spark-furious-backlash/ar-AA1iuX2Z
- I mean, the things he’s saying aren’t atrocious, you just don’t like or agree with them.
  
  "I would be the last man standing to be absolutely there on the Israeli side on this with no conditions.”
  That sounds pretty atrocious to me. No conditions means "even if they plan to slaughter every last Palestinian child."
  But only one side has used civilians as human shields. Only one side has broken the ceasefires. Only one side will systematically rape, torture, and mutilate Israeli women and girls in the most unspeakable, awful ways.
  This, meanwhile, is an atrocious lie. Because Israel and the IDF have been found guilty of all of those things. It is an atrocious lie, not just a lie, because it ignores all of the horrific things Israel has done since he wants to be the "last man standing on the Israeli side"
  If not for the horrific attacks by Hamas terrorists, thousands of innocent Israelis and Palestinians would still be alive today
  This is atrocious because it puts the responsibility of taking the lives of thousands of Palestinians out of the IDF's hands and entirely in Hamas' hands, suggesting that Israel is innocent of killing Palestinians.
  We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized,
  And if you can't see why this is atrocious, unless you're just unaware that thousands of children have been killed in the very short timespan of this war, I don't even know how to help you.
  
  Standing by genocide is atrocious. Decent people will of course not like and support that.
  [Edit] Oh? Do you disagree? Is supporting genocide A-OK in your books?
  
  Refusing to call for a ceasefire at the least is supportive of continuing atrocities. It is atrocious to support the Israeli state at this point and has been for years.
- Came here here to say this. Thanks for enduring the ostriches.
What a brave man.
I didn't realize a stroke could cause symptoms like clinical depression and thirst for the blood of innocent Palestinian children.
Thankfully we have John Fetterman here to normalize these things for us!
It's alright to admit we were wrong guys. Fetterman is a complete dunce. His blind and oblivious support of the State of Israel will be the end of his career.
turns out it's gonna be abandoning his progressive base
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said in an interview that aired Sunday that he believed opening up to the public about his mental health struggles earlier this year would negatively impact his career.
In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Fetterman opened up about his battle with clinical depression earlier this year and urged those facing mental health issues to seek help.
He said that for the first couple of weeks while being treated for depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he felt scared about sharing his experiences publicly.
Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed in February to be treated for clinical depression — a condition that he says got worse after winning his election in 2022.
He told Welker that he ultimately decided to check himself in for treatment because he began to have “dark conversations” with himself about self-harm.
He mentioned that a colleague of his took her own life the day before the interview, adding that he hopes he can help others by speaking up about his own struggles.
The original article contains 393 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 55%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
It's looking more like Munchausen's than depression
Nah. Your career will end now that we know you're just another piece of shit politician.
- Meh, I can disagree with him about things like Israel-Palestine foreign policy and still agree with him about other important stuff. No human is going to have the exact same views that I have.
  I agree with his pushes for universal healthcare and destigmatizing incredibly common mental health diagnoses.
  Statistically speaking, a lot more people in elected office suffer from depression, anxiety, or something else, but no one else talks about it.
  
  This isn't like, disagreeing on gun control. He wore the fucking Israel flag like a cape while reports are coming out that they're dropping JDAMs on children. I don't care what his struggles are, he's advocating for something so transparently heinous that his 'temperate' views are worthless.
  I don't care how good Graduation was by Kanye, he's racist. I don't care how good Hitler's paintings are, he started a holocaust. There's "polite disagreement" and "advocating for war crimes".
  
  I can disagree with him about things like Israel-Palestine foreign policy and still agree with him about other important stuff. No human is going to have the exact same views that I have.
  Thank you! Good gravy, when will people finally get this through their thick skulls? Politics and beliefs are not, and never will be, an all or nothing thing.

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