From the article:
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.
It was crazy yeah.
As an aside, I think some people have been trying to recapture that momentary sense of purpose and mobilisation ever since. Like we’re doing something together against a threat! We’re united! Things are happening!
If that impulse would only be directed in a constructive direction…
Yeah, they have been stoking that fire since I was born. Moral panic, after moral panic, all with the underlying foundation being that the people doing these things aren’t good, god fearing, christian, white, conservatives. I think the current level of this, anti-trans for example, have gotten this big due to decades of work on the part of those pushing these moral panics through mainstream media venues. People like Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bill O-Reilly, Tucker Carlson, to really shake up the dynamics, since it is the 2000s, Ann Coulter. Now that we are in the internet era, Alex Jones, Mike Knowles, Ben Shapiro, Lauren southern, Hanna Davis, Tomi Lahren (wow several women now) and for a really modern look, a dash of color, Candice Owens.