Fetterman Says His Openness on Mental Health Issues Is ‘Weaponized”
Fetterman Says His Openness on Mental Health Issues Is ‘Weaponized”
The first-term Pennsylvania Democrat said his openness about his mental health issues has been “weaponized” against him, prompting him to start showing up for votes and hearings he considers useless.
I want a job that I dont have to show up to if I'm having a bad day.
He is a walking mental health issue. I wish he would go away. I think I regret voting for him more than any other person I've ever voted for in my life.
He shared his mental health struggles with friends and colleagues. Then he stopped taking his meds, became combative to his friends and colleagues and flaked on Senate duties. Friends and colleagues took him to task and insisted he address his mental health problems. I would call that support, not weaponization.
Having spent a year and a half in a relationship with a bipolar woman who regularly refused to take her meds, this is a common thing. Goes off the meds, gets paranoid, believes people are out to get them, turns on everyone trying to help.
It's nearly impossible to get through the mindset that someone in that state is in. I had to take my ex to the hospital twice to get her committed so they could force her to take her meds. It's horrible, and you fight having to do that to someone you care about, but sometimes it's the only way to help them.
You're missing the part where he thinks being an asshole is doing his job.
That's what you get for fucking over your constituents, you massive piece of garbage.
Until then, his chair on the dais of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee had sat empty all year.
Mr. Fetterman does not enjoy participating in these hearings that he has sat through in recent weeks as he seeks to prove that he is capable of performing the job he was elected to do until 2028. In fact, at a critical moment for the country, he appears to have little interest in the day-to-day work of serving in the United States Senate.
In an interview, Mr. Fetterman, who represents 13 million people, said he felt he had been unfairly shamed into fulfilling senatorial duties, such as participating in committee work and casting procedural votes on the floor, dismissing them as a “performative” waste of time.
Ohhhh this mother....
k...,so this is the committee that determined fitness for Trump's Science Advisor, Michael Kratsios. I literally begged for them to not approve his fitness. I wrote about this here, and fun fact even have a screenshot of me @ing fetterman and others on the committee on bluesky included in the article. Little did I know he wasn't even bothering to show up bc he thinks it's "performative...?!"
Quick summary: Kratsios is a protege of Peter Theil, who actually served as Chief Technology Officer during the first Trump administration. During that time, he helped set up all of the dangerous AI shit we're now dealing with, making sure they wouldn't be restrained by any pesky regulations.
Unregulated surveillance and facial recognition tech use by ICE, the FBI, and other LEOs, you can thank Kratsios.
Access and use of private government data to train AI, you may think that's all on DOGE/Musk but that is actually something Kratsios mentioned back in 2018
Senate Dems knew how dangerous deregulated AI was, particularly facial recognition tech for profiling use. Yet, with a few exceptions, they either approved his fitness or they just didn't show up like Fetterman
I guess it's ok bc Kratsios is now agreeing maybe we should dial it back and start to regulate AI....
Lol jk, of course he's actually saying we need to somehow further deregulate it so we will have even less protection for our privacy, rights and liberty.
Thanks Dems of the committee for taking your job so seriously 👍
And OF COURSE Fetterman showed up for this one. Not because he felt like his depression was being weaponized, it's because he just weaponizes the D next to his name to help force through Republican policy
Here is an article about that May 8, 2025 hearing.
Altman, during the hearing, said that Texas had been “unbelievable” in incentivizing major AI projects. “I think that would be a good thing for other states to study,” Altman said. He predicted that the Abilene site would be the “largest AI training facility in the world.” But Altman also later cautioned against a patchwork regulatory framework for AI.
“It is very difficult to imagine us figuring out how to comply with 50 different sets of regulations,” said Altman. “One federal framework that is light touch, that we can understand, and it lets us move with the speed that this moment calls for, seems important and fine.”
Here is a quote from Kratsios about regulation in 2019
“A patchwork of regulation of technology is not beneficial for the country. We want to avoid that. Facial recognition has important roles—for example, finding lost or displaced children. There are use cases, but they need to be underpinned by values.”
🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
Facial recognition has important roles—for example, finding lost or displaced children.
Now: "But what about the children?" Next: Vague child safety or terrorism justification to deploy this everywhere
Also thosd children grow up and all that data will still be usefull to track them as adults
You are being open about mental health issues. Fantastic! I wish we had more and better coverage of mental health in this country.
But here’s the thing: If I have mental health issues and don’t show up to my job a good chunk of the time, I don’t have a job anymore. I could use sick time if I had any. I could use vacation days if I could plan my mental health crises. Other than that I would have to plan all my mental health issues (with proper medical documentation) into one large block of time in which I can’t work so I can use my Long Term Disability insurance. Unless you are rich or powerful, or otherwise don’t work for an employer, Americans don’t have the luxury of taking time for their mental health.
So instead of taking it personally that you are being held to a standard that your constituents are also held to, why don’t you use that power, to which those constituents elected you, to fix the standard for everyone.
Conservatism is a form of brain damage, so I guess it makes sense that it goes both ways.
I know this is a funny joke but the fact this keeps on being repeated can be quite hurtful to actual people with brain damage who are often quite mobility impaired and active in leftist disability rights movements.
Nah dude, having mental health issues isn’t a license to be a penis.
Lol if you don't show up for work, you're fired. Wtf are we even talking about.
seems to me that he's the one who's weaponized it.
Naw dawg you being a piece of shit is being weaponized against you, its like being stabbed by a shiv made of your own feces.
showing up for votes and hearings he considers useless.
Must be nice to filter showing up for work based on what you think is useful or not. My teams calendar would be wide open! =D
sorry op i said exactly what your main post did. but still.
Shitty policy and behavior gets a proportional response, is all.
Another fucking Sinema.
It is. By him, to avoid facing the fact that he either lied through his teeth to get elected, or is a living proof that conservative people have brain problems
as someone that's had a stroke you are drastically undervaluing his situation
I fully understand that he's had a major medical event that might make his life incredibly difficult in some areas. So he SHOULD FUCKING RESIGN. He's not owed a fucking Senate seat. That piece of shit and everyone around him is a goddamn parasite.
If he needs care, he should absolutely get it. Just not while failing to do his very important job. He's unfit.
If it's too hard, he should fucking resign.
Signed, Also someone who's had a stroke
The poor dear.