Maybe people just don’t know what dementia is? When the Dalai Lama did something gross and shocking in full on public, seemingly oblivious to the judgment of others — after which we basically never saw him again — I thought that sounded like actual dementia, but people insisted no!
At the time I was like “gosh maybe I’m biased here okay!” (because while I don’t consider the Dalai Lama a perfectly enlightened being or anything I did respect him more or less) but now I’m wondering if people think normal old person stuff is full on dementia.
what drives me up the wall is that the very thing that hobbled him in the first 15 of the debate — trying to cram in a ton of facts and figures and references that he clearly committed to memory over the previous few days — is a thing that people who actually have dementia normally can't do well.
slightly more mentally demanding than, say, assuming every question should be answered with “illegals are coming over the border and will cause the apocalypse”
Over Christmas, I went to see my grandparents. My grandma read the same letter out loud five times in an hour, never remembering that she had and didn't know who it was from or who it was referencing. I left that visit convinced I've talked to her for the last time and didn't know it+
Yeah, and speaking of, what the hell was his debate prep team thinking? Figure out a bunch of folksy ways of calling Trump a low life and coward and call it a day.
What's making me queasy now is that I have to balance any assurance Dem leaders give about Biden's health with the fact that they covered up Feinstein's putrescing in her chair. Sigh.
You might consider that Dem leaders had no incentive to narc on Feinstein. Had disincentive, in fact, since McConnell wouldn’t allow her replacement on Judiciary. The many Dems leaking concern re Biden are already showing that this is a very different situation.
It's definitely being bandied about as some vague "old person doesn't think too good" thing, which is also extremely obvious to anyone, according to them.
Yeah it’s very unfair to two groups at once, it way undersells how hard dementia is to deal with and also writes off the many old people who stay with it until the very end.
Also — don’t we all want to be in group two?? No wonder they’re so scared of getting old if they think dementia is inevitable
I felt similarly when Bush Sr did those inappropriate things in elderly age, as no patterns exist, afaik, of him doing that sort of stuff in presidential, young or midlife
curiously have you seen that Savile doc on Netflix. It’s compelling and excellent — and also I’m unsure I could recommend it because it’s kind of traumatic to watch in some ways
Yeah I bring it up because his patterns were so obvious in public. I just wonder if we’d hear about it if Bush Sr was a handsy guy in his younger years, like we did about JFK adultery and so forth
Yeah, it’s obvious that a lot of people just never interact with the elderly.
My late father-in-law died a couple of years back at age 94. Even when he was incredibly frail and near the end of his life he was still aware of what was going on (and boy did he hate Trump).
My great uncle died at 94 some years back. He was quite frail physically and he was nevertheless reading, emailing, involved in projects, mentally sharper than most 30 year olds, literally up to the end, hours before he died in his sleep (his heart simply gave out, as they say).
Dealing with my mom’s dementia was the saddest thing I’ve ever experienced. It is a horror movie where a once vital person battles their brain for an accepted reality. The brain always wins.
My grandfather stayed very involved with the family business until he died (at 93 iirc). Naturally sometimes we wished he would retire and worried about why he wouldn’t but I think it was good for everybody in a lot of ways
My mother, just last year, got into a pretty heated discussion with my teenaged son about Rene Descartes. She was steamed for a week because she couldn’t talk sense to the stubborn teenager.
Damn. They really want to manifest a literal Logan's Run in our reality.
(I have had relatives make it to 100, or damn near it, and still have their ability to remember, plan, and reason)
