On the matter of Joe Biden and his mental acuity: of course he's not going to be as sharp as person 20 or 30 years younger, and all politicians will make rhetorical slips.
But frankly, I find it sickening to read the wingnut Right (or anyone, really) continuing to tell each other that he is dangerously senile. I mean, to anyone who has ever watched a close relative develop dementia, the idea that a person can deliver a hour long address, or this shorter one, and still be suffering dementia is ridiculous, and I find it actually offensive:
Yes, I know this is largely a speech read off a teleprompter with a few
asides - but it is delivered fluently, at quick pace, with barely an
error. What's more, the argument presented is cogent and rhetoric
reasonable. And yet, the wingnut Right will claim he should be shunted out of the Presidency due to mental health; and the effect of edited bits of other appearances has some broader effect on the public - with too large a number buying into this narrative. (Fortunately, there is some sign of a recovery in his approval ratings, no doubt due to a solid performance on Ukraine.) The wingnut Right will circle jerk themselves into all kinds of bullshit fantasies - that Biden's frailty tempted Putin into the Ukraine invasion (when they're not blaming Western defence departments for going too gay and woke).
Certainly, the wingnut Right have built themselves a fantasy world and they aren't leaving it anytime soon.
I just don't know it is going to be broken - certainly, I reckon there should be a lot more calling out of the media and any politician being offensive idiots who need to stop building performative* false narratives as a way to make money - in the US, they are on the verge of killing democracy.
* This is what makes me so sick watching clips of Fox News or Sky News here - there is so clearly performance as part of the show, with no care at all about the effect of it.
Update: more on the matter of "conversative" criticisms just being performance art -
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