I don’t know enough about Fetterman’s past to make a judgement on how his stroke affected him, but you totally could. Brain damage can fundamentally change who you are as a person on every level, from memory to logic, or even spirituality. It can change or entirely destroy your ability to feel empathy, damping some emotions while amping up others. Strokes that fundamentally change personality like that are rare, but certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
It’s so famous in fact that it’s frequently heavily exaggerated and distorted via telephone game from people who’ve never even minimally researched this case but decide to cite it for this claim anyway.
I don’t know enough about Fetterman’s past to make a judgement on how his stroke affected him, but you totally could. Brain damage can fundamentally change who you are as a person on every level, from memory to logic, or even spirituality. It can change or entirely destroy your ability to feel empathy, damping some emotions while amping up others. Strokes that fundamentally change personality like that are rare, but certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
There’s a famous case of a guy who got a railroad spike blown through his frontal lobe and he basically became a huge asshole.
It’s so famous in fact that it’s frequently heavily exaggerated and distorted via telephone game from people who’ve never even minimally researched this case but decide to cite it for this claim anyway.
Phineas Gage if anyone wants to look the case up. Classic psychology and neurology tale.
Of course this happened before modern scientific standards and procedures were mainstream, so take everything with a grain of salt.