EDIT: Since this seems to be somewhat of an interesting topic to some, and a few people have found this post long after the fact, I want to clarify some things.
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We should not be diagnosing people if we are not qualified to do so.
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Some context: During a David Pakman live stream, we watched Gosar speaking in Arizona. A lot of people in Twitch/YouTube chat were making jokes about his head movements being weird or creepy etc. and David said he wasn’t going to comment on that because it may be some neurological issue like Parkinson’s. Now, I think Gosar is a disgusting person for the ideas and opinions he puts into the world, but I agreed with David— we shouldn’t make fun of conditions people have no control over. So out of curiosity, I googled if he had any illnesses or disorders but found little to nothing. What I did find was many accounts of him denying anything was happening, and several reporters pointing out his unusual hand motions and possible attempts to hide them by keeping them in his pockets all the time. Now, his health is absolutely no one’s business but his own, and maybe he doesn’t want to discuss it publicly. I respect his right to privacy. If he doesn’t want to address the questions, that’s his choice— though people (I am guilty here) will speculate.
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My purpose in posting was to express my sadness that he felt he needed to hide and shut down any conversation about what may be happening to him. I believe health issues shouldn’t be hidden or shamed because that feeds the stigma that they SHOULD be hidden and shamed. My point was that some republicans seem to dwell on health issues as though that makes the person weak or unworthy of holding office etc. I find this to be incredibly unfortunate because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having Parkinson’s or anything else. We should have empathy for those conditions. I wonder if Gosar doesn’t want to address his situation because he, himself, has little or no empathy for others facing the same.
Original Unedited Post:
After the stream last night, I was curious about Paul Gosar’s health. In the typical GOP style he firmly denies having any major health conditions. I called bullshit on that so I did some digging.
He has been hiding spasms in his hands for years apparently. Hiding it by putting his hands in his pockets or behind his back when it happens in public. When questioned about it by reporters, he claimed to have compressed discs and subsequent nerve problems from leaning over patients for 30 years (he’s a dentist).
Plausible, but that didn’t explain the head movements, so I did more digging. There’s a name for these type of head movements, it’s called dyskinesia. It’s a common side effect of a Parkinson’s anti-tremor medication called Carbidopa-Levodopa. The person isn’t consciously making these movements.
So Gosar more than likely does have Parkinson’s and hasn’t gone public with it even though people are asking and it’s impossible to hide at this point. Why do so many GOP politicians act like having a chronic illness makes you a weak person? It just cements their lack of basic humanity in my mind when they’d rather gaslight than admit there’s a problem, and how they would rather cling to their power until their dying breath instead of taking care of their own health.
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Hierarchical view of the world. Everyone ascends or descends in the ladder to their rightful position. Being a leader has to mean no weaknesses of any kind. Empathy in that thinking can be seen as highly detrimental.
In other words, they are the members of the tribe that wanted to leave sick and old behind. If we had listened to them back then, we would not have a society or even a civilization
That makes a lot of sense. Obviously, they still have not evolved out of that mentality, or maybe they would care more about wounded veterans instead of leaving them to die homeless and destitute.
It is behind a lot of things that seems insane to us, they become fully logical and even moral; if that view is correct then welfare, helping weak, progressive taxes, democracy are very much against this natural ascension. It is behind anti-immigration too. If we are looking at the world thru that lens of libertarianism then what they suggest IS the only moral choice. Everything else but full freedom from all things that might slow down your ascension is detrimental and regressive, any kind of wealth distribution becomes a theft.
Of course, world doesn't work that way which is why the discussion rarely goes anywhere. It is purely ideological and the solutions are also the same. I've been saying this for years:
Ideological solutions to practical problems suck.
Being against progressive taxation for ex does not actually work, no matter how much one wants it to. There just is no flat tax model that would collect enough revenue. If one is ideologically libertarian but also pragmatical they can NOT support flat tax. But... yet many do. Because it is their ideology and their identity is linked to that ideology. Same goes for many other issues; welfare is NOT leftist idea, it is quite inevitable in practice no matter what you ideology is. I'm personally quite libertarian, actually. It is the pragmatic aspects that have driven me to the left the most. I see no other way, no matter how much i would like to give people freedoms to do what they want. I love the idea of a flat tax, as it is simple and most fair, from individual point of view. It just doesn't work, so i support the thing that does.
But.. living in Finland makes things different, because it is the welfare state that has allowed me to live like i want, within means... I've had the freedom to become a doctor, a lawyer, a mechanic, an engineer or whatever i wanted, of course limited by my capabilities and natural talent.. We need to help everyone equally in order to make it more possible for them to have more freedoms when it comes to what people do with their own lives.
But this is forbidden from ideologists: no matter if Nordic model works, it is WRONG, it has to be because it is against libertarian ideologies. But to our luck, we can sidestep the ideological side and focus solely on practice. It is fairly easy to make them agree that the results is what matters. And once we are looking at the problems purely from practical point of view... Just focus on the issues and solutions in practice.
Great explanation! I completely agree with ideology being a major problem. This happens on the left as well and it makes me facepalm every time. Take issues with the police for example. Almost everyone I’ve talked to agrees the police have too much to handle and don’t get enough support from the social work side of things. They aren’t trained to handle people having a mental health crisis. They are mostly trained to use force and violence to solve problems.
I believe the majority of people are on the same page when it comes to this, they just don’t know it. When the left says “defund” the police, the right hears “you hate the police, no law and order! Chaos!” Which, who could blame them for thinking that with a word like “defund”. But when you explain it in a way that seems like you’re helping the police do their job by taking some of the burden off them and increasing safety, then they’re all for it. And both sides refuse to work together because of their conflicting ideology. We’re running around in circles not solving any problems. I don’t know how we solve this constant miscommunication. It’s maddening.
I’m sorry, look, I gotta completely disagree with this. I think it’s really dangerous for someone to make a medical diagnosis (which is what you’re doing here basically) without even seeing the person.
This is exactly the same sort of shit that goes on with Joe Biden. Joe Biden has admittedly enough a lot of slip ups. We as democrats like to call them gaffes and that’s fair, because we’ve seen him make coherent and good speeches. When we argue with republicans, we generally have to say that:
We aren’t informed enough to make a medical diagnosis (so your average Fox News viewer can’t make that diagnosis)
These diagnoses have to be in person. So Trump’s former doctor (or whoever said that Biden should take the same mental health test that Trump took) can’t be used as a reliable source unless he actually has a meeting with Biden (and even then we would be cognizant of his biases).
I don’t think we should be doing the same thing with republicans. I think we should be consistent.
And mind you—even if this is true, so what? Honestly, so what? First off, having Parkinson’s is a horrible illness, true… but it doesn’t cut you off mentally. I know an economist who came to talk at my high school who had Parkinson’s and he’s the head of the department for instance.
Not only that, you have people like Madison Cawthorne who are wheel chair bound. It’s not like the Republican Party is kicking him out.
I don’t think we should either be stigmatizing illnesses or attempting to play doctor here. That seems really weird to me.
I see your point about diagnosing people I haven’t met. My curiosity got the better of me and I went looking for answers. But I think you missed my point entirely. Maybe I should have given more context about the situation.
During David’s livestream Saturday, we saw Gosar speaking in Arizona. A lot of people in Twitch/YouTube chat were making jokes about his head movements being weird or creepy etc. and David said he wasn’t going to comment on that because it may be some neurological issue like Parkinson’s. Now, I think Gosar is a disgusting person for the ideas and opinions he puts into the world, but I agreed with David— we shouldn’t make fun of things people have no control over.
Since I, myself, have health issues that cause me to have some behaviors people find unusual (Obsessive-compulsive disorder), I was curious about Gosar’s possible health issue/disability. However I found nothing online confirming anything. What I did find was many accounts of him denying anything was happening, and several reporters pointing out his unusual hand motions and possible attempts to hide them. Now, his health is absolutely no one’s business but his own, and maybe he doesn’t want to discuss it publicly. I respect his right to privacy. If he doesn’t want to address the questions, that’s his choice— though people are going to speculate.
However, I also believe health issues shouldn’t be hidden or shamed because that feeds the stigma that they SHOULD be hidden and shamed. My whole point was that republicans seem to dwell on health issues as though that makes the person weak or unworthy of holding office etc. Just like you said about Joe Biden. The difference between Gosar and Biden is that Biden is very open about his stutter while Gosar isn’t open about his health. I find this to be incredibly sad because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having Parkinson’s, or a stutter, or OCD, or anything else. We should have empathy for those conditions. I wonder if Gosar doesn’t want to address his situation because he, himself, has little or no empathy for others facing the same.
I in no way meant that he should be treated differently if he does have Parkinson’s. In fact my goal in even looking it up was to learn more about his condition if he did in fact have one. It made me feel bad for him that he felt he needed to hide and to shut down any conversation about it.
I did something similar regarding Jesse Lee Peterson. During a livestream a while ago, David played clips of JLP and again some people in chat were making fun of the way he speaks. That didn’t sit right with me, so I looked into it and found out he was born with a cleft palate and didn’t receive treatment for it until he was a teenager. I made mention of this in chat and several people attacked ME for suggesting they were making fun of his cleft palate when they were making jokes about the way he says certain words. Which completely baffled me and I dropped the subject, but I digress.
Anyway, I should have been clearer about my intentions in my post. I wasn’t meaning to “diagnose” him, though inadvertently that’s what I was doing by speculating when there was a lack of information. I will keep this in mind in the future.
Sure. I agree with your points for the most part, except that Parkinson’s probably wouldn’t affect ones ability while they are in office. It would however, affect someone’s ability if they had dementia in office. In that sense, republicans would probably have a one-up in this scenario.
I don’t think republicans actually care about Biden having dementia. It’s just a way for them to cope that they lost the election. I mean of all the wacky shit that trump has said, and that any claims of mental impairment apply 100-fold to trump than anyone else, it’s not so much that the republicans actually care about dementia or any other mental illness, but just another excuse to attack someone they lost against
His strange head shifting has become much worse since this post.
I definitely think something is wrong.
Others have pointed out that it's either a health/neural problem, or he is on some kind of drug. This is not a normal movement for any culture, so that can be ruled out.
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Tardive dyskinesia. Side effect of antipsychotics.
Nurse here- I found this post trying to research what he's been suffering from because I'm morbidly curious. There's no information out there other than denials from him that there's anything going on with his health. From watching his interviews he clearly suffering from some type of neuro-divergency spastic shifting, bobbing his head from side to side, hands shaking, ect. My best guess (this is pure speculation) is that it's Tardive Dyskinesia likely as a result of Parkinson's. If he's not lying and he really doesn't have any diagnosed health conditions then my next guess is he's lit the fuck up on drugs and alcohol when he's doing interviews.
Does his family have any history of Parkinson’s or Huntington’s Disease? (But Huntington’s can start around 40yo and he’s about mid 60s I think.) Both his ‘hateful’ dementia like thought process is intensifying in his later years along with his dyskinesia signifies to me it is a disease process.
Seems to be getting worse. And his family has spoken about his ‘behavior’ over these many years.
Republicans? What about biden claiming hes healthy?! The dude obviously has dementia or Alzheimer’s hes totally shot but claims he is healthy. Rep Gosar is doing his job just fine his movements arent effecting his work and yet you are digging into it but even though bidens health prevents gim to do a good job as president you probably deny his health problems
lol just admit that you also googled what's going on with Gosar's head movements and ended up here
instead you just found a way to get offended
must be a terrible way to live
This cracked me up. I’m kind of shocked anyone found this post.
It popped up on my bing search lol, so take that for what it is worth. I couldn't help myself but comment towards someone who says "What about" within their first 5 words
How does it feel to be wrong?
I'll never know if I'm wrong or right. I'm okay with that. How does it feel to write comments on reddit only to have people completely ignore them? I guess that's why you responded back so quickly.
Did you even read the post? I never said he wasn’t doing his job because of Parkinson’s. I simply wanted to understand his condition if he did in fact have one. All I found was a lot of reporters asking questions, and Gosar deflecting to “back problems”. It’s fine if he has Parkinson’s. It’s fine if he doesn’t. It’s fine if he has no medical condition at all and shakes his head and hands around simply because he wants to. Just like it’s fine that Joe Biden has a stutter. You think Biden has dementia, and I disagree. Biden and Trump both have many weird gaffs, slip ups, and moments when their age is really apparent. I have no way of diagnosing either of them with any disorder and neither do you or Fox News, Newsmax, OAN or whatever other news sources you follow.
I helped take care of my grandmother for ten years while she had Alzheimer’s. I’m fairly familiar with what the behavioral aspects of the disease look like. I also watch every one of Biden’s press briefings and yeah, he slips up his words or kind of trails off giving too much detail when answering questions or maybe even says something outright stupid. And yeah he fell 3 times ascending the stairs to AF1. But that’s not Alzheimer’s. That’s being 78 years old and having the fucking world on your shoulders with millions of people scrutinizing you. Just like Trump experienced.
I challenge you to watch one of Biden’s speeches in its entirety. WITHOUT talking head commentary from Fox news or any other station. Make up your own mind. Because I have a feeling you didn’t notice Biden’s quirks on your own. Someone more than likely pointed it out to you and called it Alzheimer’s. But I can’t prove that and you’re the only person who knows how you came to your opinion.
Most likely Parkinson’s.
Of course, the "alpha male" culture of today's republican party won't allow him to be honest about it because that would be a sign of weakness.
I agree one should not make fun of people's infirmities. But he just posted homicidal fantasy animations aimed at Biden and AOC. I say that makes him fair game for payback. He is the one who says he is "fine". So if it is just a cartoon, he shouldn't mind if a bobble-head doll in his image is posted, for amusement and entertainment only, of course. Can't they take a joke? (BTW, for those high minded folks among you, I accept any karmic hit aimed at me for saying what I believe.)
the first thing I thought when I have seen him talking very close to a camera moving his head in circles was cocaine consumed with the needle.
People who consume cocaine intravenously behave just like that and aren't able to be aware of the impression they leave behind!
I also found this post because I thought he was on drugs. If it's just a neurological disorder or a medication side effect, it doesn't affect his judgment and thoughts so it shouldn't concern us. It's a shame though, some of the things he's said would have made so much more sense if he was on drugs.
If Gosar has Parkinson's the public should be informed of it, because Parkinson's can also cause dementia. And certainly his recent act against AOC and many of the other things he's said and done lately do seem demented. I'm just speakng as a retired doc, and wife of someone with Parkinsons. My hubby has experienced a couple of dementia episodes with delusions, anxiety and paranoia. Thankfully medication rescued him from those acute episodes, but he still has mild cognitive impairment, in addition to movement problems. Parkinson's isn't solely a movement disorder. Like Paul Gosar my husband was a dentist, and like Paul Gosar, he eventually had to quit dentistry. It had affected his grip strenghth (needed to pull teeth), his spacial sense (needed for both driving to and from work, and accurate drilling) his sequencing of tasks, and generally his executive function, and even his ability to use a computer or a remote control. So IF Gosar has Parkinson's I can certainly understand his need to quit dentistry, and look around for something else to do. Unfortunately, being a politician, if he has Parkinson's, may not be in the best interests of the American people.
If you have followed Michael J Fox’s disease progression- what is happening with Gosar looks EXACTLY like it. In MJF it started with his hands. There is an article from 2015 mentioning him keeping his hands in his pockets or behind his back to control the spasms. Exactly what MJF had to do while filming his last show. Now the head movements looks exactly like MJF also.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/08/28/rep-paul-gosar-addresses-health-rumors/32366009/
Maybe it's karma and his health issues are what Gosar deserves for being a terrible person. I have no pity or sympathy for this human trash. The world will be better when he's gone.
I was just watching an old episode of All in the Family, and the actor who played Archie's cab driving boss, Munson, had the same type of movements as Gosar. His name was Billy Halop, but I couldn't find anything that suggested that he had Parkinsons. He passed from a heart attack in 1976.