Further evidence (if you need it) of Biden’s increasing dementia
By Andrea Widburg
July 4, 2021
Those of Joe Biden’s public behaviors that align with classic dementia symptoms are escalating. In the past few days, he strongly exhibited two symptoms: A type of belligerence that’s a cover-up for confusion and memory loss and a paranoid fear of those in charge of him.
I used to spend a lot of time in the company of doctors. What always fascinated me were the tales they told of dealing with patients with early-stage dementia. The most interesting point they made was that elderly people, so as not to lose face or admit their own fears, are superb at deflecting the questions aimed at assessing their cognitive skills and memory.
For example, one of the most common questions is “Who’s the president of the United States?” Rather than admitting that they don’t remember, people in early-stage dementia will get defensive or otherwise deflect. They might say, “That is incredibly insulting that you’d ask me that question,” picking a fight to distract from their memory loss. Others might go for flattery: “I can’t believe that a young man like you doesn’t know who’s president. That’s just a silly question to ask me.”
Biden perfectly illustrated that type of angry, defensive, deflecting behavior when reporters on Friday asked him about Afghanistan:
What Biden is really saying is that he has no idea how to answer questions that every person occupying the Oval Office should easily be able to answer.
The other thing that’s so common with elderly people who are losing it (and this is a terribly sad thing) is their fear of their caregivers. After spending decades as competent people in charge of their lives, they’re dependent on other people. Worse, with declining cognitive skills (memory, hearing, vision), they feel tremendously vulnerable and their caregivers dominate their thoughts and fears. When my mother entered her assisted living facility, she and the friends she made were still bright, capable women who just didn’t want to live alone. Over the next decade, all of them became fragile, confused, and extremely paranoid about the staff.
Biden is constantly manifesting exactly that behavior. In video after video, he’s physically fragile as he shuffles along, alternating whispering and bellowing, he’s frequently confused, and he’s very paranoid lest “they” disapprove of what he’s doing. On Saturday, Biden again showed his fear that those upon whom he’s dependent might get angry at him. There he is, shuffling through a cherry orchard, desperately flipping through his notes, and again expressing his fear that he doesn’t want to “get in trouble”: