The Atlantic has published a MUST-READ article by a stutterer on Biden's experience as a stutterer

[highplainsdem]

Gothmog has already published an OP here about it

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287355064

but I'm posting a separate OP about it because he used the Atlantic's headline

What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say

and IMO that really doesn't do the importance of the article justice. Not by a long shot.

If you want to understand WHY Biden so often appears to stumble over his words, this article is a must-read.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/joe-biden-stutter-profile/602401/

If you want to understand HOW MUCH HE WAS BULLIED for the stuttering, this article is a must-read. He was bullied for stuttering even by a nun teaching a seventh-grade class, and he was still being mocked and bullied for the stuttering even in high school:

By all accounts, Biden was both popular and a strong athlete in high school. He was class president at Archmere Academy, in Claymont, Delaware. His nickname was “Dash”—not a reference to his speed on the football field, but rather another way to mock his stutter. “It was like Morse code—dot dot dot, dash dash dash dash,” Biden says. “Even though by that time I started to overcome it.”

I ask him to expand on the relationship between anger and humiliation, or shame.

“Shame is a big piece of it,” he says, then segues into a story about meeting a stutterer while campaigning.

I bring it back up a little later, this time more directly: “When have you felt shame?”

“Not for a long, long, long time. But especially when I was in grade school and high school. Because that’s the time when everything is, you know, it’s rough. They talk about ‘mean girls’? There’s mean boys, too.”

Bill Bowden had the locker next to Biden’s at Archmere. I called Bowden recently. “It was just kind of a funny thing, you know?” he told me. “Hopefully he wasn’t hurt by it.” Bob Markel, another high-school buddy of Biden’s, went a little further when we spoke: “ ‘H-H-H-H-Hey, J-J-J-J-J-Joe B-B-B-B-Biden’—that’s how he’d be addressed.” Markel said the Archmere guys called him “Stutterhead,” or “Hey, Stut !” for short. He fears that he himself may have made fun of Biden once or twice. “I never remember him being offended. He probably was,” Markel said. “I think one of his coping mechanisms was to not show it.” Bowden and Markel have remained friends with Biden to this day.

This is an extremely long article. The journalist who wrote it talks about his own stutter. He comments at length on Biden stuttering and compensating for the stutter during debates. He goes into detail about discussions with speech experts about Biden's stuttering.

He gets Biden to open up about his stuttering, even though he's usually very reluctant to.

The article is particularly important for what it tells us about how other stutterers react to how the media treat Biden:

Emma Alpern is a 32-year-old copy editor who co-leads the Brooklyn chapter of the National Stuttering Association and co-founded NYC Stutters, which puts on a day-long conference for stuttering de­stigmatization. Alpern told me that she’s on a group text with other stutterers who regularly discuss Biden, and that it’s been “frustrating” to watch the media portray Biden’s speech impediment as a sign of mental decline or dishonesty. “Biden allows that to happen by not naming it for what it is,” she said, though she’s not sure that his presidential candidacy would benefit if he were more forthcoming. “I think he’s dug himself into a hole of not saying that he still stutters for so long that it would strike people as a little weird.”

Biden has presented the same life story for decades. He’s that familiar face—Uncle Joe. He was born 11 months after Pearl Harbor and grew up in the last era of definitive “good guys” and “bad guys.” He’s the dependable guy, the tenacious guy, the aviators-and-crossed-arms guy. That guy doesn’t stutter; that guy used to stutter.

“My dad taught me the value of constancy, effort, and work, and he taught me about shouldering burdens with grace,” Biden writes in the first chapter of his 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep. “He used to quote Benjamin Disraeli: ‘Never complain. Never explain.’ ”

This article explains a LOT.

And anyone who is even remotely interested in Biden -- and anyone willing to be FAIR to Biden -- should read ALL of it.

It's that important.



_______


Editing to add that I've posted some journalists' tweets about this article in replies below.

[Gothmog]

1. This is a very powerful article

[highplainsdem]

5. Yes, it is. I appreciate your posting about it earlier. But I'd skimmed past your OP at first, and

I wanted to make sure everyone here was aware the article is a must-read. I hope your OP gets even more recs and replies, and I wanted to give it a boost if I could.

[raging moderate]

4. .

As a retired speech/language pathologist, I can vouch for the truth of this article. Stuttering is a complex problem, with ramifications which most people don't understand.

[highplainsdem]

6. Thank you! The article is incredibly enlightening, and I was stunned by it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Very interesting.

I had read he used to stutter and I've wondered whether his so-called "gaffes," which usually involve using the wrong word or missing a word, were actually stutters. I hope more people read this. If you want to bust him on policy positions you disagree with, fine; but any suggestion that these verbal stumbles are evidence that he's not intelligent or that he's getting senile is disgraceful. Basically, it's making fun of or picking on a person's disability. That's a Trump trick.

[highplainsdem]

31. +1,000,000

[highplainsdem]

8. NBC's Ben Collins: This story completely changed the way I viewed Biden in debates & public speaking

Link to tweet

[Cha]

21. Thank you! Tells me.. Joe Biden is a

Fighter.. never gives up!

[highplainsdem]

9. Elaine Plott of the Atlantic & CNN: This article "is a triumph."

Link to tweet

[George II]

10. Forget politics and the campaign, THIS is a compelling article. Thanks!

[highplainsdem]

11. NYT's Matt Flegenheimer: "A fantastic, affecting, deeply revealing piece"

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

12. Sam Stein: This piece is a remarkable and worthy read

Link to tweet

My closest friend in J School had a severe stutter. I was so amazed at her ability to do the task and her commitment to working through it. And I recall, vividly, the inspiration she took from Biden’s story. This piece is a remarkable and worthy read

[Cha]

24. Inspiring!

[highplainsdem]

13. Derek Thompson of the Atlantic, NPR, CBS: Simply magnificent essay

Link to tweet

[Thekaspervote]

14. Thank you for posting! I was roasted toasted grilled bashed and ridiculed for posting similar

Anyone who can overcome any...any disability as Joe has is stronger and better for it!!

Go Joe go!!! We’ve got your back

[highplainsdem]

15. BuzzFeed's Henry Gomez: This piece offers insight into how Biden speaks today

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

16. Peter Nicholas: Remarkable piece...Not sure I've ever read a campaign story quite like it.

Link to tweet

[Cha]

23. Definitely a piece to

Bookmark!

[OldRed2450]

17. Biden is a good honest man.

[highplainsdem]

18. Yang supporter tweets an apology for criticizing Biden's speech in the past:

Link to tweet

Insightful and emotional piece into @JoeBiden’s lifelong battle with speech. I have criticized Biden in the past for what I thought was signs of aging and for that I apologize. Joe has endured struggles with stuttering, not incompetence and it’s beautifully articulated here.

[Cha]

22. Wow.. that's really

thoughtful!

[highplainsdem]

19. Politico's Marc Caputo: Stop what you're doing and read this touching, sad, uplifting & fascinatimg

about stuttering and Biden.

Link to tweet

[Cha]

20. Thank you for all your research on this

article on Joe Biden, hpd!

Very Interesting..!

[highplainsdem]

25. Reporter for CBS12 in Florida: "the most intimate and heartfelt piece on Biden I've ever read"

Link to tweet

[Doodley]

26. To be honest, I forgot Biden was a stutterer, but as a former stutterer, I support him. Stuttering

almost destroyed me and although I don't stutter now, it has affected my entire life.

[peggysue2]

27. I read this article earlier today

Thought it was excellent and poignant considering how Joe Biden has dealt with these misfired vocalizations over a lifetime, compensated and made thousands of public appearances with a certain ease and grace. Despite the criticism and ridicule.

So yes, a very good read. About a man who has been tested for a very long time but is still able to flash that Irish grin more times than not.

Go get 'em, Joe!

[melman]

28. Pretty obvious what they're trying to do here

Very transparent and extremely cynical.

[highplainsdem]

29. You know, I thought it was disgusting when I saw some tweets whining about this article, from

Biden haters on Twitter who didn't want to hear amything about Biden's stutter, especially in an article pointing out how hard it is to overcome a stutter.

Any background that might lead to understanding and maybe even sympathy infuriates the haters.

But I was hoping not to see comments like that here.

[George II]

32. "I was hoping not to see comments like that here"...but sadly we did.

[Gothmog]

37. I am also sad about these negative posts

[George II]

30. If it's really that obvious, why not tell us, hmmm?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

33. Seriously?

This was a moving article about people - not just Biden - who struggled with a disability that caused them to grow up suffering mockery and humiliation, because kids can be mean. But adults should know better. DUers who claim to be compassionate liberals especially should know better.

[George II]

34. Yes, it makes you shake your head sometimes. As you say, adults should know better, but some don't.

[BannonsLiver]

35. Yes

You are very cynical.

[LanternWaste]

41. Also, "Pretty obvious what you're trying to do here..."

"Very transparent and extremely cynical" as well.

[stonecutter357]

51. posts removed !!!

[treestar]

61. Wow it took 28 posts

I knew one of you would show up to crap on this.

[highplainsdem]

36. kick

[peggysue2]

38. Kick and Recommend

Because people need to read this and then think twice about ridiculing Joe Biden for his mental acuity or age or whatever. I suggest recalling your own childhood and teenage years when the slightest flaw was magnified and shouted out, the subsequent humiliation on the backend of those taunts.

Then remember Joe Biden's grace and humor, that big Irish grin. Mr. Magoo? Stockdale? Really?

Shame on those who feel compelled to resort to high school cruelty. Joe Biden is by far the better man.

[Peacetrain]

46. I was just thinking about those posts and ops here in DU..

Its a shame that people have so little confidence in the candidate that they support, that they have to fall back to name calling. It is a sign of the times for sure

[peggysue2]

56. Agreed, Peacetrain

I've read some pretty obnoxious remarks.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

39. Did his stuttering make him say he "came out of the black community"?

Did it make him not remember that Harris is also a black female Senator and that she was on stage with him?

His stuttering comes nowhere near an explanation for the problems people have with him. That said, glad he has found ways to deal with this.

[Big Blue Marble]

55. Apparently, you did not read the article.

It explains how these gaffes are the result of his neurological issues that cause the stuttering. It is a lifelong
challenge that he has worked to manage and is inspirational to many who have stuttered and have been
shamed for it. I am sure you would not fat shame. We now know that being fat is far more complex than
it appears on the surface. It is time to stop stutter shame as well. And to take the time to understand
the complexities of stuttering as well. This article is a good place to start.

[jberryhill]

57. "It is a lifelong challenge"

Which fascinates me and other lifelong Delawareans who have known Joe Biden for decades before he became very well known nationally, since it literally never came up before.

I spent three hours a week in a room with just 10 other people and him lecturing for a semester, and as a former speech therapy patient I can say that you could have certainly fooled me.

[Big Blue Marble]

59. Are you claiming he has not had had the disability since childhood

because you hadn’t noticed it? Do you think this is a made up story?

[jberryhill]

60. I have no idea

I am puzzled at how it has never come up before. Joe used to talk a lot faster than he does now, and in successive campaigns for senate and countless commencement speeches and other public events in Delaware, this has never come up. I am certainly surprised to have missed it.

Delaware has a very small population. We have more Senators than Representatives (of which we have one). I realize that for people who grew up and live in other states, it is an unusual occasion to come across a Senator. That is very different from here where, if you wanted to see a senator, all you had to do is show up at the train station every morning (as I also did for years).

It is a surprising thing never to have attracted significant attention before.

[treestar]

62. No one said that

He talked in the past about the first black female Senator, so Harris had nothing to do with it and was trying to get attention. Why should he be thinking about Harris first and foremost at all times?

I don't know what you refer to about coming out of the black community, probably another twisted interpretation.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

64. Talk to Vice (and others) then.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb5wm8/biden-says-hes-from-the-black-community-7-moments-you-missed-from-the-democratic-debate

[WhiskeyGrinder]

40. I read it, found it moving, and is unrelated to my dislike of Biden as a presidential candidate.

[highplainsdem]

42. Laurence Tribe tweet:

Link to tweet

This wonderful piece explains a lot about the Joe Biden I’ve known, worked with, liked, and admired for many years. Everyone should read it quite apart from its possible political relevance. This is empathetic writing at its finest.

[Gothmog]

50. I really appreciate the comments from Professor Tribe

[highplainsdem]

43. Tweet from WaPo's Natalie Jennings:

Link to tweet

This is 1) a super insightful story and 2) a perfect testament to the necessity of having people with a range of backgrounds *and* abilities in newsrooms https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/joe-biden-stutter-profile/602401/

[highplainsdem]

44. Tweet from Rolling Stone's Jamil Smith:

Link to tweet

My former editor @JohnGHendy just wrote his ass off, profiling @JoeBiden in @TheAtlantic. Both he and Biden have lived with stutters since boyhood, and you should read this immediately, if only to be able see the former Vice President through John’s lens. http://on.theatln.tc/3SsDGbN

[Peacetrain]

45. Thank you highplainsdem.. thank you..

The debate stage is not the best format for a stutterer.. but he does not back down, and keeps on going.

[Gothmog]

47. This interview with Stephanie Ruhl was amazing

Link to tweet

[Bucky]

48. Biden's had such an epic life. He really is a gift to the country

He's made a difference in this country so many different ways.

[Gothmog]

49. Steve Schmidt-

Link to tweet

[stonecutter357]

52. K&R

[JustAnotherGen]

53. I don't have to read all of it - seriously

I was teased as a kid for my lisp.

At 46 years of age - I still will screw up words in a SENTENCE if I'm trying to focus on my 'sss' my 'zzz' . . .


Do you know - I still say number 6 as opposed to sixth? Do you know humiliating that is for a well educated person who has had years of speech therapy?

The word mix ups make sense.

Anyone who doesn't have time to read this or empathy? Watch the Kings Speech.

Biden will be just fine if he wins.

[Hav]

54. Similar for me with mixing up vocals as a kid

I still struggle when put on the spot, when I'm nervous or talking fast. That includes wrong grammar/sentence structure or unusual ways to express things, often more literal than the conventional way.
In that regard, I get phrases that just come out wrong and that didn't go through a filter.

[Gothmog]

58. Here is a great interview by Stephanie Ruhl

Link to tweet

[treestar]

63. Very brave of the author to go on TV

people are so impatient nowadays but he got out there and talked about it.

[Gothmog]

65. Here are some comments by Joe Biden on this article

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

66. Philippe Reines has some great comments on this article

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

67. Clarence Page column: Are Joe Biden's gaffes tied to stuttering

Link to tweet

Joe Biden and I share a problem that’s not always easy to talk about. In fact, that’s the problem. We stutter. That makes a lot of things hard to talk about.

Now that the 77-year-old former vice president is running for president, many people understandably are asking whether his notorious gaffes, bloopers and stumbles are related to his age.....

Should more voters know about Biden’s stuttering challenges? He certainly shouldn’t try to run away from it, says another stutterer, Michael Sheehan, a Washington-based communications coach who has been helping Biden prepare for debates. Passing along some campaign advice from MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who was sharing a quote favored by Robert F. Kennedy, Sheehan told me, “Always hang a lantern on a problem.”

I agree. I’m sure many readers reacted to The Atlantic revelations as Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor at the conservative National Review, did on his magazine’s website: “I had no idea, but it helps explain some of his verbal tics.”

Indeed it does. But, politics aside, what should really matter to voters isn’t Biden’s speech problems but how well he rises above them.