The difficulty he might have finding a body double means nothing to those convinced the real Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. (who is 6 feet, 8 inches tall and about 270 pounds) is somewhere in hiding, writes Gordon Pennycook, associate professor of psychology and Himan Brown Faculty Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences. In an opinion piece on MSNBC, Pennycook explains why people believe and spread conspiracies like this.
“Despite [his] uniqueness, there are some claiming that the Fetterman we see at the U.S. Capitol is a fake and that the real Fetterman is employing a body double,” Pennycook writes in the piece. “The conspiracy appears to be a continuation of earlier discourse about Fetterman’s speech issues following his stroke now that his speech in interviews is much improved.
“Although people can (and often do) improve steadily after having a stroke — and changing one’s facial hair is not exactly uncommon — for these conspiracy theorists, there’s a better explanation for Fetterman’s noticeable recovery and subtle appearance changes: That it isn’t Fetterman."
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