“It’s hard to know if it’s dementia or just Joe being Joe...he’s always been an idiot.”
But it looks like he’s always been an unpleasant man—quite willing to push around or bully people who for whatever reason can’t fight back. His threat to take someone ‘back behind the gym’ reveals a lot.
In short, it’s both—dementia and Joe just being Joe.
Agreed. Dementia sufferers also tend to lose their filters and say things that in better days they would have kept to themselves.
We had a relative who grew up in a very racist culture who when stricken with dementia used language that he never would have used when well. We were really concerned for his private duty nurse. He really liked her but referred to her in offensive terms. Amazingly she was able to overlook it because she'd experienced this repeatedly. She was at his funeral and seemed very broken up at his death.
Even obama said, "never underestimate Joe's ability to f--- things up."
Joe's "stand up, Chuck" (comment to man in wheelchair) was in 2015.