It amazes me how many people on this site are still going to bat for Platner after this has come out. I think this post does a good job of pointing out why the defense I keep seeing on here about him not knowing what it meant falls flat. Dude is a military history buff and someone doesn’t know what that incredibly famous image means? I don’t buy it for a second. Maybe twenty years ago when he got it, but zero chance that hasn’t been brought to his attention by now. Especially with the report that he used to go around and tell people that that’s exactly what it was.
I dunno man, Susan Collins or a secret Nazi. It’s a tough choice.
Edit: The sad thing is that I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic…
You do realize the election is a year away and the primaries haven’t happened yet, right? It is in no way a binary choice between those two candidates.
I do realize that, yes. It was an attempt at levity, because holy shit, what a world we live in.
Haha, right on, almost put that if it was sarcasm then you totally got me on it. After being called a puritan for taking issue with him having a nazi tattoo, I can’t tell who is being serious or not on this anymore.
I think my favorite lighthearted response (from bluesky) was- Never trust a man with frosted tips. Seems like a pretty good code to live by.
Janet Mills is running as well, even though she’s about 127 yrs old, she would still be an improvement over Collins.
My dad got a Confederate flag tattoo under identical circumstances when he was in the military. Years later when he realized how dumb it was he got it covered up.
My brother, a union mechanic in a deeply rural area and served in the military, never identified as socialist or communist. And when he saw a coworker with a deaths head sticker on his hard had immediately knew what it was, and called me.
I’m sorry, this guy is either a deep operator or incredibly dumb. His leftism isn’t practical, its just ideas. If he’s just mistaken, that’s fair. Go out and get some actual experience. But he is disqualified to lead our movements, for a very long time.
When this big tough white middle aged oyster farmer gets arrested and tortured by Israeli military for trying to smuggle aid into Gaza, when he has successfully run local campaigns that have had a real lasting positive effect on the lives of our most vulnerable workers, then let’s have a frank conversation about his qualifications for office.
I actually know someone who was on the Gaza flotilla. This guy is a joke.
Well, someone should tell her that many truly are that “painfully stupid”.
You’re allowed to be stupid, but that disqualifies you from representing the left and leading our movements.
Also I think her point is that he isn’t stupid.
oh yes, we can.
Don’t post pictures of text
on Friday a series of Reddit posts made by Platner between 2013 and 2021 — and deleted before his campaign — in which he called himself a “communist,” referred to law enforcement officers as “bastards” and downplayed the severity sexual assault reports
One of those things is not like the others
Yeah. Bastards everywhere should feel insulted.
Our senators have got skulls on them. Are… are we the baddies?
I’m willing to believe that maybe through some crazy chain of events you didn’t know when you got it. I’m maybe even willing to believe that through some crazy chain of events you didn’t learn about it for 18 years. What I am not willing to believe is that when he decided to run, nobody in his team told him. He should have gotten it covered or removed. They go through your life looking for anything bad because they know the opposition will. All this combined, there’s 0% chance he just learned now. For some reason they’re playing this weird game. The most generous interpretation I can come up with is that he feels attachment to it and doesn’t wanna get rid of it, but even that’s pretty fucked. You can’t keep your racist tattoo just because you’re nostalgic for it.
I mean, he absolutely can keep it just because he likes it, but that brings consequences
Oh, lol. Good point. The unstated clause being “and not be a racist.”
https://www.grahamforsenate.com/platform
- I don’t believe he’s a nazi. The reddit posts make me think he was never a far right guy. He was just a military guy trying to figure stuff out.
- If anyone in the election has like 90% of his platform, they can get my vote. Until I see momentum behind a candidate that supports universal healthcare, is against the genocide in Gaza, and the dozen other progressive issues, he’ll still get my support.
Getting someone that has the history and look of Platner to be fighting for progessive values is important. If we can get 20 somethings who would fall to right wing propaganda to pay attention to Platner and his growth story, we can build a better society for a lot of people.
Okay, so having learned that, the laser treatment to remove it is probably in his calendar already, right? And he’ll be able to show everyone that it’s removed quite soon?
Right?
edit Right.
Yes, he is getting it removed
Oh, it went better than expected. My happy mistake.
He’s said that he’s getting it removed.
Now we have to wait and see if he sticks to that.
He also apologized AFTER people finding out his comments. Just the pefrect hypocrite conciousless politician ready to tell dumbfucks whatever they want just for a position of power when his actual values are pride of war crimes, racism, sexism, and slaughtering brown people for 13 years.
This is like trusting a wolf in sheep clothing after his big-pointy ears came out, and then he was “Ssorry!! I tucked them back in… Baaa Baaa… Look… I’m back to being a sheep”
The fuck is wrong with you??
The guy with 5 separate compact tours who was deployed in the same cities and time of Blackwater documented war crimes of killings and rapings in Ramadi and Faillujah, and kept rejoinging the same ill-trained war-criminal military contrator for 13 years of US imperalism invovlment in third-world countries that left them in poverty and ruins ?? Wait, he also has histroy of sexual assault allegations, rape and racist comments, and a nazi tattoo??
Edit: it turned out he only joined blackwater after they were rebranded as Constellis due to their war crime convictions. he also apologized for his rape and racist comments after people found out about them. and about the tattoos he said it was from anime or whatever but it’s not nazi symbol. He is still proud of his 5 compact tours of shame US invasions over the period of 13 years though as if he can’t stop reminiscing about the memories of seeing brown people killed.
Imo, he is conciousless af, and ready to lie and adapt to tell you whatever you want to hear, and he’s so eager to be in position of power… So it all checks out; he is perfect for the job of a conciousless lip-service politician with values open for sale to the highest bidder.
some corrections
it was one tour with blackwater, after four tours with the military, and i don’t think there were sexual assault allegations against him (were there? he did post reddit comments blaming women in the military for their assaults…).
And yet he is still the least genocide supporting candidate in the primary.
The bar is so, so low.
Can people change, recognize their bad behavior in the past, and atoll for it now?
Really hard to tell with politicians, the whole game is to seem like a good person to as many voters as possible. You only find out once they don’t need voters anymore.
Ok, well I’ll take that over politicians now that don’t even bother to lie. Democrats nowadays don’t lie and cater to the Right.
At least Obama ran on a campaign of change while fucking us all in the ass. Politicians doing that though shift the Overton Window and change the permission structure for what you can and can’t say on a political campaign.
Graham Platner will do his job in pushing the envelope, and other progressives will follow suit.
Yes.
Are they entitled to support from progressives and endorsement of his political campaign from the left? No.
Maine is not a very left-leaning state, so I doubt any endorsement from online leftists really matters
Then neither does criticism.
Until I hear different from leftist organizers in Maine, imma just assume Platner is toast.
I’m not saying Vote Blue No Matter Who.
I am saying that Platner is taking it from both sides right now, when Leftists could show some support by trying to gather a unified front.
Platner isn’t perfect. He’s done a lot of bad shit. But him winning in Maine means other progressives that AREN’T him become more confident in running.
Let’s not forget the DNC’s role in this.
I’m not in Maine, so my vote doesn’t count. I’m allowed to criticize a political subject, principled criticism is one of the only ways to uncover truth.
Also there is a difference between a united front and a popular front. In a united front, left groups retain their ability to constructively criticize each other and maintain independence and democracy, while working practically to achieve ends that would be a clear improvement for working class conditions.
A popular front is when left groups dissolve themselves into a movement, which would be actually controlled by the most powerful group, in this case the DNC. I don’t trust the DNC, and they are extremely difficult to work with. Popular fronts are authoritarian and disastrous.
There is no indication that electing one possibly left wing senator would be a marked improvement, or that giving power to the DNC in this one race would improve conditions for the vast majority of people.
Something about a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Its more a wolf in wolf’s clothing saying he didn’t realize its wolf’s clothing
But this sheep is clothed in nazi-clothing
What about his reddit post history makes you think he’s a nazi?
Just a guess, and OP may correct me if I’m wrong, but it would probably be the nazi tattoo he has had on his chest for the past 20 years.
the antisemitism group Anti-Defamation League
Looks like they accidentally described a zionist group accurately!
So deeply depressing when “anti-Semitism” is increasingly cover for “pro-fascism”.
Reminder that “antisemitism” was a euphemism made in the late 19th century by people who wanted to promote the ideology of hating Jewish people, to replace the previous term “Judenhaß” (meaning Jew-hatred)
The symbol in question:
I mean…I can kinda get why he didn’t know. That looks like one of those blobs therapists use to figure out what you see.
I don’t even see a skull and bones. I see a fish, with a railroad crossing sign on it’s belly.
Even side by side, I barely see the resemblance. I guess that’s what it’s supposed to be, but I could easily be convinced if you show me a fish with a railroad sign on it’s belly.
I can fully understand how he didn’t know. I don’t understand why he got a tattoo he had no strong attatchments to however. He should have at least known WHAT he was getting tattood in the first place.
In any event, nazi affiliation, no nazi affiliation, can we all agree that it’s a shit tattoo either way?
It probably isn’t as blurry in a mirror as it is in a flip phone video from 2015.
I’m still not sure I’d recognize it, especially not without the backing shield. Sure, you can say that’s just on me, but there’s so many symbols and references that lead back to nazis that I can’t imagine I’ll know them all. I’d counter that by asking if you’d think anything deep about seeing a Medusa tattoo.
Also, people get meaningless tattoos all the time, especially once you get over your first one’s novelty. You liked it that day. No one is sentimental about their cartoon toaster. No one put meaning into every single element of their full sleeves. Right now there’s a trend of just getting 20 pieces of flash, not far from the generalized traditional designs from the 1950s
Seriously, you think nobody is sentimental about The Brave Little Toaster?
I’ve never seen it with eyes. Even if I did, it’d barely rank higher than a meme in long term sentimentality. May as well be a sinbad S dragon
I too think the picture is uselessly bad, and that’s key to another part of the story in the comments. Basically an unnamed associate seemed to be in the same boat of not knowing what it was and the man himself described it by name.
Now he didn’t explicitly say it was a Nazi symbol, but he allegedly used the specific German word for it instead of saying it’s some skull and crossbones.
Per the Jewish Insider citing a anonymous source, so take that for what you will
I suppose what helps for me is that the tatoo is kind of hard to make out, and he doesn’t deny the design intent matches what that is purported to be. I don’t know if anyone would have accurately made that connection without help.
I also wanted to buy an Iron Cross necklace, but my mother wouldn’t let me. I didn’t know what it meant… Cause I was like 10 at the time. How old was he to not know what a Totenkopf is?
I literally just learned what it is. I would have thought it was random pirate or metal shit
OK, then look at it this way. Would you have gotten a tattoo on your chest of something you didn’t know the meaning of?
I wouldn’t, but then again I’m not a drunk Marine.
Like the other user above, I’ve also never heard of the Totenkopf and I don’t recognize the emblem. Looks like any other skull and crossbones to me. I’m not saying it isn’t a harmful symbol, but I can understand how a lot of people would be totally ignorant to its history like I am.
Yeah, I’m more inclined to believe that he was drunk, and a foreigner wasn’t a fan of American Marines in his country, and branded him with a well known nazi symbol on his chest just to fuck with him.
Right. And you can blame bad decisions on being drunk. It’s ridiculous but whatever. And then the next few decades when you … checks notes … don’t actually look up the tattoo and … checks notes … actively ignore people who told you it was Nazi shit … those years involved plenty of sober incidents.
Also, if you’re going into national politics, you have to know that people will look into your past. So you ask your supporters to do it first, to deal with the rough stuff before it’s trending around the globe. Every single politician in the world understands this basic point.
Would you look up something if you didn’t suspect it was anything more than a random skull and crossbones? Why do you think people told him it was a nazi thing? I dunno this actually seems like a totally feasible story to me, especially when you see how shitty the thing looks.
People are acting like this is a well known symbol but I didn’t know it nor has anyone in real life I’ve talked to about this
I would have assumed this was just a skull and crossbones design, not a specific Nazi symbol. Maybe some 40k shit.
No, but I’ve known people that have
I was seriously looking at a tattoo, but dropped the idea after running it by a friend who was more aware of the problematic implications than I was at the time.
It’s not hard to make a mistake. And it might be hard to recall that, at least in America prior to 2016, we didn’t generally take (neo)Nazism and unironic fascism seriously.
Anyway, as someone else said, he shows growth.
Wait what makes it a Nazi tattoo? Are all skulls potentially Nazi tattoos? It just looks like a regular (somewhat cartoonish) skull and bones
Edit: Oh seems like part of a specific SS symbol
I mean, after the swastika, SS logo and iron cross, it’s like the fourth most famous Nazi symbol
There’s a pretty wide gap between spots three and four, bud. Even before considering that you forgot about the arm bands and the mustache.
Also skulls are the most widely used symbols for all sorts of things throughout history and modern pop culture
Yeah but that’s a very specific design, bud
That’s what I said lmao. And that it’s only part of the very specific design half the comment section’s never seen before. Some guy even tattooed it on himself without knowing it, buddy
I guess half of the comment section must not be used to dealing with Nazis, pal
Congrats on figuring it out. A rare sight in comments sections
That somewhat cartoonish skull-and-crossbones is specifically the symbol worn by, among some others, the nazis who operated the extermination camps.
He probably thought it’s a cool Darth Vader tattoo 🙄
To be fair, I didn’t even know what a Totenkopf was before yesterday. Yes, I’m an American zoomer. This goes to show how shite our US history public education is.
And Platner said that he underwent multiple inspections by the military. Not one of those times did the military point out that his tattoo was a hate symbol. Should they have? Would they have? Clearly not.
Now that he knows the “truth”, whether you agree that this is his first time learning about the symbol or not, he needs to cover it up or have it removed. Post pictures on social media. Make it a big thing so the fascists and tankies don’t call you a communist and Nazi all at the same time.
If he doesn’t get it removed, well then I’m not sure if I want to back him.
He has to do more than get it removed.
But according to a person who socialized with Platner when he was living in Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, Platner had specifically acknowledged that the tattoo was a Totenkopf, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit that guarded concentration camps in World War II.
“He said, 'Oh, this is my Totenkopf,” the former acquaintance told Jewish Insider recently, speaking on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive issue. “He said it in a cutesy little way.”
The exchange occurred in 2012 at Tune Inn, a popular dive on Capitol Hill where Platner later worked as a bartender and was a frequent patron while he attended The George Washington University on the G.I. bill, according to the former acquaintance. He would often take his shirt off drinking with friends late at night at the bar, and on at least one occasion had stated he knew what the tattoo represented, the former acquaintance recalled.
Platner gave varying accounts of the image during this time, saying at one point he was aware it was a Totenkopf when he had first gotten the tattoo several years prior and at another time claiming he had not known, according to the former acquaintance.
The mixed accounts indicate that Platner has at least long been aware of the symbols’s connection to Nazism, even as he said in the podcast interview he was not familiar with any such association when he chose to get the tattoo.
The source for this is Jewish Insider, which I’m sure people will say whatever they are going to say about that, but at some point this guys multiple red flags need to be taken as a pattern.
Dude has a very clear pattern of making questionable choices in the most favorable reading of circumstances. His former campaign manager said this when resigning over Grahams past comments:
“The words we choose to use online reflect who we are and what we stand for. While I am empathetic to Graham’s experiences and respect his personal journey and growth, I cannot overlook the volume and nature of his past comments, many of which were made as an adult, not as a young man.” McDonald said in her resignation letter.
Y’all need to stop apologizing for this guy and start looking for a better candidate to get behind so it isn’t Janet Mills in the general.
Man, this is all a deep bummer. I’ve only been very tangentially paying attention to this race and was excited to see a candidate gaining a lot of momentum and with a lot of messaging i could generally get behind who could replace Susan shitfuck Collins. But, whoof, I dunno if I’ve ever experienced such a sudden and complete collapse of any interest in or support at all for a candidate in my life.
Hmm, looks like he was prejudice 10 years ago, and perhaps a white supremacist before that. But, he called rural-whites racist more recently (and they definitely are more racist in aggregate), so looks like his POV changed. IDK, that seems fine to me.
He has a nazi tattoo on his chest. Not, he got a nazi tattoo when he was young and drunk and didn’t know and as soon as he found out he got that shit covered up. He, to this day, has a Totenkopf tattoo. For the people in the back:
ANY CANDIDATE WITH A NAZI TATTOO IS A NON-STARTER.
Edit: Robert Evans sums it up well on Bluesky
i liked how Platner was campaigning and I am prepared to believe a young marine could make literally any stupid mistake. but I don’t believe a guy could spend twenty years maturing politically the way he has and not know what a death’s head means
if his attitude from the jump has been “I did this as a kid and have been ashamed of it since, it was a terrible mistake” I don’t think I’d mind. but he’s just not being honest here and that’s suspicious as hell.
Hey Puritan, I’m an American zoomer AND I DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHAT A TOTENKOPF WAS BEFORE YESTERDAY.
May I remind you that most Americans didn’t even know that Lays potato chips were made out of potatoes, and so Lays is now changing up their marketing to get that fact across?
I think you highly overestimate how intelligent people in America are. We have the average literacy rate of a 6th grader. Come on.
If Platner gets it covered or removed in the next 1-2 weeks, no big deal. He’s positioning himself as a reformed veteran, and I’m willing to back him.
We don’t have many other Left leaning candidates in non-Blue states!
Jfc, are you serious? I’m a puritan because I take issue with someone having a literal nazi tattoo. The election is a year away, find a better candidate to get behind before then, it’s that simple. Do you also believe that Elon Musk was just reaching for his heart and waving during Trump’s inauguration? Do you think that Pete Hegseth got a Deus Vult tattoo because it looks cool?
Platner was a mercenary who served four tours in the middle east, has a tier-list of wars he would fight in, is into military history. Zero fucking chance he doesn’t know what that symbol is at this age.
It is ok that you supported him. He said a lot of things that are worth getting behind. There is now more than enough information out there to realize that he is, at best, a political liability.
Having a nazi tattoo is a non-starter for a political candidate. If you can’t see that, then I don’t know what to tell you. Just because you are able to look past that, which you absolutely should not, you need to realize that he is unelectable to the general public. There is no amount of rehab to his image that can be done for this.
Platner isn’t perfect. Support him or don’t.
And while you’re at it, support those other Left leaning, anti Zionist frontrunners for elections next year across the US. I’ll wait for those people to come to power while Platner takes names and kicks ass.
Of course, if another candidate for the Maine Senate race appears and has better optics while championing the same views as Platner, I’m all for it.
But let’s keep closeted leftists from taking office because they aren’t left enough.
That he wasn’t left enough wasn’t the criticism, and you know that. The criticism was specifically that there is reasonable doubt that the guy is a cryptofascist.
There is a reasonable doubt. That’s true.
But people are taking that one step further and making it a certain doubt. People are disqualifying him entirely, which can be seen in others responding to me in this very thread.
People have different sus meters, and mine (and Bernie Sanders’) meters aren’t just there yet.
If he doesn’t get this removed and started to capitulate more and more to centrist liberals, then my support for Platner will wane.
I’d rather defend him than be apathetic to him right now.
He has a nazi tattoo!! Wtf are you talking about? That is disqualifying, end of story.
And he’s denounced it! Wtf do you want?
Why don’t you have this same smoke for the US Military that should have caught this time and time again?
Now that you know what it is, why are you defending it? He definitely didn’t just find out today, so the fact he still has it is a strong indicator of what he really believes.
So if he attacks people you think are sub-human, hes a good candidate?
Oof
Ouch
The old comments were easily forgivable
A literal Nazi tattoo is something else :/
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who strongly backed Platner earlier this month, said the revelations about Platner do not impact his endorsement.
“He went through a dark period,” Sanders told reporters on Tuesday. “He has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made, and I’m confident that he’s going to run a great campaign and that he’s going to win.”
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch also told NOTUS on Tuesday that he is confident “Mainers will figure it out.”
Cynthia Phinney, president of the Maine AFL-CIO, said she had not seen reports about Platner’s tattoo and the controversy surrounding it. But she made clear she thought the negative news about Platner was a result of meddling from the national Democratic Party.
“I’m disappointed with the apparent engagement of the national party in our state primary the way this is coming out,” Phinney said.
Phinney said that she didn’t have proof that the national party was behind the emergence of a series of damaging news stories about his campaign but that she thought the “mudslinging” was unhelpful regardless of its source.
“I don’t think this is adding to the quality of what people are getting to think about in the campaign,” she said. “The important thing to me is to replace Suan Collins.”
When asked about the reports, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw his weight behind Mills’ campaign.
“We think that Janet Mills is the best candidate to retire Susan Collins. She’s a tested two-term governor and the people of Maine have an enormous amount of affection and respect for her,” he said, adding: “I’ll let the people of Maine decide.”
Color me shocked. A smear campaign by the DNC to fight progressives?
I’m sorry, but an actual Nazi can’t pretend to be progressive long enough to finish a sentence, let alone get an endorsement from Bernie Sanders.
Tell that to Fetterman voters. I really hope Platner wouldn’t be a Fetterman 2.0 but now it’s not unheard of.
I’m sorry, but an actual Nazi can’t pretend to be progressive long enough to finish a sentence
You’re dead wrong.
Ok fair. I walked into that one.
I live in Maine and EVERYONE hates Janet Mills. She’s been better than lepage, I guess, but not by a lot. Milquetoast at best. Voting for her would be once again holding my nose and voting for the D over the R
He has apologized for the stupid remarks, the hurtful remarks that he made
Rookie mistake. Coulda been president by now if only he… listens to earpiece I have been informed that this man is NOT a star, ergo they will not let him do it.
