Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner says nobody ever told him the large SS-Totenkopf tattoo he's had on his chest for the last 18 years is a Nazi symbol
https://www.notus.org/campaigns/graham-platner-tattoo-controversy-nazi-ss-totenkopf-maine-senate-raceOpen linkView original on lemmy.ml546
Comments195
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 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
It's a skull with feet for ears with twinkling toes of course.
Like if kirby swallowed a skeleton
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.
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.
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 🙄
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.
You're dead wrong.
Ok fair. I walked into that one.
Tell that to Fetterman voters. I really hope Platner wouldn't be a Fetterman 2.0 but now it's not unheard of.
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.
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
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.
::: spoiler 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.
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 deleted his comments AFTER people found out about them. 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??
Platner's former political director
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
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:
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
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?
This is a complicated story. Reddit somehow released his username and tied it to him? No one has said how they were tied together.
Now he has a nazi tattoo that he didn't know was a nazi tattoo. That may be true? I don't know. He's going up against Susan Collins. I can't imagine the DNC wanting her over anyone.
I think bookending the two recent quotes with the obviously more problematic quotes from 8 years prior is intentional. A lot can change in 8 years, especially when you transition from military to civilian life. I think the ACAB sentiment he expressed in 2021 shows growth.
(Anecdotal bias incoming) The comment on rural white Americans, while inflammatory and unhelpful, isn't all that off-base in my experience. If you are born into, grow up in and stay within the same rural 10 mile radius your entire life you tend to lack perspective to say the least. Growing up in a town or village that is 90%+ white provides no frame of reference for the varying struggles people of color experience.
I grew up in one such town. Demographics were roughly 90% white, 10% Hispanic. I didn't have a black classmate until junior year of high school and I don't want to speculate about the reception they received.
As for stupidity, acquiring knowledge is at best unemphasized and at worst actively, intentionally discouraged. Willful ignorance may be a more accurate term.
There are certainly children curious enough to seek out knowledge and learn about other human experiences (hi) but I'm still struggling to escape that bucket of crabs and it has consumed and scarred me. The access to quality healthcare was abysmal, employment was primarily factory-based and starting from a place of low familial wealth is something I've struggled against my entire adult life. I'd venture a guess that he was raised in a similar setting and was only able to escape via military service.
In short; I agree with the sentiments he's expressed recently. I vehemently disagree with the sentiments he expressed over a decade ago. I'm willing to believe the tattoo was an arbitrarily chosen flash piece done in Croatia during his time in the Marines. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'll never be his constituent so my opinion ultimately means jack shit.
::: spoiler CNN didn't say where they got his username, but he acknowledged the posts were his From the article that reported the posts:
It is mildly plausible that he could have gotten the tattoo without realizing what it was. It is highly implausible that (as he claimed on a podcast yesterday) nobody ever told him what it was during any of the many times he says he's had his shirt off over the last 18 years.
Not yet he isn't. The primary isn't until next June.
The reddit thing is actually the most troubling thing to me, how did CNN get it?
The second most troubling is he could also be a fetterman situation. idk.
Fetterman had a stroke so bad that it changed his political views.
We have no reason to think that Platner is going to stroke out before the primary and general next year.
It could be a Fetterman situation, or it could not. We don't know enough to be sure.
I would be gobsmacked if it turns out the DNC is not behind this smear campaign. They ratfuck primaries like nobody’s business, and in true Dem fashion, it’s so they can try to get a literal 80 year old into power instead. Fucking moron democrats never learn a damn thing.
edit: saw Platner address this on pod save. Don’t think he knew. I think he should just get the tat covered, make an apology statement, and move on.
Smear campaign? I don't see anyone denying that he has a Nazi tattoo. This doesn't seem like the same sort of thing as the baseless accusations of antisemitism against Mamdani or the "Bernie Bros" and "Obama Boys" nonsense.
Ohhh ok he got the Nazi tattoo with other soldiers together in the military, so that makes it ok guys.
Remember John Fetterman? He seemed pretty progressive, right until he got elected.
The guy is a marine who served several tours in places we never should have been in the first place, with a Nazi tattoo on his chest. I think I'll believe that over some bullshit faux leftist lip service he might pay in order to get elected.
I dunno, if he's a secret fascist he's been playing the really long game.
Fetterman actually wasn't progressive at all even before he was elected.
And maybe neither is this guy
Pretty thin sauce given the pic I've seen. And I don't give a rat's ass how he was as a young man.
Watch this and tell me you can't cheer for him.
Hey, Janet Mills is only 77! She's a spring chicken!
What an up and coming star! I can't wait for the younger generation in their 70s to run this country instead do of the old geriatric corpses in their 80s
This is exactly how the most popular candidate for the Democrats got switched for Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders was getting cut from coverage despite HUGE support and all of a sudden, Obama's bumbling VP was being shown as the top candidate.
Without trying to go down a conspiracy hole, Sanders was a threat to corporate power, predatory banking, and dis-regulation. DNC wants to play as close to the line as they can to get your vote, throw you a few bones, and still take your money. This is why the left and the right in America is still far right of everywhere else.
As someone who has good friends that I respect that are all across the political spectrum, this is where I hope my friends that think trump will break certain things are right. So that the pendulum swing comes back so strongly that we can clearly see how broken things were and fix them in a way that benefits actual people, not just barely enough like the DNC likes to keep things.
Take the ACA for example. Obama had the best of intentions. But he took Chris Dodd's plan as the basis. Chris Dodd's wife, Jackie Clegg, sat on the boards for many health industry companies. The plan could have worked, but was stripped of the public option. Only with subsidies was the plan possible to offer healthcare to people at a sometimes reasonable price, often not. Now those subsidies are ending. The only good thing to come out of it, from what I can tell, is that insurance companies can't deny you for pre-existing conditions. Up till now, It's just enough to make us think that at least it's not worse, but let's be honest, healthcare in America sucks. There are excellent people working as nurses, doctors, EMTs, etc, but insurance, pharmaceutical companies, and private equity working to keep us just barely alive and too desperate to fight it. This is the type of thing Bernie Sanders fought against and why he disappeared from coverage, endorsement, and ballots.
This is part of what needs to break. DNC would bend it as far as it could get away with while trying to make us think it's working, but trump will break it and call me idealist, but I hope the pushback instills leadership with someone like Sanders who cares enough to mend those bones in a way that serves the people.
This man is too real. The DNC is going to bury him.
I've watched his longer campaign ad twice, and twice I wept a bit, wanted to fucking SCREAM. My god my fucking god, THIS is the winning message. In my 54-years I have never heard such... don't have words, y'all watch the fucking video.
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."
Our senators have got skulls on them. Are.. are we the baddies?
One of those things is not like the others
Yeah. Bastards everywhere should feel insulted.
I feel like you have to try to find a tattooist in Croatia in the mid aughts willing to ink an ss symbol on an American military member. Like I've never been there but I know in America it's a pain in the ass to get a swastika or ss lightning bolt tattoo because most artists won't do it, and this is America where we skim history in schools
I'm fairly certain it's easier in Croatia than in most countries.
Ustaše - Wikipedia https://share.google/vCkO0kaJxAsomoBsg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-07/croatia-s-far-right-resurgence-sees-revival-of-nazi-era-symbolism
I'm still trying to figure out why wet are talking about the pirate symbol
I'm sure he won't mind live streaming the removal then.
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.
This thread makes me believe Heritage Foundation troll factories are now operating within Lemmy as well. Nobody can be this dense.
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.
and you did not, at any point in this "skull and crossbones" endeavor, have your "are we the baddies" moment?
In fairness, that is asking a marine to have thought something through.
Too busy eating crayons.
Hey I've been informed that red is a tasty color.
Aww thanks. 😋
not enough jammed up the nose, into the brain, like Homer.
Did you miss the subtle subtext in the first sentence? Or do you not know anyone at all who was or is in the military? I only know two or three but still one of them cut off the top of his own head with a ceiling fan. Thats the level of decision making and impulse control you expect from sober young men in the military.
Worth noting that the Croatians were and are often still super aligned with Nazi shit.
https://www.grahamforsenate.com/platform
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.
Seems like it’s become in fashion to blame ignorance over your shitty beliefs, instead of owning own your choices like a responsible adult.
Always been, you think Nero owned up to what he did? Hypocrisy is the least important thing to people in a leader.
Oof
Ouch
The old comments were easily forgivable
A literal Nazi tattoo is something else :/
Military murderer does drunken Nazi culture things while being paid to spread capitalism with violence. Doesn't apologize.
Today I learned that a Nazi tattoo. Anyone else here know that before this story?
Yes, absolutely.
But why skulls though?
Never seen that British show either 🤷 look if he's an active Nazi then fuck em. But I need a wee bit more evidence
As the clip says, it's on the caps of their uniforms.
I don't live in Maine or know much about the guy so I have no input on that, I'm just saying I know it. And tbf my perspective is somewhat skewed as I recognize a lot of symbols for the purposes of threat assessment.
Yea, idk it's a new one to me. I'll wait to see how that plays out. And now I have a new show to check out 😀
See the (R) next to his name?
It's a D this time.
Seriously? You're saying everyone who ever sat in a history class doesn't have these burned into their memory? Wtf?
Well considering that was several decades ago and there's a few handfuls of raglia in that 1 picture, yea, I don't have those all in instant access.
Pikachu face
I have a weird take on this but i think we are gonna start seeing a lot more of this and need to just get comfortable with people with fucked up pasts being on the side of people.
A lot of very hardcore right wing, racist and problematic peole are struggling to live and will start pushing for more socialist ideals because they have to, to survive.
I think what's happening is that oligarch is not a race. Wealth is not a race and those that may have thought you could make easy scapegoats by race and creed will realize and adjust their views. Its just not the fight we are having anymore and while we may not like the reasons people are fighting on our sides we kinda have to accept that they are.
If we can make the world better not just for the oligarchs and the ultrawealthy cultists we are gonna have to shake hands and learn to get along with people we have issue with, and give them space to be on a better position.
See, I'd be willing to consider this for him if he had the tattoo covered up or removed. A fucked up past can't be forgiven if they still have a fucked up present.
This made me spit out my coffee. Thanks for posting.
Next!
Something smells so bad, can it be his BullShit?!
Oh, the banality of evil. Oops, is murder actually wrong?! Why did no one tell me???
It's going to be a maze
No matter what?
Not even in office and already lying
I’ve heard Janet Mills has a Zionist trampstamp
Not at all. Did you know that Janet Mills is an Israel First Candidate, while Platner has been endorsed by the Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption.
See what rando anons imply when they have nothing but maybe a loose script for troll bs to riff from?
p.s. I also can't decide whether this is just you being ignorant AF or some low-effort sapping, and I'm even less convinced such a distinction matters. Ironic, I know. 🖕🏼
More of the same asinine xbox squeaking? That tracks.
Also a real non bot non Russian person living in Maine excited to vote for Graham and his Nazi tattoo
It seems the tankies have a hard-on for this dude.
Why are you lying? Posts on Hexbear about Platner:
I'm sure .ml has similar posts. Again, why are you lying?
Nazi denying he's a Nazi until his Nazi party has gained enough traction to stop pretending they're not Nazis.
To be fair Nazis use a lot of covert symbolism specifically to mask what they mean. Like the number 1488. You would have to be terminally online or be a.politics nerd to know that's a dog whistle. That's the whole purpose of Nazi symbolism. It's to coverly signal other Nazis that they are in good company. It is extremely easy to accidentally have something that's a Nazi symbol. Also they fucking take over everything. Like the fucking ok sign with your hand. Like wtf
The exact shape of the SS totenkopf is anything but covert.
Except the picture of his tattoo in the article is an amorphous blob that looks like skull and bones. Seems like an easy mistake to make if you are not familiar with all the symbols Nazis use. It's not like it's a fucking swastika. People in this thread need to get a grip on reality and stop being reactionary. He hasn't said anything that would indicate he's a Nazi so it remains to be seen. People do dumb shit when they are young. That doesn't mean they don't have the capacity to change when they are older. Plus he is getting it removed.
Dumb youngsters get stupid tattoos all the time. How many people are walking around with the Chinese pictograph for "Soup," thinking it means Peace or something?
ITT: terminally online leftists who can't imagine a dumb infantryman being clueless about a symbol
Even your charitable reading of the situation should still disqualify him to be a senator. Even if he's not a nazi, we're still left with him being clueless.
Knowing all the nazi symbols is the basic qualification for being a senator?
TAKES, GET YOUR TAKES HERE, HOT AND FRESH
My bad, forgot people aren't allowed to change/grow over the course of 18 years.
fuck your disingenuous bullshit
Fuck your dismissive attitude. Grow up.
People change. Someone being a dumb teenager doesn't necessitate that they are always a dumb teenager. Not knowing something doesn't an evil person make. Nor does a single mistake.
If this dude doesn't do anything about it now that it's been very clearly shoved in his face, then, yes, say what you want.
Yeah except if you read the article, he has called it what it is in the past according to others.
Assuming you are not a bot, you are extremely naive.
Keep trying to smear Graham, anybody that's met him in person knows that he is an absolutely amazing person, and that a checkered past doesn't define a person's future.
To everyone jumping on the dog pile, at least he is trying to make a difference, an objectively positive change for the people of Maine. I live here, I trust that he is not the same person he was when he served because DECENT PEOPLE ARE CAPABLE OF GROWTH AND CHANGE. Internet trolls in their mother's Midwestern basement or some ComBlock housing unit in Moscow might have a difficult time understanding that.
Decent people can also remove a Nazi tattoo
I wanted to believe you until I got to this:
You start out acting like you're trying to open people's eyes to something they may not have all the facts about. That's great! ...Then you attack the same people you are supposedly trying to sway. That's not so great, to put it very mildly. It renders your entire message invalid and makes you look like the very thing you are accusing others of being.
I've never heard of this dude before but I can tell you, that's one big fucking change you're expecting there... If he tattooed himself a nazi symbol without knowing what it is, his IQ is low enough that change means going from one dumb thing to another. You definitely don't want him in a position of power, and if he's such a good person as you say, then he's not smart enough to understand he's unqualified.
Apparently this is the mage. Prior to today, if you put this in front of me along with several other skull designs and asked me to identify the Nazi one i would have been unable to.
Sure, but this guy is a former Marine and a history buff. You're telling ne you can have a symbol on your chest for 20 years and not once go looking to see if it means anything?
Not to mention his own campaign manager is saying he called it a totemkomf.
Yeah that's a fair question. Personally I'd want to know, although I'd never get any tattoo to begin with.
Fair enough. Although this is objectively a pretty well known nazi symbol, I would not expect anyone to necessarily know what it is. But if you were going to get it tattooed, I would expect - of a person with a little bit of a brain who is asking for people's vote no less - to do some basic research. Also let's not forget that it being a nazi symbol means that most tattoo artists will not do this, so being in the company of someone who did also speaks volumes.
Looks more like a necro than a mage tbh
You are clearly a master of sociology and logic.
So you believe that IQ (or general intelligence, because IQ is a shot measurement of intelligence) cannot change through a person's life?
Let's say they changed their sleep habits, started eating healthy, and took time to get deeper cultural knowledge about humanity... Would it be possible?
Going from - presumably inadvertently - tattooing oneself with a nazi symbol to becoming a senator who will benefit the community they aspire to serve is a huge leap.
Even if the guy just started eating all his veggies and sleeping at 20:00, I don't know... I see a lot of mental gymnastics going into this one, surely there's a better candidate out there right?
Yeah, I'm glad I don't have to make that (voting) choice myself!
I don't know enough about this guy, but he definitely has a strike. He would need to be otherwise perfect, and to be in the process of having the tattoo removed.
My main concern is that people can change, and also young people make a lot of really dumb mistakes in order to be accepted by their peers... If they don't have a choice of environment due to poverty or other things outside their control, I wouldn't be surprised to see a good person get involved with criminal gangs.
I'm sorry, I make it a point not to take the word of PEOPLE WHO CAPITALIZE ALL-CAPS MID-SENTENCE at face value.
Oh look, another group of people you can dehumanize. Fuck all those people who use all caps intermittently, right? Unforgivable shit.
If you sound like a Trump, you should be treated like a Trump.
Also people who end comments in lol or with AI generated images of them wearing a crown while shitting on their citizenship.
Hey maybe next time you do the ok sign with your hand everyone will call you a Nazi. Get a grip on reality and be normal for a fucking second and recognize someone's humanity.
You. You are the reason we so goddamned always lose. You are responsible, and all the little shits like you. Conservatives stick together no matter what, but assholes like you have to vet a man back to his 12th birthday.
Watch this and come back and tell me this isn't the man you want in Congress. I'm sure you'll find some kind of fucking nitpick.