The purity test mentality so many of the commenters here have is the exact kind of nonsense that will keep the US divided politically. People are capable of making honest mistakes. People can change. There needs to be room for some gray areas. I generally think such a mindset reeks of being chronically online and being immersed into an echo chamber.
Let’s be honest here. How many people would have recognized that image as a Nazi symbol before thos became news? I wouldn’t have, skull tatoos are common. News articles had to tell is it was and show pictures of and explain what it had been some 80 years ago. Maybe he knew it was a Nazi symbol, but I kinda doubt it given his political statements and the fact that any smart person running for office in Maine wouldn’t have got it removed long before.
How many people would have recognized that image as a Nazi symbol before thos became news? I wouldn’t have, skull tatoos are common.
That just makes a stronger case against him. It is what it is–a nazi symbol used by the nazis. Not being familiar with it just means you’re an average person who hasn’t learned about all their symbols beyond the infamous swastika. The main people who are most likely to recognize it are either people who are into WWII history or people who are into nazi shit. Among those two groups of people, someone who would actually tattoo it over their heart are in the latter, not the former group, certainly not the average person. He has (finally) admitted he knew what it was.
Bullshit. A group of drunk Marines in a tattoo shop on shore leave is EXACTLY the sort of idiots that would point a a fat-looking pirate skull-crossbones on a sketchy tattoo shop wall and all get tattooed together.
This and eating the red crayons are a core activity for ignorant young devil-dogs.
Even if it wasn’t a nazi tatoo; According to his words “He got a tattoo of a skull to memorialize his slaughtering of people in Ramadii and Falujah”. Then hiis comments which dated as late as 2021 where he said about his war that “we would kill them all because our ways of life is superior.”
BadEmpanda summerized it so well. What is your response to his arguments in this video?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JZc5Mbix3VE
Enough sucking the dick of a moraless supramacist psychopathic war criminal just because he learned to lie to get votes and promised you better healthcare.
Fuck off with that reformed nonesense. Just admit you’re a supramacist just like Nick Furete who says he would invade Venzula because it will benefit the US ecomony from their oil. Just like Israeli Zionist Jewish supermacists justifying maiming, blinding, and slaughtering of Palestinians because the Jews in their country gives them free lands and prevliages no one gets in any other where in the world.
Listen to the arguments in that video and see the evidence, then tell me how you are any different different.
Or admit it and say it loud you’re a moraless supramacist like Nick Furete, and at least I’d have more respect for you.
This. He said the good thing… I don’t like the click bait.
Eh, not really. This is not an admission of support. Here’s why.
I’ve seen firsthand what it looks like when these creeps invade tolerant spaces. We’re talking clubs packed full of goths, punks, metal-heads, very gay people, and the occasional furry. First, it’s just one or two. Then their friends show up. You may not even realize it until it’s too late. And there they are, happily mixing it up with everyone else. Their bigotry is usually only evident when put to the test, and there aren’t a lot of situations where that’s called for. But provoke their sense of ‘correct’ social hierarchy and things get bad, fast. Then the bouncers get called in to handle the really stupid/violent ones.
And that’s where the problem lies with this statement. Nazis have zero issues standing side-by-side with the people they hate. Just as long as they know they can seize control or maintain the upper-hand whenever they want, is enough. In this situation, we have someone running for public office, versus someone who’s just a voter. They’d be holding all the power in this situation, and didn’t admit to lending that power to a trans person in any way; something that would divorce him from Nazis support. So, the assertion of “stand by your side” isn’t even worth the electricity it took to get it to our screens.
This article is garbage.
His tattoo is not a resemblance to a nazi tattoo, it is a fucking nazi tattoo.
He knows it’s a fucking Totenkopf and it is the size of a grapefruit right over his heart.
No self-respecting tattoo artist would put a Totenkopf on a human being without being a nazi themselves.
He got the Totenkopf in Croatia; a country with strong far-right ties.
He worked for Blackwater killing brown people in the Middle East.
He is not what he seems.
Good luck people of Maine.
Let’s look at the relevant candidates for this Senate race:
It’s Graham Platner – a former marine who had a forgotten reddit account with years of pro-socialist posts; Janet Mills, a 77-year old dinosaur who will be anything but progressive; and sitting Republican Susan Collins.
People can change, and Platner has demonstrated that he did. Given his alternatives, is an old tattoo which he covered really any reason to not vote this guy??? It’s not Graham Platner versus a picture-perfect socialist who runs a commune that saves orphans and puppies. It’s Platner v. Susan Collins v. Janet Mills. Do not let the Mainstream Media make this a controversy.
Purity testing has been the biggest contributor to the downfall of democracy.
If we weren’t so ready to cut each other down trump wouldn’t have gotten the foothold he did.
Until the progressive culture in America gets off its high horse the corporate donors are going to just keep us infighting while they sweep away our rights.
We need to accept that nobody is perfect and to allow anyone who wants to pull away from trump/conservativism to do so.
All this “once a X always a X” rhetoric only reinforces X identity because it denies any possible alternative.
The guy is a murderous Nazi. There is no evidence he is reformed other than supposed Reddit posts. I am sorry, but this is definitely not an example of a purity test. This is a simple test of logic and you failed.
*years of supposed Reddit posts showing a clear new ideology, which Graham didn’t even want shown. These were dug up by opposition. That just makes those posts feel more genuine in my mind. Maybe he broke free of the Military’s cult ideology and now this is him making amends. Can we accept an apology from a person is trying to save us?
No, I cannot accept someone who is/was a Nazi who killed people that is being used to create a populist sentiment and to continue this appeal to Patriarchy.
I have watched him in interviews, he is weasely and is constantly fed information by political operatives. He is contrived by the powers at be to create some unholy union of voters.
Another populist asshole to suck up to the Patriarchy thus reinforcing everything that is wrong in US politics. If we have to nazify the Democratic Party and push murderers like this to win, then I am not sure if it is worth winning.
“I don’t want the maybe-nazi, so let’s capitulate to the definitely-nazis.”
Thanks, that is the choice here. I don’t want Nazi period. Is that hard to understand?
Sorry, he’s a nazi who only removed his tattoo when it became known about, and lied that he didn’t know what it was. He’s running as a Dem just because that gives him better odds to win in Maine. (edit: And even if he didn’t have the tat his Blackwater history would disqualify him in my book.)
In this case I’d go for the ‘old dinosaur’ since
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she might die or have to leave early and then you could replace her in a special election
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She’s neither a repub nor a fucking nazi.
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Eh, having read some of the reddit posts from the old account etc, if I were in that area voting, I’d likely give him the benefit of the doubt. Especially compared to alternatives. There were quite a few posts that seemed like he genuinely thought the symbols extended beyond ‘just’ Nazism, often arguing in his posts that it was common to see that sort of imagery on ppl in the military.
Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer who launched his Democratic primary campaign in August in hopes of ultimately challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for her seat in 2026, answered that he firmly believes “that every single American has the right to live the life they want to live in their own body as they see fit,” and emphasized what he views as his “responsibility” as a straight, white, cisgender male, to defend the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
“I get to put myself out there in ways that other people don’t,” said Platner. “I’m doing this because I know that I can say things, I know that I can have conversations, I know that I can knock on doors in places that a lot of other people can’t have access to, that a lot of other people won’t feel safe in.”
“Yes, I will absolutely stand next to you, and if we ever have to go knock doors together, I’m happy to stand by your side,” he added.
Wow, people are really pulling the last bit out of context and assuming the worst implications. His “stand by you” and “knocking on doors” thing is him acknowledging his white male privilege to feel safe doing things like going door to door in most neighborhoods, and being happy to extend that safety to others by standing beside them while they do it.
I get the concern about having a Nazi tattoo for over a decade, and concern that everything he is doing is performative based on his past. But what he said was pretty unequivically that he will support LGBTQ+ people, including in action. Whether anyone believes him or not is up to them. But what he said was not mealy-mouthed, it was direct.
He keeps saying all the right things.
Hopefully he isn’t a lying Nazi
People change.
2016 me would have you think that 2025 me would be the goose stepping leader of the Trump fan club but instead I moved to a liberal city, came out of the closet and have been living a genuine and happy life.
I now despise trump and have come to embrace democratic socialism.
That radical change was directly related to my liberal friends being willing to talk with me and welcome me into their spaces despite our differences.
If we can’t accept that people are capable of change then we’re defaulted into a perpetual conflict where physical violence becomes inevitable.
If things can’t be worked out with words people will result to hands. Those are ultimately the only two tools people have to deal with each other.
Accepting that people can change allows people feel like they have a space to change to. If I didn’t have my friends to welcome me into their liberal space I never would have changed because the social pressure to stay conservative and for fear of being alone.
I agree, I used to be a shitty little incel boy, and now I’m a married woman working to try to help people.
People can change, I hope the Nazi tattoo was just a mistake like the ones I made in my past.
Yeah, hopefully.
There’s a really strong argument to be made that regardless of personal beliefs, seeking that kind of power is inherently untrustworthy. But until we have a national legislature draft we have to rely on the evidence we have that people are going to do good things in office.
Shit, that’s a breath of fresh air!
and a skull tattoo he got while in the Marines that some said resembled a Nazi symbol
🙄
it was one though, hard to say that someone has grown if they’re feigning ignorance about the entire thing.
If you’ve ever been in or known anyone in the service, you would know that it’s massively overblown and doesn’t “mean” anything. There are thousands of different varieties of skull and crossbone out there, you would have to be really deep in the nazi sauce to use that particular design as a signal.
This is pretty much a “hasan’s dog” thing, it’s being overblown because of the desperate need by media personalities, including youtube streamers, to harvest money from reaction content, driving up everyone’s black-and-white thinking.
We have actual nazis in office and running for office, people who don’t even hide it. We have to stay focused on what the actual dangers are.
Honestly his military service is even more disqualifying as far as I’m concerned, but I guess spending years gunning down brown foreigners appeals to the median democrat.
We have actual nazis in office and running for office, people who don’t even hide it. We have to stay focused on what the actual dangers are.
It’s a year out, if it’s that serious surely someone without all this baggage could run for office.
Being against military service is a far more honest criticism, but also utterly unrealistic. We just don’t live in that world.
Except he didn’t just do military service, he also worked for Blackwater.
From his Wikipedia page:
In 2018, Platner returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, for about six months as a State Department security contractor with Constellis, the private military company formerly known as Blackwater, where he provided diplomatic security to the US ambassador to Afghanistan.
He worked as security to the US ambassador for 6 months. And quit because he disliked the military industrial complex that he was witnessing from the inside.
As a former military person he could have lived the good life cashing giant checks from Blackwater until he reached retirement. Instead he quit to take on the not so cushy life of being an oyster farmer. And now he is diving head first into the wood chipper that is a political campaign in the United States against a well established GOP incumbent.
To be dismissive of such a person is reductive and unnecessarily demeaning. And leads me to wonder if you are being disingenuous in hopes of helping one of the, quite frankly utterly despicable, other candidates.
Sweet Lord, I saw other comments about a stint and Blackwater but this is the first that actual described it. A 6-month job as an ambassador’s security doesn’t give a lot of free time for atrocities even if it were in Blackwater’s contracts. His service record would likely be more damning than that.
sadly we’re in the world where the bipartisan consensus is for endless warmongering and turning a blind eye to nazis
You have an incredibly childish view of the world.
That’s a pretty 1-dimensional perspective. If you understand both the shitty reality we live in AND that nothing is black-and-white, you will be a lot more effective at actually pushing the needle towards progress, like so many actual great activists have done which has gotten us to a world where your chances of being murdered and raped and eaten by bandits has fallen dramatically low.
if it means supporting someone like this guy I’d rather be rotating on a spit tyvm
if it means supporting someone like this guy I’d rather be rotating on a spit tyvm
That’s just utterly insane hyperbole that most likely has the opposite effect as you might think. I hope you grow more.
He has already addressed this and got the tattoo covered up. Case closed.
his explanation left a lot to be desired, though it’s not surprising that Nazi tattoos fly under the radar as a state department mercenary.
If you’re posturing like a politically-aware leftist or calling yourself a communist, to claim ignorance of something like that just makes it sound like you’re lying because you got caught.
All this “once an X always an X” rhetoric does is prevent anyone who wants to pull away from trump from doing so.
It’s already difficult enough for people to change, basically telling anyone who wants to change “yeah you can alienate yourself from my enemies but you’ll always be on my shit list” is absolutely not going to win them over and just reinforces that X identity is all they have.
Unless you like losing elections you really need to consider how winning people over is crucially important to any movement.
I’m fine with people changing and learning from their past behavior. If he was just another person on the street I wouldn’t have any issue.
However I’m troubled by having someone who’s already demonstrated that lack of judgement and awareness pursuing a leadership position. I just can’t trust the guy on his words alone at this point. It’s a year out from the election, surely there’s other people who can run.
“I’m troubled by having someone who’s already demonstrated that lack of judgement and awareness”
It would be one thing if he did something criminal or malicious but having had shitty beliefs and then changing them just shows growth.
Judging someone who’s an ostensible ally and who is exactly the kind of change we want to see for having needed the change in the first place is circular logic and ultimately self-alienating.
You say you’re fine with people changing but your logic doesn’t allow for anyone who’s changed their views to be a representative.
At this point it’s not even about ideology anymore but just straight up identity politics.
You’re basically treating him like he’s an ideological felon where he’s allowed to continue existing but can’t participate in politics.
Sorry but I severely don’t buy this original sin level of being forever unworthy just for having had different political beliefs in the past.
We need to normalize growing up instead of relentlessly punishing people for having been misled naive at some point in their life.
You say there’s better people to run but I’d argue that a convert is absolutely the best person to run because it opens the door for more converts.
It would be one thing if he did something criminal or malicious
He was a part of the US war machine for decades, you understand how that’s doing harm to people in a concrete sense? I get that he finally quit, but I consider that history worse than being a criminal, especially under our current judicial system.
They can be reformed, but I’d rather not have them in a leadership position.
Many people enter the military because of poor economic prospects, being crushed by capitalism is literally their best recruiting tool.
Without knowing why he joined, holding his service history against him is effectively victim blaming.
Not to mention that even if he was ideologically motivated he’s now turned against something he literally fought for, showing massive positive growth.
So either way his service history isn’t a valid refute for the points I’ve previously brought up about change/growth.
Sorry but this all seems like justification for indulging in identity politics.
His explanation that he was drunk with buddies on deployment in Croatia is perhaps the most believable circumstance in which someone would make that mistake. Yes, he had the tattoo for several years. I don’t recall how long he said he was aware of it being the Nazi symbol, but yes, in my opinion he should have gotten it removed or covered sooner once he did know. I certainly never would have known that the skull was a Nazi symbol without being explicitly told.
That said, no, I don’t think it sounds like he’s lying. He isn’t posturing either, and there’s plenty of evidence to back that up.
If you’re not capable of accepting that he made a mistake and addressed it appropriately, then I don’t see how you could ever be satisfied. If we want real people to run for office and not just establishment approved candidates, you need to open to the idea that people make mistakes, they change, and they may not have the squeaky-clean past you idealize.
I think you have unrealistic expectations, not just of people running for office, but for people in general. Your purity test is not only foolish, but will cause you to be deeply unsatisfied and let down by so much in the world.
I can accept that for a lot of democrats this is something they’re entirely willing to overlook. It’s not a surprise because they have already been fine operating as co-conspirators in decades of US warmongering.
Your purity test is not only foolish, but will cause you to be deeply unsatisfied and let down by so much in the world.
I agree, I might be less let down by the world if I was more comfortable around people with nazi tattoos. I think I will continue to be disappointed though.
Eh, there definitely is a resemblance but the details aren’t quite the same: https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:cexoqsdnukfflq6jhculm23i/bafkreiamqpmivablffphia4osiivjsds6xoscqi4adfdgopyh4dbwm3o5u@jpeg
Details? You’re looking at a different picture than I am.
I just see a black blob.
Also, thanks for posting that. It’s the first time I’ve actually seen a picture of the tattoo and as someone who hasn’t engrossed themselves in white supremacist culture, wouldn’t immediately place that as being a Nazi symbol.
looks the same to me
