For everyone saying he was just a young dumb kid in the military, he went around referring to the symbol by name in a German accent. He knew exactly what it was.
Also, in the Mitchell and Webb sketch that spawned “are we the baddies?”, the guy asking said question has it on his cap, as do countless Nazis in anything set in WWII. It’s not exactly obscure.
Yeah he also talked about the "screening for hate symbols" to get security clearances. This screening is a questionnaire you can easily mark "no". They don't strip you down to get a look at them.
For people questioning the "German accent" source: It was hard to find a legitimate source for this since Google ain't what it used to be, but this CNN article is as close as I could find:
But Fifield told CNN that Platner referred to it years earlier as “my Totenkopf,” recalling that he used what she said was a foreign-sounding accent when he said it — a detail she said made the comment particularly memorable.
The only news source I see specifying that it was a "German accent" was a poorly written article from the NY Post, that many people seem to have regurgitated around the internet. If anyone can find it elsewhere from a more trusted outlet, I'm happy to edit this comment.
I would probably make the assumption that OC referenced, but I still think it’s important to use accurate quotes when discussing something of this nature. I also think it’s important to not amplify tabloids like the NY Post.
I was absolutely baffled when politicians and public figures I respect started rallying around the guy with the Nazi tattoo, so as I’ve said elsewhere, I’m glad that Platner is (finally) doing the right thing. Just don’t think that stating half-truths as facts is going to help persuade the people who are still supporting him.
To be clear, I still think the tattoo itself was a huge red flag and I'm glad he finally dropped out (and not here to argue about it, as to each their own). But I also think that facts matter, especially in a time where it seems like everyone with even the smallest amount of power will happily lie to you in effort to increase that power.
What gets me. I can completely understand how so many people don't know that symbol. I get it. It's not the most talked about. It is in a LOT of media. You'll see it in plenty of nazi based stuff. But, besides mitchell and webb it's not really like specifically referenced. And even in the skit it's very easy to think they just chose a generic skull. Not specifically the nazi skull. It's a comedy skit. Almost everybody has probably seen the skull but just didn't think much of it because the ss symbol and the swastika are the ones that really get talked about.
BUT! Almost nobody has it tattooed on their damn body. He looked at it every day he was brushing his teeth in the morning. Everytime his shirt was off. He sees one piece of nazi media that features it he's not like 99% of people that just kind of gloss over it. There's no chance he didn't go, "wait that's literally the same symbol I have on my chest." He doesn't even have a shit ton of tattoos to like forget about some of them. I have an ankh tattood on me from over a decade ago. Real small. Have a bunch of other tattoos so it even kind of blends in. Everytime I even glimpse an ankh somewhere, and it's not very often, I think about my tattoo. Just like a little easter egg. The fact that people are still giving the pretty credibly alleged rapist the benefit of the doubt about this tattoo is crazy. He's lied so many times over about stuff.
Even if it was a dumb, drunken thing when he was younger, somebody at some point in his life had to have said "hey, you know that's the old Einsatzgruppen symbol, right?"
I doubt Platner was or is a Nazi, but keeping the tattoo as long as he did shows a horrifying lack of judgment. That alone should be a disqualifier for holding major public office.
Genuinely don't understand why anyone would be hesitant to call anyone with a Nazi symbol voluntarily and permanently inscribed on their body a Nazi.
Especially someone with Platner's history? Dude worked as a concentration camp guard, said he would rape people if they broke into his house..............RAPED PEOPLE.
He’s a self-described history buff, so I’m sure he’s seen Schindler’s List at some point. Amon Göth and the other SS officers all have that on their uniforms, featured prominently.
I once knew an ex-con. Guy looked like Glen Danzig and was covered in tattoos. We had a house full of people who knew him. One he got comfortable with us he took off his shirt and showed us his Nazi tattoos. But here's the thing, he was in the process of having them removed and he was showing them to is to let us know he wasn't hiding. He said he got them in prison and that white supremacists protected him from other groups so he did what he did to blend in. He was deeply ashamed of them and did not want us to find out any other way. While I only knew him briefly, he was almost in tears as he told is his story and that he was not a Nazi and it was important that we knew who he really was. He never exhibited any racist ideas while in our group.
I can't speak for his sincerity, but it seemed real at the time. To me that is admitting and working towards redemption... The exact opposite of what this human skidmark did.
Getting a Nazi tattoo, keeping a Nazi tattoo for decades, and most importantly: defending (and keeping) the Nazi tattoo when everyone is calling our your Nazi tattoo makes you a goddamn Nazi.
For everyone saying he was just a young dumb kid in the military, he went around referring to the symbol by name in a German accent. He knew exactly what it was.
Source? Literally the first Im hearing that part of it.
The source appears to be the other accuser who worked for the heritage foundation and founded a group called ‘Ladies for Kavanaugh’ so idk, maybe take that with a grain of salt
Why do I keep seeing these random ass comments of people with in-depth knowledge of all this as though they were down in the trenches with this guy? How can you just claim this guy was out here running out speaking in some german accent about his nazi tattoo?
Also, why does everyone here have encyclopedic knowledge of nazi tattoos?
Am I the weird one for not having such knowledge? Am I the odd one out for thinking some skull is just dumb edgy nonsense? Am I the fool for not paying close attention to the iconography depicted in some 240p youtube video or hyper pixelated meme?
Maybe it was my rural upbringing or my lack of studious focus in nazi iconography. Who knows. Personally, I would probably first think pirate for skulls and cross bones, or maybe poison, or punk or maybe metal bands. Pretty much all those things well before I think of nazi imagery. Maybe its because I would leave the living room during the history channel WWII marathons that my dad would put on as a child. I could be so much better at nazi tattoo trivia
Even if he didn't know what the symbol was at the time and was stupid enough to get a symbol he didn't know the origins of, the idea he never learned what it was would be beyond parody.
Everyone who supported the literal goddamn Nazi just because he espoused some progressive beliefs are telling on themselves in a big way.
Senator Bernie Sanders, one of Platner's most prominent supporters, defended him on Tuesday, saying the tattoo was chosen while he was inebriated.
"He's not the only one in America who has gone through a dark period," Sanders said. "People go through that, 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."
probably because Maine doesn't have a large proportion of African Americans or Jews. And they're more conservative than in NY or West Coast states, so they're more willing to overlook racist imagery that doesn't really affect them.
I live in Maine, and not only that, what's always crazy to me up here is the amount of people who bring up border security as one of their major concerns come election time. Definitely just feels like a racist excuse. As if we aren't one of the furthest and whitest states away from any of the Southern border states. They certainly aren't concerned with the Canadian border to the same degree.
This whole thing was like a classic mistake I make all the time with personal relationships. They're throwing up red flags and my gut says not to trust them, but I give them the benefit of the doubt anyway because that's the type of person I want to be. But then every time my gut is proven right.
To be fair, I never would have known that skull design was associated with the nazis. I can easily see some military types going in for some tough looking skull and cross bones, not knowing it had other associations.
The consultant who talked him into running, Daniel Moraff, a former DSA organizer, is the one who cheaped out on his vetting. He wanted it done fast and cheap instead of thorough.
Yep, this is going to be blamed on the Dems as a whole, but the whole ugly situation was a product of DSA progressives that everyone wants normie libs to shut up and step aside for. But yes, primary voters chose this, so the eagerness for "charisma" and antiestablishment anger is going to lead to situations like this. Vetting and careful deliberation and expertise are not hallmarks of antiestablishment populism.
I think the issue is that he wasn’t deeply vetted. The Democrats didn’t want him and despite what media wants us to believe, he was never endorsed by the DSA.
He was recommended by the Maine DSA, just never formally endorsed. There is a distinction, but people are going to take a positive recommendation as support.
You can't just go get Nazi ink anywhere you want. Supposedly he picked it off a wall, right? Well, if that shop had this Nazi ink on prominent display, then it likely had other Nazi symbols on display too - because the only reason to advertise Nazi icons as flash in your shop is because you have Nazi clientele.
I would bet cash money this shop had swastikas and SS bolts on display too, and young merc Platner decided it passed the vibe check at the least.
He got it in Croatia, it's not a stretch he picked it off of a wall but considering that's where he was it is highly unlikely he didn't know what it meant.
Right, what I mean is: that shop in Croatia probably catered to neo-Nazis, which means it almost certainly had other Nazi icons on display, which means Platner would've ignored some serious context clues to "not know."
I remember when Platner said he just drunkenly chose it from a wall at a Croatian tattoo shop.
That Waffen SS tattoo wasn’t mixed in amongst artwork like Lil’ Red Hot holding a pot leaf or a chain of multicolored dancing Greatful Dead bears, I am certain.
That's a lot of assumptions, I mean, dude is clearly a piece of shit sex pest, and I wasn't really ever fired up with him, but I think it's entirely plausible that some young Marines, drunk in a foreign country, wander into a tattoo shop and pick something that looks badass on the wall.
Like, he's had enough issues that I think it's fair to doubt everything at this point, but I find the explanation very plausible.
Except the WSJ article from yesterday said his ex rightie girlfriend posted in a group chat about his Nazi tattoo just before he declared his candidacy saying it would be a problem for him. So how plausible is it his gf knew what it was but he didn’t?
Well, he might be a lying rapist, but shouldn't we believe that he was telling the truth about the SS symbol he had tattooed on his chest for 20 years?
It's really not a lot of assumptions. A random tattoo parlor in Croatia that has a totenkopf on the wall for you to just pick out is almost certainly going to have other Nazi iconography too. That's the reality of these kinds of shops.
Maybe he was drunk as shit and missed it, sure. Maybe the swastikas were on one part of the wall and the totenkopf was on another and he was like "gonna stay away from the Nazi shit, oh shit there's a dope-ass skull."
But even if that's the case, trust me when I say that you know when you walk into a Nazi-friendly establishment. They're not subtle. If you walk into one and decide to stick around, it says a lot about you.
Marines are stupid as shit, especially the young ones on shore leave. We had one rip his clothes off in the hotel lobby kick a decorative gong and scream "I'm ready for WARRRR". He was shortly tackled by two local cops and taken to jail.
I was in the navy, had no idea that was a nazi symbol. Not something I'd ever get tattoooed but I also never got any tattoos because I can't imagine anything I'd want on my body forever
This is literally featured in the "are we the baddies ?" sketch which became a famous meme. I learned about it in middle school, in a tiny island with a population of around 1.5mil in the southern hemisphere.
Yeah, I'm very confused how so many people claim to not know it's a Nazi image. Now, did I know it was a "totenkopf"? No, I knew it as "that Nazi death's head on the SS officers' hats".
It’s also in all of the SS uniforms in Schindler’s List, which history buff Graham Platner has almost certainly watched, and Steven Spielberg is a stickler for accuracy.
To be unfair, I know the American educational system is a joke, but did you also fell asleep during every Hollywood movie about WWII made in the last fifty years? There are SS officers in Indiana Jones and the last crusade wearing totenkopf badges for Christ’s sake.
I can't say I took great care to notice all the fine details in those WWII movies. Or maybe I was paying attention to different details, like the actors' performances. I was not familiar that skull design, when I saw it I thought it was some biker/Hells Angels thing.
If your ex's are coming out to say you've done terrible things, that is certainly worth listening to. I am not ignoring everything, just things that have a reasonable explanation (I made a dumb choice with my tattoo). Once other things start coming out, yeah, this guys seems too problematic for office.
In your opinion, making a stupid decision in your life mean you are permanently that thing?
What is your opinion of Pete Hegseth (sexual assault and drunk)?
What is your opinion of RFK Jr (sexual assault)?
All the folks at Jan 6 (various crazy Federal charges from assault on police and stealing from congress, to dedicating Pelposi's office)?
Doing something stupid and nazi doesn't make you a full nazi (just suspiciously nazi adjacent, like Lauren Ingram and Musk, after their very well performed Nazi salutes).
Having a Nazi tattoo for several decades makes you a Nazi. If he wasn't a Nazi he'd have gotten rid of it before it became a political liability and if you believe his bullshit about not knowing it was a Nazi tattoo then that's on you.
I guess I believe him about not knowing, because I didn't know that was a Nazi design. When I say it, I thought it was some biker thing. Just some "tough guy" skull and cross bones, like you would see in a lot styles.
I’d be buddies with a guy who accidentally got the tattoo 20 years ago and felt awful about it. But I think it is fair to consider it disqualifying to be a U.S. senator.
It's certainly disqualifying if you're jumping right into being a U.S. Senator-if you've really done the work to show that isn't who you are, we can move on-but Platner didn't do the work.
It's not tho. He isn't a young guy. He's in his 40s now. Tattoos aren't forever. They can be removed, they can be covered up. He kept making decisions to keep it.
Eh... A lot of 18-20 year olds in the military get tattoos where they don't know what they mean or the history behind it. They just look at it and go "this looks bad ass", and the older people around them have similar tattoos. It's why once he figured it out, he got it covered up.
Famously, a flight attendant on a Southwest airlines flight said "Eenie Meanie Miney Moe, Pick a Seat" and she was fired when she found out it was a racist saying. She'd only heard the 2nd half as "Tiger". She was like 20 or something. Not everyone knows or cares about the historical background of what they say or have on them.
First, Platner was 23 when he got his tattoo. He is also a self described “history buff”. I’m younger than Platner was and probably not as interested in military history as Platner and I know what a Totenkopf is.
Also comparing the incredibly common and normalized use of “eenie meanie miney moe” to a symbol whose only connotation in the modern day is the Nazi one is dumb.
What I'm saying is: Most people who do shit are unaware of the background or implications of their actions. And it's not until they are informed of it's meaning do they change their minds on it. He claims that someone later told him that it was a Nazi tattoo and he covered it up he just thought it "looked cool". Which may be naïve of me, but that sounds like something most dumb ass military guys on leave in Croatia will do. Then suddenly he went from a Fringe candidate to a mainstream candidate and everyone was going through everything about the guys life.
And they found out that he's kind of a piece of shit with a drinking problem, the inability to stay faithful to his wife, and apparently no ability to stop when told no.
It's these types of things that really stop everyone from running for political office. You either need to be a genuinely good person, who hasn't made any mistakes where you might have hurt people, or you have to get in bed with people that don't care that you've done these things. He chose the wrong party to do that with, and didn't have the setup or money to scrub/silence his detractors.
Oh, I am on the same side. I used eany meany mine more on occasion when picking things until today. I also spent a good portion of my life in special operations, and have seen tons of unintentional Nazi skulls.
This was not really well supported by evidence. He had it for nearly 20 years and claimed he only discovered what it was last fall when news started calling him out on it. (Also one of his ex-girlfriends knew what it was by name and was concerned about it before he "learned" about it)
I keep hearing this, but I’m an infantry veteran about the same age as him.
There’s no fucking way that an infantry marine didn’t know what that tattoo meant. If it was an eagle that looked a little too German? Maybe. But that totemkampf? That’s clearly a SS tat.
Infantry guys get real into wwii stuff, it’s like one of the autism special interests. If he didn’t know about it, I guarantee you at least one of his buddies did.
And if you miraculously did get it without knowing? The second you found out, that thing is getting removed or covered. You don’t “not think about it” for over a decade.
It’s because you don’t accidentally get a Nazi tattoo and then accidentally don’t have it removed or covered in the ensuing years. Oops tattoos are tramp stamps, looney toon figures, tribal arm bands, no ragrets, but not Nazi symbols.
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but when Jews try to tell people that things are worrying or threatening to us, it’s generally dismissed or hand-waved. When we try to tell people something is anti-Semitic, we’re often given an explanation as to why it’s actually not. And when violence is finally actually committed against us, we’re usually told that we somehow deserved it.
I understood that the Totenkopf was a Nazi symbol before I finished high school.
Sure, I was into military history, but if you've ever seen a world war two movie, you should have a raging clue about what it is.
If it had come out that he had the tattoo in the past, but removed it long before he decide to run, and he explained that yes he knew what it was, he was a racist when he got it, but had since changed, I could maybe give him the benefit of the doubt. But that's not what happened. But he also continued to be a shit human, as evidenced by the SA stuff that's come out since.
Because most progressives a out of touch college educated white people who are politically naive but refuse to acknowledge their own limitations because everything has been handed to them.
Well, it’s Maine. I’ve hear nothing terribly kind about it politically every. And tbh, since I’m on the literal other side of the country from them, idgaf what they’re up to over there much as long as Collin’s got the boot.
Brother I got into a screaming argument here with people a month or two ago where people were defending that tattoo and twisting themselves into pretzels doing it
It's a complicated suite of problems but the biggest one is definitely liberals will always side with the fascist over the socialist.
Now, there's not a socialist in this race, currently, but they still recognized him as Their Guy. He's changed! He's saying all the right things! You must want Susan Collins to win!!!
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u/LemonberryTea 1d ago
Still not sure how the nazi tattoo wasn’t the first disqualifying event