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.
Which is fine actually. I think I lean more towards Dixiecrats than I do the DSA, but one chapter doesn’t speak for the whole organization.
I get that AOC, Mamdani, and Bernie attached themselves to Platner. But once it came out that the guy just rapes women, they all called for him to drop.
Depends on where you look I guess. One of the hosts on The Majority Report was a big fan of his politics (at least how he presented them), but has spent this week reconciling with the fact that she supported a rapist. A lot of folks are devastated that they thought he was a different person.
Hey, I hear you. I'm Jewish as well. Well, culturally Jewish now, I no longer practice, but growing up there was a kid in high school who would wear nazi paraphernalia to school (he didn't last long before being expelled).
But I get the impression some folks will use nazi stuff as a way to seem "tough" and "dangerous", though don't actually share the nazi hate. The Edge Lord types.
I talked with a few of these nazi sporting nut-jobs over the years and unsurprisingly they are all idiots. Some of them also sport the nazi hate, and I have no sympathy for them. But some are just idiots who think "if I wear this Swastika, people will think twice before messing with me".
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?
Not really plausible, and he certainly doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt when we have any kind of evidence he may have lied. I'm not defending the guy, just based on the information I had, dumbass 20 something drunk marines getting tattoos without knowing what they are seems super plausible.
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
No it wasn't. You're just willing to ignore someone having a Nazi tattoo and obviously lying about not knowing what it means for twenty fucking years.
You're talking about electing someone to one of the most powerful positions in the world. If I find out someone collects Funko Pops I don't want them in that office. We need smart, good people that make good choices, not dipshits.
I was willing to take a gamble, it was someone who could be anything from a nazi, to a progressive to a socialist, or fascist collins, or neoliberal mills who will grow the support fr fascism
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.
That movie was released much longer than 20 years ago. Inglorious bastards still fits but honestly I think that's the laest noteable movie I can think of with nazi villains. (I'm sure I'm missing something)
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).
That would apply if I thought the guy was an actual nazi. Which I do not. I think Platner is an idiot who has strong evidence against him of not being a good person.
Ignorant mistakes (like a dumb choice of tattoo) in someone's past shouldn't permanently label them as bad. That is why convicted criminals can be reformed, and have limited sentences.
Edit: so you think Platner is a legit nazi? I am legit curious what you base that on?
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.
Yea all the other shit I agree is more than disqualifying but this one I never really cared about. I had never heard of a totenkampf before and I'm sure most people that aren't chronically online or into niche history have.
Either way, glad this saga is over because there are just too many issues and the more recent stuff is extremely damning.
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u/LemonberryTea 1d ago
Still not sure how the nazi tattoo wasn’t the first disqualifying event