PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — His U.S. Senate campaign under fire, Maine Democrat Graham Platner said Wednesday that a tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.
The first-time political candidate said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007, when he was in his 20s and in the Marine Corps. It happened during a night of drinking while he was on leave in Croatia, he said, adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police.
Considering all the BS with our current government I’m going to assume any and all baseless smear campaigns means it’s in my best interest to vote for that person. This guy is probably a radical progressive who believes we should tax the rich.
covering your nazi tattoo only when you get called out for it but not apologizing for it or the homophobic and racist remarks is pretty much the biggest red flag imaginable.
There is no way a tattoo that size is not intentional. He knew exactly what he was putting on his body.
⊞
Edit: fucking nazi
Do you think it’s possible that he didn’t know it was a Nazi symbol?
Believe people when they tell you who they are the first time.
I have a lot more respect for someone that does something wrong and then admits and fixes it than someone who does something wrong and then does nothing but deny and deflect.
Same here. He was very public about his mistake. I would have been tempted to hide in shame. He came forward to show us how to be responsible even when you’re in the wrong
And to me the whole story makes sense. I didn’t realize his tattoo was a Nazi tat. He got it in Croatia (I think) while he was on a MEU, just a dumb Marine who presumably saw a picture and was like “That looks neat,” in the same way I said “That looks neat” when someone linked the Wikipedia to the Nazi unit. The Nazis really had a monopoly on cool symbols, it really sucks.
His platform isn’t good…
Nazi war criminal who loved murdering brown people so much he did it privately after three military tours weren’t enough for his bloodlust is now running as a woke liberal on a platform of paying soldiers more for murdering brown people.
Pressing issues for liberals right there.
Division bot
I am so tired of the smear attempts and the bots and the purity test police trying to fuck up the best thing that’s happened in my state in a decade. If you don’t live here, and won’t be voting in our elections, please fuck off. I understand that he is being elected to a national office, but reflect on how you would feel if a bunch of people from away deliberately tried to prevent a progressive from being elected in your home district. I doubt anyone anonymously detracting from Graham has had a chance to meet him, hear him speak, or shake his hand and look him in the eye. I have, and I think my bullshit filters are pretty up to date. Platner is a genuine guy actually pushing for change and the establishment is being pretty transparent in their attempts to stymie him.
I’m a Mainer and I worry that this guy is going to be the new Sinema. Say all the right things and then swing hard right after the election. I grew up in Piscataquis county and knew plenty of guys like him who seem ok until you start digging and find out they believe in some awful stuff.
Someone having Nazi tattoos isn’t someone I want as a senator even if those tattoos were accidentally acquired.
Also people from away can have an opinion because the senate is country wide. Having a disingenuous person in the senate affects everyone (cough Fetterman cough).
The difference with Fetterman is that his background was as a rich nepo-baby who got his start in politics getting elected mayor and having major government functions flow through his family’s charity.
My understanding of why fetterman got such a good rap, was because of his social media strategy being run by an especially talented progressive campaign staffer who (I wish I had the citation sorry) I believe has since denounced him as an elected official
For Platner there really is nothing that smells insincere about him to me. Definitely questionable judgment, but scheduling a tattoo coverup basically the instant it became a campaign issue is a plus in my book. But I’m not from Maine so I’m not going to push too hard for any candidate
Well, you can now read his full reddit comment history if you wanna know what he’s about.
What if it DOES matter if they did it deliberately or accidentally, and it DOES matter how they respond when confronted about it? What if they’re humans who make mistakes, and are able to own them like an adult?
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good, that’s the left wing cat herding part that earned us this fascist takeover in the first place. If you have someone better to vote for, by all means. But you can always convince yourself that the progressive candidate is secretly a right wing extremist. Always. That’s right there with QAnon rational.
I grew up in Piscataquis county and knew plenty of guys like him
You know lots of people from Piscataquis county who call themselves communists and are really vocal about medicare for all?
I know lots of people who seem nice and genuine and wanting to help people until you start asking them questions about their beliefs. And I’m not talking specifically Piscataquis. People in the county are like that too. And downeast too. That’s why I’m extremely wary of someone who has had nazi tattoos on their body.
Are you saying there are people who might misrepresent their political beliefs and background, and be disingenuous for some kind of ulterior political motive? And we need to be wary of them and ask probing questions and think critically about what they’re saying and what reasons they might have?
Personally, as a veteran of this comments thread, I actually think you might be onto something.
Backpedal harder
I’m not sure how my comment can be taken as a backpedal but whatever.
What I find funny is how much you downvote. I mean wow. Maybe if you dislike everything you should take a break from the internet for a bit.
Another profile creep. That’s weird
It’s an open format software. There are no secrets and the downvote trolls like you are annoying. Like flies buzzing around every thread stirring up shit.
It’s called motte and bailey. And yes, they do it constantly.
at least now you got a year to figure out of hes going to do the opposite he says. but the alternative it Chuck shcumers endorsed candidate.
So you would rather risk Janet Mills doing exactly nothing positive than risk Graham turning right? Have you listened to what he has to say vs what Sinnema had? It’s definitely different. It’s sad to me that people are so desperate to paint him with his past. How many of us haven’t made pretty awful choices? If we want an Everyman progressive we’re going to have to accept some skeletons imo. If Mills wins the primary LePage is going to sweep the general.
When your past involves Nazi symbolism it isn’t a little mistake. When the skeletons in your closet are a totenkopf i think we can safely discard that person as a serious candidate.
Fake progressives aren’t any better than corporate progressives. In fact they’re worse because you don’t actually know what they believe. At least with corporate shills you know that they’ll work to fill theirs and their benefactors pockets.
Does anything other than the style of the skull and crossbones of his ex-tattoo suggest that he is in any way a Nazi or fascist?
You mean other than the fact he was a guy interested in military symbology and kept a known nazi symbol on his body for 17 years?
Personally i learned about the totenkopf when i was in basic training (in 2001, he enlisted in ‘03 so same time frame) when they showed us tattoos that you can’t have in the military. He doesn’t really have any excuse.
Interesting, so how did the military not reprimand him for it? Do you think his ignorance is unlikely then, and that he actually made an effort to conceal it?
Personally i learned about the totenkopf when i was in basic training (in 2001, he enlisted in ‘03 so same time frame) when they showed us tattoos that you can’t have in the military.
Fascinating. So presumably, he wasn’t permitted to have this tattoo that you can’t have in the military because it’s a Nazi symbol? He got it in 2007, and then wasn’t permitted to have it in the military when he reenlisted in 2010?
Tell me more about your personal experience with this particular topic, which enables you to speak with authority on it. What were some of the other symbols they showed you? It’s lucky that we have some military people and some people from Maine showing up here to speak from a place of authority about why Graham Platner is officially bad and we can’t vote for him.
The hill you’ve chosen to die on today is the fact that you don’t think it’s possible for US military personnel to get away with having Nazi or Ultra right wing nationalists tattoos? That’s the hill you’ve chosen? That thing that we’ve seen dozens and dozens of times before? Your pal the Secretary of Defense has them from when he was in the military. But that’s the thing you can’t buy into? Okay.
When did I say I was an authority or that you couldn’t vote for him?
Yes people with nazi adjacent tattos exist in the army. The people who do the examinations can be nazi adjacent too and then those type of people fall through the cracks. Also you aren’t really inspected on tattoos after your initial examination (at least when I was in the service). I mean, Hegseth has an iron cross and he’s been in the military for a while too.
If you’re trying to imply I’m not from Maine or didn’t spend time in the military then you’re mistaken. Not everyone online is a bot or shill.
Do you think Janet Mills stands a chance in the general against LePage?
That’s not the issue and I’m not sure why you think it is. She was elected state wide twice (2022 by quite a large margin in fact) so she has just as much of a chance as LePage.
You know if you were trying to convince us of how benign the symbol is maybe you shouldn’t be trying to whitewash the name of it? Why don’t you just say Totenkopf? That’s what it’s called. That’s what he’s called it.
Maybe because most people have never even heard of a Totenkopf until now and wouldn’t know what one looks like. The dailykos story about it called it the 2nd or 3rd most recognizable symbol of Nazis, but I’ve never seen the symbol before and had never heard that term before today. Is it really that well known?
It is not. It does appear on the list of a lot of symbols illegal in Germany today because of their association with Naziism or extremism, but it’s obviously not the third most recognizable on that list (as well as having an obvious overlap with a general “yeah that’s badass I want skull and crossbones” meaning, which seems obviously more plausible as the reason why this person who very very obviously is not a Nazi wanted to get this particular tattoo).
The fact that people are pretending so hard that this is a big deal and trying to force the connection between the tattoo and this person being a Nazi when there is literally no other reason known in the world for thinking he is a Nazi and quite a few to think he is not, tells you much more about them than it does about Graham Platner.
Sinema told all of AZ she was a progressive too. Right until she got into office. Im sure her handshakes were also nice. Don’t see how that’s relevant.
Yeah you’ve got the right idea there. I too never vote for the candidate that markets themselves as progressive ever since Sinema. I’m playing the 4D chess route, always voting for the fascist just in case they’re secretly a closet progressive.
I don’t know if this is news to you or not, but you are allowed to be both skeptical and critical of a candidate without voting for the exact opposition party, especially when the primary is so far away you can’t even register as a candidate for it yet. Hope this helps.
You should always be skeptical and critical of all candidates. So for you to whip it out like a novel argument for why you don’t think anyone should vote for the most progressive option is absurd.
If there is a better candidate to vote for, absolutely do it. If this convinces YOU to run against him, that’s great! But every candidate is going to have flaws, and as we hold out for the perfect person, fascism will continue to roll us over. It’s a strategy that clearly doesn’t help.
Example of purity testing/non-analogous argument.
Are they the same person? Did you meet Sinnema? Have you met Graham? Do you live in Maine? I don’t live in Arizona and never had anything to say about her. So are you a Mainer, and if not, why are you involving yourself in our choice of representation?
I like how you talk about the strength of my arguement when the strength of yours is entirely based on your ‘bullshit detector’ as you call it. Really funny actually. Got anything to say why someone who researches military conflict for fun can’t recognize official SS symbols? Or how about him knowing and using the official name the SS gave it?
I’m actually exhausted from all these stupid arguments and going to detach from them now. I think you call it touching grass .
Honestly that’s more than fair, I know we don’t agree on some stuff but have a solid one.
Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second. Both of you get back in here and have an internet fight. Don’t even think of rationally resolving this trite debate without nine or ten back and forth fallacy exchanges.
I’m just so tired of arguing with people about the past. Nothing can change it, they don’t have to trust him, but I wish they would just listen to what he has to say now, and allow themselves the understanding that people do actually change.
I’m going to his town hall Monday, I’m not going to engage with the Internet about it again until after that. I really hope some of the folks here make the effort to come ask him these hard questions to his face, in person. And I am happy to forward any {politely worded} questions to him then, if I get a chance beyond my own questions.
Formatting edit or two, dunno how to escape the italics and use a *
Nope, funny brackets it is.
Thanks man, you too.
I didn’t find out about this guy until yesterday, man.
It’s a damn shame if he really is the genuine guy you think he is. A damn shame.
Because there’s really no recovering from that big of a blunder and that’s just reality. I would be devastated if I were you, and try to think of next steps because the ship has sailed on this guy. I’m sorry for that.
Agreed, but folks up here are seriously rallying around him right now. It doesn’t seem as hopeless as it really should. Anybody that has met the man, and he is making a GIANT effort to meet anyone that cares, knows that his checkered past has no bearing on his desire for a better future. He is a shining example of human growth and what we should be defining Manliness by, ability to adapt, change and grow from a place of ignorance.
He sounds like a real one. All I know is Susan Collins fucked up bad and I look forward to her replacement.
Disappointing that the linked article doesn’t include a photo of the tattoo. When a report lacks important relevant information, the reader has a choice to take it for its word or seek out supporting facts. So, when I searched for Planter Nazi Tattoo, there are plenty of articles taking the opposing tone - in that he knew what the tattoo was.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/10/21/2349761/-Not-one-diary-or-mention-about-Graham-Platner-s-Nazi-tattoo-Really This sounds more like he has been aware of what the tattoo represented and he hasn’t really cared about it until now. Which I personally find much more believable. Good on him for getting it covered up but, ehhh. Maybe don’t believe every word a politician exhales.
I don’t know this person or anything about Maine. I don’t really care either. But journalism needs to be held accountable. I expect more from PBS / AP.
I’m tired, boss
Some people are very very angry that Graham Platner is a communist because they found deleted Reddit posts from years and years ago and that’s why they can’t support him and you shouldn’t either
Some people are very very angry that Graham Platner
is a secret Nazihas a death’s head tattoo even though he’s very very clearly not a secret Nazi. This whole endeavor is honestly a textbook example of Control the Conversation. We’re not talking about whether Graham is a Nazi (the “frame”), because he’s clearly not. We’re talking about the “next argument” – whether he covered it up and why, whether it might indicate that he’s another Simena, all that kind of stuff.Honestly, to me, the fact that Chuck Schumer, lemmy.ml, and the mainstream media are all falling over themselves to manufacture little scandals about this guy is the strongest indication so far that he is probably the real deal. Personally, I don’t give a shit whether Jewish Insider found it in their heart for some random reason to start reporting something from some anonymous source who swears he’s
actually a Naziactually we can’t make that argument, but we are going to say he knew this was a Totenkamf he got accidentally and we can kind of imply that other thing. Even though detailed analysis of his not-intended-for-public-viewing Reddit communications seems to show the exact opposite. And of course we can do other equally honest things like grabbing one Facebook photo from right before Graham told the 88 guy to fuck off and pretend it means something. And of course we’re performatively freaking out, to a different audience, about how he’s a secret communist instead, and that’s why we can’t vote for him.I’m so so tired boss. I hate that our social media is this way. I actually took some screenshots of the comments here before the army of “Graham is a problem” people showed up, and it was all normal. No one was saying something that was a little off the main point of what they were implying, no one was vigorously responding over and over to anyone who disagreed with them, none of that. It was just people, most of whom actually seemed like they took the take “well he’s clearly not a Nazi and he is talking about medicare for all and other things we really badly need so what they fuck even is this.”
I’m tired
Edit: Also no one was claiming firsthand experience in the military that proved that Graham was lying, while also not knowing shit about how the military works, and other equally honest comments, read on if you want to see some bullshit
Not sure you’re responding to the right person. Maybe get some sleep, boss.
Definitely I am responding to the right person.
It’s not really for you. It’s for the people who read your comment and then had the same reaction I did. Apparently there are quite a few of them.
My statement was in regard to PBS not including a photo of the thing the story is about.
Was it, though? Was it?
This sounds more like he has been aware of what the tattoo represented and he hasn’t really cared about it until now. Which I personally find much more believable. Good on him for getting it covered up but, ehhh. Maybe don’t believe every word a politician exhales.
Yes. It was. But you go ahead and cherry-pick the content that fits your narrative. I’m just trying to tell you you’re wasting your time responding to me.
Thank you for your feedback lol
Whether he is or isn’t is irrelevant, it’s the image of him portrayed by media that counts. The medium is the message. You should really look into Vladislav Surkov, the architect of Russia’s post-truth society, which the Trump admin imported to the states and is now common practice. The guy is clearly an idiot, maybe he means well but again that is irrelevant. This has Republican hit job written all over it from the get-go, I wouldn’t be surprised if Collins team found out about the tattoo (before he even decided to run) and directed “political technicians” to infiltrate his social circle and subtly nudge this guy to run, consequently becoming an unwitting accomplice to sabotage a genuine left-wing movement.
I may be reading too much into it, but consider “His former political director said he “knows damn well” what the tattoo signifies.”.
I understand you’ve invested a lot of emotional energy into this guy. It’s best to disconnect those feelings from things you can’t change, if he wins he wins, if not that’s ok, learn and grow from the experience.
The guy is clearly an idiot, maybe he means well but again that is irrelevant.
This part, I halfway agree with. I don’t think he’s an idiot, but I do think that him coming as an outsider and maybe not being super-skilled at politics and policy might hurt his ability to be effective. It’s pretty much the only downside that I see to him. But then, counterbalance that against the upside that there is something about him that makes the establishment start making up all kinds of malicious innuendos about him, and the fact that no one he’s running against even seems to mean well, and it winds up that for now at least I am fine supporting him.
I understand you’ve invested a lot of emotional energy into this guy.
No idea what you’re talking about. I am emotional about the truth, and defending our systems of media against malicious interference. I don’t even know if this guy is a good idea or not, I just know that these particular smears against him are very clearly a bunch of shit, and that’s the part that’s got me heated up about it.
Ahh gotcha, well I recommend reading some Baudrillard, you’re angry over something that doesn’t exist anymore (if it ever did). Truth is all just relative now, shifting like sand in the desert.
Truth is all just relative now, shifting like sand in the desert.
The truth is truth. It’s not relative, it’s not subjective, it’s not ideological, and it’s not partisan - it just is.
Truth is all just relative now, shifting like sand in the desert.
Even in the realm of science, there is no such thing as absolute truth, at least not in any capacity humans can ever understand. We have theories based on empirical evidence which we accept as “truth” because that is as good as we can get, some things have more truth than others, which closes the gap on things we have to take as self-evident and better align with understanding and reality.
Refer to Agrippa’s trilemma: it is theoretically impossible to prove any truth.
“Your lies have already poisoned the world!”
“Then I shall write another book,” said Didactylos calmly. “Think how it will look-proud Didactylos swayed by the arguments of the Omnians. A full retraction. Hmm? In fact, with your permission, lord-I know you have much to do, looting and burning and so on-I will retire to my barrel right away and start work on it. A universe of spheres. Balls spinning through space. Hmm. Yes. With your permission, lord, I will write you more balls than you can imagine…”
The old philosopher turned and, very slowly, walked towards the exit.
Vorbis watched him go.
Brutha saw him half-raise his hand to signal the guards, and then lower it again.
Vorbis turned to the Tyrant.
“So much for your-” he began.
“Coo-ee!” The lantern sailed through the doorway and shattered against Vorbis’s skull. “Nevertheless… the Turtle Moves!”
Vorbis leapt to his feet.
“I-” he screamed, and then got a grip on himself. He waved irritably at a couple of the guards. “I want him caught. Now. And… Brutha?”
Brutha could hardly hear him for the rush of blood in his ears. Didactylos had been a better thinker than he’d thought.
Oh, well, crisis averted then. It’s all good, now. Carry on, everyone.
I think for a normal person leaving that kind of tattoo there is sort of understandable.
For somebody running for political office as a yoked bro he had to realize this would come up at some point
and pretending to not know for 17years, only to cover up with another norse symbols, makes it harder to believe.
That’s what I thought. Of all the fucking tattoos to choose we went with, what, a Celtic knot/dog tattoo? Might as well be a Thor hammer.
Hell if you want to go for something ancient there some pretty awesome bronze age symbols, how about something Etruscan, or perhaps something kinda forgotten like the Neo-Hittites. I’m saying this as a fucking Neo-Pagan who fused ancestor worship with Odin worship, those symbols are just too fucking volatile most of the time unless you use them as a base to work off of and be transformed into something not immediately recognizable.
I hate this. I’m of Scandinavian heritage and so basically I just don’t get to celebrate, explore or display any history or culture. Because some terminally online person will accuse me of being a secret nazi.
Oh I feel ya on that one, mixed Germanic-Celtic for me kinda a mess if I’m being honest, but it’s kinda frustrating. Though let’s give credit where credit is due folks looking for dog whistle symbols isn’t new nor is it necessarily called for, Nazis will happily use a tri-knot as much as a black sun if they feel the black sun is too common. Mind you that is partly because Nazis are at their core delusional trolls but still it isn’t an unfounded thing. While I haven’t done it personally I’ve seen some folks combine such ancient symbols with more modern progressive symbols, for example I doubt the dude a sticker that says Iz Wodanaz Weraz next to a Woody Guthrie next to it on the back of their car is gonna be a fascist unless they are very very confused.
A skull and crossbones sounds like a symbol that was co-opted by nazis but not an explicit nazi symbol. I didn’t know that connection either. Without seeing it, that sounds more like a pirate symbol, or poison.
The pirate skull and crossbones is different from the one used by nazis. The pirate one has the skull facing forward and long bones behind. The nazi one is facing a bit to the side and only the snobby joint parts of the bones behind are showing.
Kind of like how the US and other countries have eagle iconography that is visually distinct from the nazi eagle iconography.
Yes, he did have the nazi one but his explanation of it being a mistake sounds reasonable. Nobody is perfect, we can admit mistakes and change for the better.
Yes, but the bigger question is, if it was a mistake, why didn’t he remedy it in the part 20 years since? He apparently did learn it was a Tottenkopf at some point, if the reports that he has told others that exact thing are to be believed; why wait to cover it up until he was running for office?
Also, he had it covered with a Norse wolf, which, Nazis appropriate Norse imagery to cover up their most unsavory bullshit is a whole goddamn thing…
He didn’t even wait until he was running for office, he waited until the photo leaked. He never would have disclosed it.
adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police.
Could he be lying and really a secret nazi pretending to be a decent person? Sure. Is a norse wolf a sketchy choice. Yes.
But people not knowing things and then doing something when they find out is reasonable.
He knew about it WAAAAY before this year. He only did something about it now because it was interfering with his political ambitions.
He’s a disingenuous Nazi twat, and anyone still defending him at this point should really reconsider calling themselves antifascist.
That newly presented information does make it look like he was not honest about the timing of when he found out.
norse symbols, runes, iconography, even thier gods are coopted by nazis.
I do agree with you. But on the other hand…
people
notknowing things and then doing something when theyfind outget caught is… ?
Good to know, thanks
I agree, the description is vague and the symbol was most assuredly was co-opted by Nazis (past and present) just like the swastika, blackletter typeface, Nordic symbols, and a whole bunch of other stuff of historical significance.
But, accidental or not, this seems a pretty cut and dry comparison, art-wise.
And a quick search of the historical context
Depending on the person, id give it the benefit of doubt for a case of “You were in the wrong tattoo parlor and didn’t recognize the more subtle nazi and/or supremacist dogwhistles”.
Politicians are blatantly exempt from any benefit of doubt. They have PR teams for this shit, and couldn’t be bothered to utilize that.
If your PR team is well versed on the minutia of Nazi symbology, they are either expensive or they are Nazis.
Establishment candidates have more support from the national party than progressive primary candidates running for the chance to challenge an incumbent. I’d give the latter more benefit of the doubt, especially when they express remorse and regret.
he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police. … while his campaign initially said he would remove the tattoo, he chose to cover it up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine. … “Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he said. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
It’s so simple.
He either is lying about knowing the meaning of the symbol and is therefore not qualified to be a Senator, no matter his apparent stances.
Or he is insanely ignorant of basic history and is therefore not qualified to be a Senator, no matter his apparent stances.
I do not think that symbol is basic history, and he was a gunner in the military. Not exactly the smartest of people as teenagers.
I like to think I know history, and I’ve been around longer than Platner, and I would never have identified this as a Nazi symbol if someone hadn’t told me.
Take a look at this list of symbols and see how many you would have recognized. For me it is four: swastika, party eagle, odal rune, and SS lightning bolts. Maybe the wolfsangel and the SA emblem I would have had some kind of inkling that something about it was suspect. The death’s head and the cross type patterns (even the KKK one) I would have had absolutely no idea unless someone told me.
Plus, of course, it is relevant that he had all the time in the world to express some kind of Nazi ideology including on his Reddit account which was suddenly de-anonymized without him planning to have any of it exposed, and there was 0 Nazi stuff in any of it. People are just happy they found this reason to be able to shit on him and have one less progressive candidate they may have to deal with as a competitor for horrible people like Mills.
Ok, then you probably shouldn’t be running for such a public office either. How is the ‘average’ American being unaware an acceptable excuse? Don’t you think that we should expect more from politicians in high office than from the average Joe? This thinking is what gave the US leaders like Trump and W. “I’d like to have a beer with that guy, so I’ll vote for him” hasn’t exactly delivered sensible leadership…
Also, the man first enlisted in the Marines in 2003, and his last military deployment was 15 years later in 2018 to Afghanistan with the mercenary outfit Blackwater. He was a Marine in Fallujah and Ramadi during the height of the atrocities committed by US military personnel.That’s 15 years of killing brown people before he concluded that perhaps that wasn’t a good choice. Why would you trust a person with judgment this bad deep into his thirties with this kind of power? Even removing the tattoo from the equation, there are plenty of red flags with this man. But hey, I guess we need more Fettermans in power, just ignore the red flags because he said a couple of sentences you agree with.
I might not have immediately recognized it as such, but it fits their design ethos so well, that at some point I would have looked it up. Even if it was years after getting it.
Edit: this is being too generous. After looking at it again, there is zero doubt in my mind that I would immediately recognize this as a Nazi symbol. It is the third most well known Nazi symbol after the swastika and the lightning bolts. It’s on the hat of every SS uniform in every WW2 movie and documentary I’ve ever seen (which is countless).
Nah I don’t believe that for a second sorry, you’re grasping at straws
No I’m not. It’s the symbol on every SS hat. I’m sorry, but I was being too generous before. I absolutely would have looked at it twice
I honestly don’t fucking care what you believe. I am aware enough about history to know the third most well known Nazi symbol.
You know, when I was younger, the History Channel actually showed WW2 documentaries. I’m starting to think they never should have stopped.
Then he is not qualified to be a Senator, lacking political and historical accumen is a major fail. There are plenty of young adults who do have the judgement to look into what they are inking on themselves permanently.
I know I am being judgy, but Senate is one of the most influential political positions a person can run for. The bar is and needs to be very high. Just saying the right words is not enough to get me excited about a candidate.
I hope youre not a Maine voter then.
Ridiculous purity tests. I’ve never heard of this icon/meaning before the past week but yes, apparently this is truly intentional and despite him covering it he can never regain the public trust despite ACTUAL Nazis running the show in Washington.
What a complete waste of time hammering this. But the feeling of smugness is invaluable after all.
Real folk in Maine aren’t afraid to acknowledge growth, don’t worry buddy. He’s got my vote 100%
Like, covered by a shirt or actually covered by another tattoo?
Either way, this is pretty shitty judgement and I think another Dem candidate would probably be a better bet.
See how easy it is to criticize someone on your own “team”? We should bring that back in America.
This tattoo was the Totenkopf? Jesus Christ what is with this article? They described as skull and crossbones. As if making you think it’s a pirate symbol. Fuck no. The Totenkopf has always been associated with the Nazis. That’s a straight-up Nazi symbol that they wore while genociding people. I don’t believe for a fucking second this thing was an accident.
I can’t say I’m shocked that a PBS article is whitewashing this kind of shit. Cuz they’ve been whitewashing fascist shit for a while now. But God damn.
Honestly, if I saw that, I wouldn’t think “nazi”, can’t blame him if he saw it on a drunken night and didn’t think much of it.
When the media stated we live in a “post-truth” society, they meant it. Trump admin imported the Russian propaganda tactics of Surkov. This is our reality now, nothing is true or false, it’s all just information.
His former political director said he “knows damn well” what the tattoo signifies.
He was a 20-some year old marine; I absolutely believe he didn’t know what the tattoo actually was, and just thought it was cool.
I sure as hell didn’t know what it was when I was 20. I think I only learned about all this shit when I was teaching a student who had a confederate flag phone wallpaper (not in the US, btw), and I did a “crash course” in other to look for that are subtle symbols, like 1488 and lesser-known Nazi/white supremacy logos.
Some of them are super generic, too, like the one that looks like two parallel square-ish lighting bolts, or the square-looking ankh thing. (Someone linked a list above, of symbols banned in Germany).
Seems more likely that the establishment is trying to smear a progressive candidate than that a progressive candidate is secretly a neo Nazi.
The Totenkopf has always been associated with the Nazis.
To be pedantic, it actually predates Nazis by quite a bit, it was in use during the Empire - but by modern-day standards it’s absolutely associated with nazis.
So did the swastika… Doesn’t really matter does it
If you’re claiming a strong ideological stance, ie being a communist, to be simultaneously claiming ignorance of having a tattoo from one of the largest killers of communists, and having served in the military of the runner-up, makes it hard to trust him or his political understanding.
it’s like a year before the election, surely someone else is able to run.
Yeah this is my thought as well. I hope I’m wrong about it though… Even if he got educated after the tattoo, at some point you’d think he’d look it up. Especially if he’s apparently becoming a communist.
What? Mao was the largest by far. It’s not even close. It goes Mao (60 million), then Hitler as the runner-up (27 million), then Stalin (probably about 20 million).
The Western world sure as hell is not friendly to innocent people of whatever ideological stripe but yes in particular 20th-century Communists, but we’re not even scratching the surface of what they do to each other. We’re like little leaguers at an MLB game.
As soon as you find out a guy has a nazi tattoo you decide it’s time to support the guy 🤔 I mean I knew you were a social democrat but this is really on the nose
As soon as a ton of people from all over our corrupted media landscape seized upon some ways they could talk about this person, who is not a Nazi, in a way that really makes it sound like he is a Nazi and that’s the most important thing to talk about about him, then yes, I concluded that he’s definitely an enemy of the establishment which makes him at least okay in my book. The fact that Chuck Schumer doesn’t like him is a bonus too.
Hey, what do you think of Leon Trotsky? I am just curious.
Hey, what do you think of Leon Trotsky? I am just curious.
He was kind of a counter-revolutionary asshole who also happened to be in charge of killing a lot of anarchists, not a fan.
In the countries of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Balkans, in Italy, in Spain, in addition to the so-called Southern type, which is characterized by a combination of lazy shiftlessness and explosive irascibility, one meets cold natures, in whom phlegm is combined with stubbornness and slyness. The first type prevails ; the second augments it as an exception. It would seem as if each national group is doled out its due share of basic character elements, yet these are less happily distributed under the southern than under the northern sun. But we must not venture too far afield into the unprofitable region of national metaphysics." – Leon Trotsky in his biography of Stalin
who also happened to be in charge of killing a lot of anarchists
Tell me more
He was the war commissar during the civil war, effectively commander-in-chief of the red army, so he’s kind of responsible for what happened to the anarchist factions in it.
On some level he was going with a party line, but based on how the guy operated and what he was saying I don’t think that was much of a deviation from his actual beliefs.
I think it’s also telling how many former Trotskyists in the US pivoted to being neocon warmongers.
He was the war commissar during the civil war, effectively commander-in-chief of the red army, so he’s kind of responsible for what happened to the anarchist factions in it.
Oh God… this looks interesting but I have not the time to dive into it currently and my knowledge of this part of Russian history is basically 0. At a cursory reading, it kind of looks like the Russian Revolution happened, then elections, then the Bolsheviks lost the elections and announced that they were going to shoot anyone who contested their right to hold power no matter what because I say so, and so then there was more war, and I guess Trotsky was… running the Red Army during that time? Shooting anarchists, because they… wanted elections? Or something? That doesn’t sound right. I will read more when I have time.
I mean, if Trotsky was the guy who was killing the people who wanted elections, and only decades later turned around and tried to say that raw exercise of power with no attempt at a mandate was not what Communism is supposed to be about (which was what originally made me like him, and also what Stalin eventually killed him for more or less I think, because it made him “counterrevolutionary”)… you may have found a reason to criticize him that I get can behind. Of course the idea that he was shooting anarchists because they supported the Constituent Assembly sounds kind of out of character like I may have misunderstood something.
It’s too many layers.
I think it’s also telling how many former Trotskyists in the US pivoted to being neocon warmongers.
Ah yes, those famous neocon Trotsky fans. Clearly, your grasp of geopolitics is unparalleled, and not at all based on a fuzzy team sports based value system totally unmoored from reality. Which Trotskyist neocon was your favorite?
