Wow. So you’re saying that if you inadvertently got a Nazi tattoo (which is already being generous btw), and then found out later that you had a huge SS tattoo on your chest, your reaction would just be “oh lol that’s a bummer” and go on with your life and not get it covered? Cause I’d be pretty fucking horrified.
When confronted with his obvious moral failings over the years, Planter’s defenders say “he’s changed, he wants to be a better person.” To which i say, has he really shown accountability for any of this?
He to this day he denies knowing he had a Nazi tattoo up until he was publicly called out on it, despite clear evidence to the contrary. He denies allegations of misconduct against his past girlfriends. I don’t think he’s even been open about cheating on his partner with like 14 different women just said something vague like “I wasn’t a good partner cause I had PTSD”
I believe people have the power to change but this guy feels like just another greasy politician to me, and I dont believe he has genuine remorse if he’s not even willing to admit to this stuff.
Wow. So you’re saying that if you inadvertently got a Nazi tattoo (which is already being generous btw), and then found out later that you had a huge SS tattoo on your chest, your reaction would just be “oh lol that’s a bummer” and go on with your life and not get it covered? Cause I’d be pretty fucking horrified.
Honestly, yes. I would react just that way. If I knew I didn’t get it as a Nazi symbol, and I realize that 99% of the population doesn’t recognize it as a Nazi symbol? Then yeah, I would be in no hurry to get rid of it. The Nazis had tons of symbols. We can’t just let them delete whole swathes of our culture. It’s OK to let go of the most blatant ones, like the swastika. I’m not going to try and redeem that. But the swastika is also the Nazi’s most well known symbol. Any prior association has been completely washed out by this. But a deaths head? That’s not a a Nazi symbol. That’s a pirate flag Nazis decided to appropriate.
If I got a tattoo that I thought was cool, but later found out it was also co-opted by some group of Nazis in a minor way? No. I’m not going to be in a rush to remove that. I refuse to let Nazis control my life. As long as the vast majority of the population doesn’t see it as a Nazi symbol, and I know in my heart I don’t mean it as a Nazi symbol? I’m not going to be in any rush to remove it.
Imagine if I was old enough to say, have a wedding anniversary or other important event in 1988, and, before knowing the neo-Nazi implication, got a tattoo that said “88.” If I later learned about the implications of that number, unless that tattoo was in a highly visible location, I wouldn’t remove it. I’m not publicly advertising the 88 by showing it off. The only people who ever see it are those close enough to me to know I’m not a Nazi. No. I see no reason to remove that. But maybe if I was going into public office, I would then remove it so that I wasn’t placing that symbol in the limelight.
Or, we can stop with this childish gotcha bullshit. Unless Platner has actually advocated Nazi policies, then STFU. Having poor symbolism doesn’t make you a Nazi. Believing in Nazi ideals, Nazi policies, and trying to enact them makes you a Nazi.
I can see why he took his time because honestly, it’s not that big a deal. I would have no problem hanging out with someone who had a such a tattoo. Hell, I wouldn’t view it as disqualifying to date someone with such a tattoo (if I weren’t already married.)
Again, it’s a pirate flag tattoo. That’s almost certainly what he was thinking of when he got it, and what it meant in his mind.
I’m sure his thought process was something like, “yeah, that pirate tattoo I got as a kid does unfortunately resemble the one the Nazis used. Everyone I know close enough to actually see the tattoo knows I’m not a Nazi, but as I’m entering politics, I better get it covered up before the hyperventilating morons on the internet use it as an excuse to slander me as a Nazi.”
In fact, I think you need to delete your lemmy username. Why? Because your name included “de Sol.” The Sun. You know what a major Nazi was? That’s right, the Black Sun!
The Nazis used solar iconography. Your account references the Sun. Therefore, you are a Nazi. Please delete your lemmy account, Nazi scum.
That’s so disingenuous. If I had a “black sun” tattoo, yeah that’s a pretty damn good sign im a Nazi or at least a Nazi sympathizer or edge lord. There’s a huge difference between that and regular sun imagery. You’re making it sound like Platner had a generic jolly Roger or skull and crossbones tattoo, when his design was clearly a skull and crossbones based off of the totenkopf. It doesnt just happen to resemble a totenkopf thats literally what it is. It is NOT a pirate tattoo, no more so than a tattoo of an eagle holding a swastika is an Indian good-luck symbol. Sure you can trace its roots back to something more innocent but that doesn’t make it innocent.
He had it on his chest for like 2 decades before getting it covered up. The only reason he got it covered up is because when he ran for office people called him out on it, but based on his comments on Reddit about totenkopfs and Nazi tattoos in the US military he clearly knew what it was long before the public outcry and did nothing (and in my opinion he probably knew what it was when he got it).
“Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching”
Here you go. Scroll down and you will see a comment from his confirmed reddit account “P-Hustle”.
Somebody asks how do you know the person in the photo is SS, to which someone replies “The totenkopf on the dude first on the left is a good clue.” Then someone says that having a skull on your uniform doesn’t make you a bad guy, using the Punisher skull as an example, and then P-Hustle jumps in and says “When I was in Ramadi in ‘06 as a Marine grunt, the SEAL platoon we worked closely with for the deployment all had the Punisher skull spray painted on their armor carriers. There’s no question it’s far more prevalent on all the dumbass Grunt Style and Nine Line shirts these days, but the teams definitely adopted it for a while.”
So he 100% knew about totenkopfs, I don’t see any way around that. I don’t read too much into his comment specifically but the fact that he was chiming in on a comment about the use of skulls in the US military, on a thread about totenkopfs, is pretty damning.
Here’s the full article without a paywall. He also has other comments about Nazi-adjacent symbols in the US military, and how he thinks its fine.
Now, if you want to say, “knowingly having a totenkopf tattoo doesn’t make you a Nazi” I agree, I don’t think he’s a Nazi. But the lack of transparency (read: lying) he has demonstrated around this makes me question his character. Is it possible he really has made the crazy character arc of being a jarhead Iraq war mercenary misogynist to clean, woman-respecting leftist? Sure, but i’m gonna need a little more accountability than what he’s showing.
That’s not nearly as good of evidence as promised.
The thread doesn’t actually provide any reference to what the totenkopf was besides being a skull. So unless he took the time to research it we’re still at square 1. Really his comment only reinforces the idea that he just believed it was a skull.
You framed it convincingly, but the source is not a blatant as you made it out to be.
The second article was a bit better though.
Honestly reflects a guy I knew that was in the Marines. They got confederate flag tattoos as a unit, because that’s what the unit did. Years later he regrets it and is honestly a great guy. Just made a dumb move at 20.
Franky many of the leftist I know IRL radicalized after their military service. Lot of young kids signed up after 9/11 and saw the shit first hand. They grew to hate it, but it was a process. So overall yeah I can believe a progressive dem went through a similar cycle.
If your main hang up is accountability wait until you hear about the competition
Also “the totenkopf on the dude on the left” shows up as a white blob in that picture. There is no way to make a connection from that shot to anything in real life.
Yeah that was a crazy read by that commentor, but the real point i was trying to make was that people have been saying “totenkopf is an obscure symbol, only WW2 buffs know about it” and then there’s platner active on WW2 history threads about the SS, talking about skulls and Nazi symbolism in the US military. He’s clearly more active in those circles than 99% of the population, which is why I dont give him the benefit of the doubt he didn’t know what it was. It’s not THAT obscure.
Whatever you say man. I just feel like leftists are giving this guy with massive red flags a ton of benefit of the doubt just because they like his (current) politics, and I think there’s a very good chance they’ll regret it.
Wow. So you’re saying that if you inadvertently got a Nazi tattoo (which is already being generous btw), and then found out later that you had a huge SS tattoo on your chest, your reaction would just be “oh lol that’s a bummer” and go on with your life and not get it covered? Cause I’d be pretty fucking horrified.
When confronted with his obvious moral failings over the years, Planter’s defenders say “he’s changed, he wants to be a better person.” To which i say, has he really shown accountability for any of this?
He to this day he denies knowing he had a Nazi tattoo up until he was publicly called out on it, despite clear evidence to the contrary. He denies allegations of misconduct against his past girlfriends. I don’t think he’s even been open about cheating on his partner with like 14 different women just said something vague like “I wasn’t a good partner cause I had PTSD”
I believe people have the power to change but this guy feels like just another greasy politician to me, and I dont believe he has genuine remorse if he’s not even willing to admit to this stuff.
Honestly, yes. I would react just that way. If I knew I didn’t get it as a Nazi symbol, and I realize that 99% of the population doesn’t recognize it as a Nazi symbol? Then yeah, I would be in no hurry to get rid of it. The Nazis had tons of symbols. We can’t just let them delete whole swathes of our culture. It’s OK to let go of the most blatant ones, like the swastika. I’m not going to try and redeem that. But the swastika is also the Nazi’s most well known symbol. Any prior association has been completely washed out by this. But a deaths head? That’s not a a Nazi symbol. That’s a pirate flag Nazis decided to appropriate.
If I got a tattoo that I thought was cool, but later found out it was also co-opted by some group of Nazis in a minor way? No. I’m not going to be in a rush to remove that. I refuse to let Nazis control my life. As long as the vast majority of the population doesn’t see it as a Nazi symbol, and I know in my heart I don’t mean it as a Nazi symbol? I’m not going to be in any rush to remove it.
Imagine if I was old enough to say, have a wedding anniversary or other important event in 1988, and, before knowing the neo-Nazi implication, got a tattoo that said “88.” If I later learned about the implications of that number, unless that tattoo was in a highly visible location, I wouldn’t remove it. I’m not publicly advertising the 88 by showing it off. The only people who ever see it are those close enough to me to know I’m not a Nazi. No. I see no reason to remove that. But maybe if I was going into public office, I would then remove it so that I wasn’t placing that symbol in the limelight.
Or, we can stop with this childish gotcha bullshit. Unless Platner has actually advocated Nazi policies, then STFU. Having poor symbolism doesn’t make you a Nazi. Believing in Nazi ideals, Nazi policies, and trying to enact them makes you a Nazi.
I can see why he took his time because honestly, it’s not that big a deal. I would have no problem hanging out with someone who had a such a tattoo. Hell, I wouldn’t view it as disqualifying to date someone with such a tattoo (if I weren’t already married.)
Again, it’s a pirate flag tattoo. That’s almost certainly what he was thinking of when he got it, and what it meant in his mind.
I’m sure his thought process was something like, “yeah, that pirate tattoo I got as a kid does unfortunately resemble the one the Nazis used. Everyone I know close enough to actually see the tattoo knows I’m not a Nazi, but as I’m entering politics, I better get it covered up before the hyperventilating morons on the internet use it as an excuse to slander me as a Nazi.”
In fact, I think you need to delete your lemmy username. Why? Because your name included “de Sol.” The Sun. You know what a major Nazi was? That’s right, the Black Sun!
The Nazis used solar iconography. Your account references the Sun. Therefore, you are a Nazi. Please delete your lemmy account, Nazi scum.
That’s so disingenuous. If I had a “black sun” tattoo, yeah that’s a pretty damn good sign im a Nazi or at least a Nazi sympathizer or edge lord. There’s a huge difference between that and regular sun imagery. You’re making it sound like Platner had a generic jolly Roger or skull and crossbones tattoo, when his design was clearly a skull and crossbones based off of the totenkopf. It doesnt just happen to resemble a totenkopf thats literally what it is. It is NOT a pirate tattoo, no more so than a tattoo of an eagle holding a swastika is an Indian good-luck symbol. Sure you can trace its roots back to something more innocent but that doesn’t make it innocent.
Lol, at least get the facts right. He didn’t say oh well, he learned and got a cover up tattoo
He had it on his chest for like 2 decades before getting it covered up. The only reason he got it covered up is because when he ran for office people called him out on it, but based on his comments on Reddit about totenkopfs and Nazi tattoos in the US military he clearly knew what it was long before the public outcry and did nothing (and in my opinion he probably knew what it was when he got it).
“Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching”
Legitimately do you have any source for the claim he talked about the totenkopf on reddit before running.
In all the discourse I’ve heard on this, this is the first time I’ve seen that brought up
https://web.archive.org/web/20190226141422/https:/www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/auy0bi/battleweary_ss/
Here you go. Scroll down and you will see a comment from his confirmed reddit account “P-Hustle”.
Somebody asks how do you know the person in the photo is SS, to which someone replies “The totenkopf on the dude first on the left is a good clue.” Then someone says that having a skull on your uniform doesn’t make you a bad guy, using the Punisher skull as an example, and then P-Hustle jumps in and says “When I was in Ramadi in ‘06 as a Marine grunt, the SEAL platoon we worked closely with for the deployment all had the Punisher skull spray painted on their armor carriers. There’s no question it’s far more prevalent on all the dumbass Grunt Style and Nine Line shirts these days, but the teams definitely adopted it for a while.”
So he 100% knew about totenkopfs, I don’t see any way around that. I don’t read too much into his comment specifically but the fact that he was chiming in on a comment about the use of skulls in the US military, on a thread about totenkopfs, is pretty damning.
https://archive.is/20251026233121/https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-evidence-kfile-invs
Here’s the full article without a paywall. He also has other comments about Nazi-adjacent symbols in the US military, and how he thinks its fine.
Now, if you want to say, “knowingly having a totenkopf tattoo doesn’t make you a Nazi” I agree, I don’t think he’s a Nazi. But the lack of transparency (read: lying) he has demonstrated around this makes me question his character. Is it possible he really has made the crazy character arc of being a jarhead Iraq war mercenary misogynist to clean, woman-respecting leftist? Sure, but i’m gonna need a little more accountability than what he’s showing.
That’s not nearly as good of evidence as promised.
The thread doesn’t actually provide any reference to what the totenkopf was besides being a skull. So unless he took the time to research it we’re still at square 1. Really his comment only reinforces the idea that he just believed it was a skull.
You framed it convincingly, but the source is not a blatant as you made it out to be.
The second article was a bit better though.
Honestly reflects a guy I knew that was in the Marines. They got confederate flag tattoos as a unit, because that’s what the unit did. Years later he regrets it and is honestly a great guy. Just made a dumb move at 20.
Franky many of the leftist I know IRL radicalized after their military service. Lot of young kids signed up after 9/11 and saw the shit first hand. They grew to hate it, but it was a process. So overall yeah I can believe a progressive dem went through a similar cycle.
If your main hang up is accountability wait until you hear about the competition
Also “the totenkopf on the dude on the left” shows up as a white blob in that picture. There is no way to make a connection from that shot to anything in real life.
Yeah that was a crazy read by that commentor, but the real point i was trying to make was that people have been saying “totenkopf is an obscure symbol, only WW2 buffs know about it” and then there’s platner active on WW2 history threads about the SS, talking about skulls and Nazi symbolism in the US military. He’s clearly more active in those circles than 99% of the population, which is why I dont give him the benefit of the doubt he didn’t know what it was. It’s not THAT obscure.
Whatever you say man. I just feel like leftists are giving this guy with massive red flags a ton of benefit of the doubt just because they like his (current) politics, and I think there’s a very good chance they’ll regret it.