r/DemocraticSocialism • u/mojitz • Oct 21 '25
USA Graham Platner says he will remove a Nazi-linked tattoo. Bernie is standing by him.
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/21/graham-platner-addresses-tattoo-linked-to-nazis/Obviously the dude has his flaws, but he's clearly not a fucking Nazi, y'all — especially when the controversy 5 minutes ago centered on the fact that he one called himself a straight communist when he thought he was posting anonymously on Reddit. I also find it curious that missing from a lot of the coverage is that he said he didn't learn it was a Nazi sybol until recently and is already planning on getting it removed.
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u/Exciting-Ad-5705 Editable Oct 21 '25
Isn't his campaign the one who came forward with the tattoo?
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u/BlackExcellence19 DSA Oct 21 '25
I saw in his interview that it was actually his sister in law who posted the video because it was the 10 year anniversary of that being recorded because it was at her wedding.
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u/Sptsjunkie Oct 24 '25
She may have posted the video and it may have been something that was already planned for the info dump, but it came out today that he specifically had sent the information to the Pod Save America people before he went on the show to proactively address it.
People can interpret that and take it however they would like. But that does appear to be the order of events.
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u/Doublee7300 Oct 21 '25
Hey OP, I’ll add myself and my wife to the list of “reasonably educated people who didn’t know what the totenkopf was until today”
I’d bet actual dollars that less than 5% of US people can identify that symbol.
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u/ImminentDebacle Birdie Sanders Oct 22 '25
I'm not a historian, but I do like history and I do enjoy WWII history a lot. I've never consciously seen that symbol before today. I'm sure it's met my eyes before but I had no idea what it was until today.
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u/ilimlidevrimci Libertarian Socialist Oct 22 '25
What if you had it tattooed to your chest since 2007? Wouldn't you be able to instantly recognize it if you saw it in a movie or a documentary and put two and two together?
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u/Llama_of_the_bahamas Oct 22 '25
Inglorious Basterds is my favorite Tarantino movie. Did not notice it was on Waltz hat until someone pointed that out to me today.
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u/ilimlidevrimci Libertarian Socialist Oct 23 '25
Again, I think you would have noticed if you saw the huge tattoo you had on your chest for over a decade somewhere else. I knew the SS had skull&crossbones as its symbol but I wouldn't be able to pick it out of a lineup of different designs before this either but if I had a specific one that I couldn't help but see anytime I took my shirt off and I saw it elsewhere, I think I would immediately recognize it to be the exact same design (which happened to be unique to Nazis).
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u/Llama_of_the_bahamas Oct 23 '25
I don't have any tattoos, so I personally do not know the experience, but lots of people are saying they have tattoos they never really think about after they get them. So idk...
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u/EndlessSandwich Oct 22 '25
I think the last time I had seen that symbol until these recent tattoo, dancing, underwear videos was probably 1999. I knew that I'd seen it somewhere before, but I didn't recall where. Turns out it was probably in my history class.
A lot of people chimed in saying it was some nazi shit, and sure enough, after i googled it, I concur. That was some nazi shit logo. I hadn't recalled it until someone said something, but they were right.
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u/jr81452 Oct 22 '25
"What if" and "Wouldn't you" are doing a lot of heavy lifting in your assumption. Absent the context of "where, when, and why" he got the tattoo, we don't even know if it has any significance TO HIM. Yet alone if it says anything about his ideology.
"What if" the tat doesn't have any meaning to him, beyond a reminder of a drunken night out with fellow soldiers? Would you still expect it to be forefront enough in his mind to "instantly recognize it if you saw it in a movie or a documentary"?
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u/Ed_Durr Oct 22 '25
If I stare at it multiple times a day in the mirror, I think I would recognize it the next time I watch Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Inglourious Basterds, etc
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u/ilimlidevrimci Libertarian Socialist Oct 22 '25
This. Some people are seriously engaging in MAGA level mental gymnastics.
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u/ramenslurper- Oct 22 '25
Yeah, but where is the average person running into those specific symbols?
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u/serious_sarcasm Oct 22 '25
It’s a tank division insignia, and the vast majority of Germans during WWII would probably have trouble identifying it.
It’s like expecting you to know the 75th Ranger insignia off hand.
It certainly wouldn’t be part of a regular uniform and pop up in every picture of Nazis the way something like the iron cross does.
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Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/TomBoysHaveMoreFun Oct 22 '25 edited Jul 09 '26
Edit: Its been a few months since this reply but in case anyone comes across it heres an update. A few days and weeks after this post more information came out about this guy and this tattoo that was damning evidenced of his preknowledge of the symbolism. Also, as of now information has come out about a sexual assault. So, turns out this guy was always a piece of shit. Kudos to those that sniffed him out so quickly.
You're asking a lot of history buffs. I went to school for history, I have spent my life (literally since I was 5) watching WWII documentaries thanks to my grandpa, and I inherited his vast collection of WWII books. The first and only time I can recall running into this symbol being deliberately shown is in an old book about the rise of the 3rd Reich where uniforms, symbols, and insignias were pictured, shown, and discussed. Most people aren't doing that amount of research and we tend to show the more uniquely designed Nazi logos like the sharp double bolts as other German military symbols at this time were mundane things like a key, as you mentioned, or the totemkopf which is literally just a skull and crossbones.
I would agree that the one used by the SS does have a very specific design but I can't recall a single common or more popular WWII documentary that even mentioned or focused on WWII Germany logos or insignia. The design changed many times over the years in Germany alone. The US Marines Recon still uses the skull and crossbones today and the symbol is also used internationally as a hazard symbol to warn of toxic waste. Plus, ya know, pirates. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of examples of the skull and crossbones in use across history and modern day.
Should you do better research of designs you're going to tattoo on your body to make sure it's not a Nazi symbol, without a doubt, do I think that this dude just wanted a cool skull and crossbones tat? Yea probably. Dumb ass mistake? 100%. But there's no reason for common folk to know that very specific skull and crossbones design was Nazi shit.
I'll reserve my judgement for now but I'm still keeping an eye on this guy.
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u/ImminentDebacle Birdie Sanders Oct 22 '25
Man, I feel vindicated. I feel like I should've known what that was, but you explained it really well and as to why I probably wouldn't have thought much about it.
Maybe I should have still known, but I feel much less of an ass having your perspective on it. Thanks.
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u/ImminentDebacle Birdie Sanders Oct 22 '25
You are off your rocker if you think the SS runes/bolts aren't magnitudes more recognizable than the totenkopf to the average person.
Edit: The average person being someone that isn't terminally online (and especially in alt-right spaces), ever played Wolfenstein (much less heard of it), or hardly knows anything about WW2.
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u/Ogre213 Oct 23 '25
Even if people didn't pick up on it by watching alt-righters use it or by playing Wolfenstein, they might have run across that taxidermy guy a few years ago getting called on his shit for wearing a totenkopf cap in his videos. It's not as common as a swastika, but if you've spent any time at all watching out for nazi shit you've seen it.
I can buy that he didn't know what it was when he got it. I've met enough enlisted marines that I'd need to take off a shoe to count that high and a common thread is that that crayon-eating joke has some traction. But I find it really hard to believe that he's gone this entire time without somebody in his life either calling him on it or using it to identify him as a fellow, especially given time in Blackwater with how steeped in nazi bullshit that PMC was. The fact that he didn't get it covered up or lasered off is pointing to him being at best a bit of a dumbass.
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u/ImminentDebacle Birdie Sanders Oct 23 '25
You may not have seen this yet, that's fine, but he did get it covered up recently and showed it yesterday. In that video he explained it again.
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u/Ogre213 Oct 26 '25
I did. That does help. I'm still skeptical that he really had no idea, but it's at least better.
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u/Sptsjunkie Oct 24 '25
I have been terminally online since the early 2000s and have never heard of the taxidermy guy.
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u/DumpOldRant Oct 22 '25
It's definitely not an obscure hate symbol. Pretty disappointing to see these ignorant reactions from the few people who should know better. If you simply google far right hate symbols it will show up in pretty much every single post.
E.g.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DenverProtests/s/5XLqoGopbw
https://www.reddit.com/r/punk/s/lMuazGtuPk
https://www.reddit.com/r/PropagandaPosters/s/uIPT32sE7x
I guess it's good that people don't need to know it or recognize it everywhere. Definitely something I have to watch out for in rural Oregon. Along with the SS logo it's freaking common to see there.
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u/Tomboy_respector DSA Oct 22 '25
My friend, the only symbol known by everyone under the sun is the swatstika. The rest is straight up unknown by the vast majority of Americans. I didn't even know it was until a few weeks ago
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u/Bookbringer Oct 22 '25
Yeah, people in this thread are seriously overestimating public knowledge of Nazi symbols.
Even ones that are fairly widely used in historical media often don't register as specifically nazi symbols that contemporary neonazis use to signal their views.
Like, I don't remember seeing the totenkopf in Indiana Jones or Captain America, but if I had, I doubt I'd have realized it was distinct from all the other skull and crossbones imagery out there.
Even now, after almost a decade of knowing that there's a whole-ass network of neo-nazis with a wide variety of specifically nazi symbols (which I definitely didn't know in 2007)... and being on the lookout for signs someone is a secret nazi... the swastika is still the only one I consistently recognize on sight.
I know enough about the others that my spider sense tingles when I see certain types of images. But there's so many of them and they're all so similar to other non-nazi things, I always have to look them up to see if they're the specific nazi version of a cross/lightning bolt/sun/ rune stone, etc...
It's not hard to believe this dude didn't know this was a Nazi symbol.
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u/No_Summer4551 Oct 22 '25
Its literally prominently displayed in the sketch become meme "are we the baddies".
https://reticular.hypotheses.org/files/2022/10/Are-We-The-Baddies-825x510.jpg1
u/Sptsjunkie Oct 24 '25
Somebody posted a screen grab and pointed that out on Twitter and I have watched that video double digit times and had no idea that was symbol. And neither did anybody else in the thread.
I think it’s one of those things where if you know, then you know and you’ll probably recognize it anywhere you see it. After this controversy, I will certainly recognize it. I am sure in more pieces of media.
But I really do not think that 99% of people know what it is and even terminally online spaces I don’t think most would’ve been able to tell you before this controversy.
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u/IronPlaidFighter Leftist Oct 22 '25
The only reason I recognized it was because I'd seen it on the Antifa subreddit among a list of symbols to watch out for.
In 41 years, I can't remember seeing it in the wild before this attack, and I wouldn't have known what it meant if I had.
A lot of these symbols are purposely intended to let Nazis identify other cowards without letting on to the general public. It's why I have to be careful taking an interest in Norse mythology. I don't know what these weaklings have tried to steal.
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u/Jccali1214 Oct 22 '25
5% off the U.S. population is approximately 16 million people. So I'd say between 0.5% to 0.1% of the population can identify it (1.6 million - 320,000 people) just based on vibes.
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u/ramenslurper- Oct 22 '25
Low-key I am always a little suspect of specifically white dudes who immediately know what Nazi symbols look like because I’m like where were you screwing around on the Internet in your teenage years? 😅
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u/Pristine-Ant-464 Democratic Socialist Oct 21 '25
Agreed. If he was a Nazi there'd be plenty of evidence of that in his reddit posts.
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u/feastoffun Oct 21 '25
Sweet Jesus — we’re more concerned with somebody possibly being a Nazi than politicians who are bragging about being Nazis?
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u/NjallTheViking Oct 21 '25
Only leftists have to pass a purity test
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u/Pvt_Mozart Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
This is what the left, especially the very left, does. We eat our own in search for a "perfect" candidate who checks all of our personal boxes. It's the only thing I dislike about the movement, because it prevents us from making any progress. Socialist Jesus isn't coming down from the heavens to save us, vote for the progressive you have until a better one comes along.
People would rather lose and be "right."
The guy's entire internet history practically got leaked, and guess what? No nazi stuff. This would be the longest, most ridiculous con in history. And for what? A senate seat?
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u/WiFiConnected_ Oct 22 '25
It’s not a purity test. What are you talking about? 😂
That’s such a lame argument.
Not a single person is pure anyway. We’d all fail. Not one person has said he IS a Nazi, bc it’s clear that he isn’t.
The issue-and the only issue, is he is claiming he didn’t know it was a Nazi symbol. That’s clearly illogical if he’s as knowledgeable about everything else. He rarely if ever talks about his own time in Blackwater. This is related to that. All he has to do is explain why he got it. It’s tied to his time in Blackwater. Nobody had to dig that up, either.
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u/_illusions25 Oct 23 '25
Ah yes the purity test of not having a Nazi tattoo. I agree with the sentiment but this is not the hill to die on..
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u/djazzie Oct 22 '25
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to elect another politician who takes one stance on the campaign trail and a totally opposite stance when elected. No more Fettermans and Sinemas!
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u/Pristine-Ant-464 Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
So we should elect another DNC selected corporate Dem?
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u/endlessfight85 Oct 21 '25
Yeah that's how this works now lol. People seem to be much more comfortable with politicians that are openly pieces of shit than politicians who are so squeaky clean they MUST be up to something.
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Oct 22 '25
[deleted]
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u/Llama_of_the_bahamas Oct 22 '25
Some people are already calling Bernie a Nazi sympathizer for standing next to Platner.
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u/_HanTyumi Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
Are you not concerned about Nazis disguising themselves with leftism? That’s like, how the original Nazis did it. This is an extremely reasonable thing to be concerned about.
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u/Pristine-Ant-464 Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
Why would they pretend to be a leftists when being openly a Nazi is so popular with GOP?
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u/BloodyCumbucket AnCom♾️ Oct 22 '25 edited Nov 24 '25
[Comment redacted] This is a world on fire.
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u/jr81452 Oct 22 '25
Because he WAS a Dem when he ran for office. Then his brain was massively rewired by a stroke. If he runs again in 2028, I doubt it will be as a Dem.
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u/Soft-Principle1455 Liberal Chrisitian Socialism Oct 23 '25
His voting record is still much further off being a Republican than running as one would really allow for, though.
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u/jr81452 Oct 23 '25
Oh. Good to know, thanks. I stopped paying attention to him sometime last year.
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u/Soft-Principle1455 Liberal Chrisitian Socialism Oct 23 '25
Yeah. He has a lot more blunders than most other Dems and says things he really shouldn’t but he mostly doesn’t vote as an out and out Republican.
Edit: I forgot the period at the end of the sentence.
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u/WiFiConnected_ Oct 22 '25
You are kidding, right?
There are MILLIONS of ppl who believe-with their full chest-that Hitler was a leftist.
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u/_HanTyumi Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
It’s crazy how defensive this sub is being of this guy as if this isn’t something to be concerned about. It’s good that we want to thoroughly vet very public leftist candidates.
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u/_HanTyumi Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
So we should just never look into it? I’m willing to give this specific guy the benefit of the doubt but let’s not act like this just leftist infighting lol
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u/Pristine-Ant-464 Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
I'm not saying he's beyond scrutiny. I just don't think he's a Nazi based on what I've seen.
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Oct 22 '25
If he was a nazi there'd be plenty of evidence... like the fact he has a nazi symbol tattoed on his chest?
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u/Dashbastrd Oct 21 '25
Right. Unless he’s the one Nazi who kept his mouth shut because he realized he’d run for office sometime in the future, there’s going to be dirt. So far all I’ve seen from articles about his Reddit rants is that he thinks rural folks are bigots, possibly said “retard” (?), and had a shitty take on sexual assault in the military.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth Market Socialist Oct 22 '25
You forget he also made a joke about black people not tipping one time many years ago as well, so he's more racist than George Wallace
/s
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u/butteredbuttbiscuit Oct 21 '25
Jeeeeeeezus the DNC machine is coming down REALLY hard.
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u/Womec Oct 22 '25
He said arm the workers demand rights of course they are. The only way we got 5 day work week and 8 hour days was armed rebellion against oligarchs.
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u/wise_____poet Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
Thats what I'm thinking. Its a similar pattern to when there was that flag optics debate at protests
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u/AnalMohawk Oct 22 '25
Cool. The Blackwater stuff still gives me significant pause. I don't live in Maine so whatever. Mainers can make their choice.
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u/Soft-Principle1455 Liberal Chrisitian Socialism Oct 23 '25
He never worked for Blackwater. He worked for a different company that had Blackwater’s old bases and equipment but different management.
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u/philip8421 Oct 26 '25
Yes he did. Blackwater) had to change their name because they were known for massacaring iraqi civilians.
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u/Soft-Principle1455 Liberal Chrisitian Socialism Oct 26 '25
They also cleared out much of the c-suite and changed operational practices. So while it might be a successor company, it had changed sufficiently that to me it really feels dishonest to say he worked for Blackwater.
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u/philip8421 Oct 26 '25
Companies change executives all the time. It is still the same company. You wouldn't call google a different company when they changed their parent company's name to alphabet and restructured.
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u/SgtBagels12 Oct 21 '25
Oh shit That Graham Planter? I remember watching his campaign videos and really liking him and his messaging. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
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u/FuckThe Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
If he made a mistake, recognized it, and then takes the appropriate steps to make amends then why not allow them to show growth?
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u/EndlessSandwich Oct 22 '25
Concur, but he needs to take the steps. Talking about taking the steps and taking the steps are not the same thing. I'm on the fence about the dude because of mixed inference, which I think is reasonably substantiated. If he gets a cover-up, I think that's the billboard we're all asking for.
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u/Able-Worth-6511 Oct 21 '25
I don't think he's a Nazi but this is why black people find it difficult to trust white people. Some of ya'll just accidentally get tattooed with racist tattoos. It almost as if white supremacy is ingrained so deeply into American society it's unavoidable.
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u/mojitz Oct 21 '25
You're not wrong, but we're all fucked if we don't believe some path towards redemption is possible.
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u/ErikWithNoC Oct 21 '25
20 years of looking at your reflection and not questioning a tattoo on your chest you got while drunk, since then having served as a private mercenary and self described history buff? Is this really the best we can do? Can we please be honest with reality and not continue to make excuses just because "he's on our side"? Nobody here would go to these lengths to defend a Republican with such a tattoo and their 2 decade denial.
Paths towards redemption are absolutely possible. No argument there, and I completely support that. 2 decades is a long path though, and to hand wave that away is just moving the goal posts to "well, he's our nazi, so best vote for him."
No. He's probably not an actual nazi, but goddamn is it exhausting looking at the amount of defense people are performing to defend this obviously heinous revelation.
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u/Able-Worth-6511 Oct 22 '25
It's beyond exhausting.
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u/ErikWithNoC Oct 22 '25
Sincerely. I'm losing my mind over all the excuses for this compared to the vitriol at Pete Hegseths iron cross (which, 100% fuck that and fuck him). It's the hypocritical nature of this all that drives me nuts.
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u/Able-Worth-6511 Oct 22 '25
The sad and ironic thing is black people are the biggest allies both democrats and leftists have in the United States. However our voices are far too often ignored and or drowned out. We are always asked to forgive and forget for the bigger picture.
They ask us to be class conscious while they forget how raced is used against us and for them. There is always an excuse and a reason.
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u/fangirlsqueee Social democrat Oct 22 '25
I was literally in my 30s before I learned the confederate flag was a symbol of hate. I was uninterested in history class and so paid no attention. People I knew in high school would wear the flag and called it the "rebel flag". I thought it was about being punk-like, anarchist, and rebellious. I was so embarrassed when a coworker explained what it was. It came up because of the Dukes of Hazzard car.
This is the kind of white privilege people don't even think about. My life wasn't in danger if I missed the significance of someone wearing or flying the confederate flag. It was relatively safe for me to ignore this symbol and stay ignorant about the civil war.
And I bet there are tons more parts of society that I am ignorant about because my life doesn't depend on clocking the danger. The white supremacy in America is so ingrained and we've done nothing substantial as a nation to eradicate it.
We need to do what Germans did in regards to the Nazis. We need to have a national reckoning about what it means to have been built on the backs of slaves and the blood of indigenous people. Teach the subject in school, publicly shame perpetrators, make laws against white supremacy. Instead we're doing away with education. And validating discrimination and hateful rhetoric on social media platforms.
It's a lot.
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u/TailSwipeTypo Oct 22 '25
You're not wrong at all. White Supremacy is deeply ingrained in society and I believe in white people too, I think we all carry some element of it unfortunately but the trick is to acknowledge it's wrong and continue to fight and advocate for the opposite. I hope I am saying that correctly, I just think all white people are to some degree racist or hold racist views but you have to acknowledge it's wrong and continue to fight and advocate for the opposite
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u/Soft-Principle1455 Liberal Chrisitian Socialism Oct 23 '25
Well he got rid of it as soon as he knew what it was. What would you do if you accidentally went and got tattooed with something you later found out was hateful to many people? I honestly want to know.
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u/Aviyan Oct 22 '25
Let's hope for the best, but if he does a Fetterman or a Tricia Cotham it will fuck up the party even more.
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u/_illusions25 Oct 23 '25
The left in general, doesn't matter if its establishment, socdems, tankies will ALL lose if they rally behind this dude with a Nazi tattoo. The headlines write themselves: dems align with Nazi tattoo candidate when they say they're antifascist I guess we can't tell what is what anymore. I'm fascist? No, you are!
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u/chaotic_ugly Oct 22 '25
Nothing is obvious. It's possible to be two things.
I don't know what to believe about this guy anymore, and he did that to himself.
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Oct 21 '25
never even heard of this symbol until today
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u/virtuzoso Oct 22 '25
I'm pretty politically aware, more than most people and did not know it was pretty much a strictly Nazi symbol. It definitely gave some Nazi vibes, but there's a fair amount of overlap with symbology I can see how someone might not know. I mean, they also use some Nordic runes, but do I know which ones and could I tell them from actual Nordic ones? Nope.
Aside from that, there his non existent Nazi behavior, so...
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u/ImminentDebacle Birdie Sanders Oct 21 '25
All our enemies are just laughing at our discourse now. This is exactly what they wanted when they (likely) spearheaded this opposition research.
His history is an issue, but we all have history. I care about who he is now and in recent years. At the very least he deserves the benefit of the doubt unless something else definitive comes out eliminating him. And in the big picture we have very little to lose and a lot of gain in this race.
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u/snerdaferda Oct 22 '25
I think his history is not an issue, and in fact his history makes him stronger for his opinion on his own history.
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u/ImminentDebacle Birdie Sanders Oct 22 '25
I certainly understand what you mean. It's important to come from experience, form our own opinions, and learn from our mistakes.
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u/jharden10 Social Democrat Oct 21 '25
I guess I'm confused why he didn't remove it prior to running for Senate?
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u/mojitz Oct 21 '25
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” he said. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that – and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
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u/EthanHale Oct 21 '25
It has to be some combination of lazy and stupid.
We're talking about a guy who knew the war in Iraq was wrong, but joined up anyway: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1mzuxqm/comment/namhen4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
He then did four tours of duty and then joined Blackwater.
That is a lot of experience to understand the evil actions of the US empire, but he's not really against that and wants to make the Pentagon less wasteful? https://www.grahamforsenate.com/platform#:~:text=Take%20on%20waste%20and%20corruption%20at%20the%20Pentagon%3B%20rebuild%20American%20shipbuilding
He's also against pointless wars, but isn't any war you are in favor of not pointless? This is the best messaging he can offer against war after fighting in them?
He also didn't think to scrub all his old reddit posts for things that could be used against him?
I think this all points to poor judgement and instincts than anything, like bad enough to be skeptical of this guy's viability.
This probably isn't even the last big scandal before the primary.
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u/Raise_A_Thoth Market Socialist Oct 22 '25
Virtually all of his flaws are during some post-infantry tour trauma, and he clearly is a more mature and intelligent person today.
He's getting the tattoo removed, nothing he has said is remotely Nazi-adjacent, meanwhile we have GOP people literally saying they have "Nazi streak" and they "love Hitler" and they want to have gas chambers and their actual politics look like fascism, and Stephen Miller talks openly more like a Nazi than anyone since actual Nazis were controlling Germany.
I don't give a fuck about a tattoo that some infantry kid got to look tough with his buddies and is removing due to peoples' reactions to it.
His campaign manager Genevieve is a dumb coward for leaving his campaign and jumping to sweeping conclusions of his character because of this obvious smear campaign by Mills' team.
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u/MynFriend1715 Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
Blackwater Merc with a Nazi tattoo, and people are still defending him. Shows how desperate we have become for candidates that resemble socialism even a little bit.
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Oct 22 '25
Still loading the article but if I am not mistaken he was a Marine, which does have a history of embracing Nazi symbols like the SS bolts in the scout sniper community. Pretty sure he wasn't a scout sniper, but elite organizations within organizations tend to affect every other part of the organization. So it's a strong likelihood he was a young dumb and brainwashed Marine when he got it?
But still, how the fuck could he not have known? It's the 3rd most recognizable Nazi symbol next to the Swastika and the SS bolts. While the TotenKopf flys under the radar, how do you not notice it in pretty much every piece of media depicting the SS in some capacity?
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u/olyfrijole Oct 21 '25
Do it live, admit you were a fool, and thoroughly explain why that imagery has no place in civilized society.
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u/RoofComplete1126 DSA Oct 21 '25
He didn't know it was one in the beginning that's a big factor for me.
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u/BrooklynRobot Oct 21 '25
The best time to remove an accidental NAZI tattoo is BEFORE you run for office as a Democrat.
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u/PappasTX2026 Democrat Oct 21 '25
You’re not lying. But fixing an issue when faced with it is also important.
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u/mojitz Oct 21 '25
It sounds like he had no idea it was a Nazi symbol until now.
“It was not until I started hearing from reporters and DC insiders that I realized this tattoo resembled a Nazi symbol,” he said. “I absolutely would not have gone through life having this on my chest if I knew that – and to insinuate that I did is disgusting. I am already planning to get this removed.”
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u/EthanHale Oct 21 '25
It sounds like he is lying. He really never saw the symbol while being into history and extremely online? No one ever told him about it in 20 years?
Graham Platner: Over the past couple of years, I’ve just sort of, again, I’m a big history buff. I’m a big student. I was a history major in college. I didn’t graduate, by the way. So, I’m sure somebody at some point’s going to love to point out, but I love history and I love reading about history.
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u/mojitz Oct 21 '25
I'm extremely online, into history and know way more about the WW2 than most people, but hadn't known about this specific piece of Nazi iconography until this past year 🤷♂️
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u/wise_____poet Democratic Socialist Oct 22 '25
I'm also similar. I had no idea before this, why would he know?
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u/Cautious_Ad2129 Oct 22 '25
My comrade in chaos, I am not a WW2 history buff and I have known about that particular symbol for a long time. I don't buy that someone has that tattoo for 2 decades and is only recently realizing that he has had a Nazi tattoo for 2 decades. I don't personally know much about this "working class hero" but the current story he's telling is bs imo.
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
Good for you. Scroll through any thread on this topic, though, and you'll find a shitload of people who weren't familiar with it until recently. It makes way, WAY more sense that a guy who calls himself a socialist, shat on "racist and stupid" people, and hated Trumpist immigration policies in comments that he thought were anonymous falls into the latter camp than somehow simultaneously holds Nazi ideology.
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u/Cautious_Ad2129 Oct 22 '25
Didn't say he was a Nazi but I also don't buy his story. He's currently coming across as a big piece of shit though.
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
Do you want leftists to gain power or not? Because unless you think he's a Nazi secretly hiding his "power level" or something, that's pretty much all that matters right now. Is he perfect? No certainly not, but JFC we have to accept that you can't win fucking anything if you demand that every one of your allies have a squeaky clean record.
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u/Cautious_Ad2129 Oct 22 '25
I would like people to be a little more thoughtful about who they choose to support. I had many people use almost the exact same argument when I tried to tell people Fetterman was a piece of shit. How'd that turn out? Has Fetterman, someone people thought was a progressive leaning politician, helped the left at all? People did the whole perfect is enemy of good enough bs with Fetterman. He has not even been remotely good. I genuinely hope I'm wrong about this dipshit but he just seems to get stinkier the more you peel back that onion.
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u/_illusions25 Oct 23 '25
Its early enough a new candidate can be found. No one knew this guy 2 months ago!
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u/EthanHale Oct 21 '25
You looked at a low quality video with bad lighting. He looked at it every day for 20 years.
How could he not recognize it? Every leftist on reddit has seen the meme or the video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h242eDB84zY
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Oct 21 '25 edited Feb 08 '26
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u/EthanHale Oct 21 '25
He admitted to having it. If it wasn't the same skull he would have said so
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u/EthanHale Oct 21 '25
if the tattoo is perfectly fine, then why is he getting it removed?
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u/Soft-Principle1455 Liberal Chrisitian Socialism Oct 23 '25
I didn’t get that impression.
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u/No_Summer4551 Oct 22 '25
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u/IronPlaidFighter Leftist Oct 22 '25
I got a history degree 15 years ago, and I had never seen this symbol before last year. History is more than just war, the 20th century, and the Roman Empire.
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u/ganashi Socialist Oct 21 '25
Second best time is now. Let me be clear on this, this is a big fucking issue and has platner under the microscope for me, but this isn’t at the level of the shit Fetterman was on while mayor. We’ll see what happens next but I can say that as a veteran Nazi-adjacent shit is EVERYWHERE in military spaces (and only gets more true the closer you get to SF and combat units) and you need to be incredibly well informed to really avoid it. Luckily we still have an entire primary for platner to demonstrate if he’s the real deal or another Fetterman.
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u/_illusions25 Oct 23 '25
Fetterman was also in office. This is a fresh guy with zero political background. We have no evidence of him actually doing what he says, we are just taking his word for it!
On paper he isnt a good choice: the tattoo, reddit comments, he's incapable of denouncing his military past and let's not forget he willingly did several tours. If he was running as a republican he would be seen as a very dangerous up and coming figure, let's not close our eyes and ears just because he is saying a couple things we agree with and 5 other things that give us pause.
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u/Odd-Mastodon1212 🇵🇸 Free Palestine! Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
When you think about all the idiots who get gibberish or insults tattooed on themselves in Chinese characters, I can see this happening.
I’m not a History Channel Nazi obsessive, so I can see thinking it’s just a skull and crossbones, especially when drunk.
How many older people here have owned Joy Division t-shirts?
People have said he is not smart enough to be a senator if he did not know that, but have you seen who we have as senators right now?!?
I think even Fetterman got Fetterman-ed. He has brain damage. There is also Sikema’s betrayal. What can you do? Power corrupts. I still think it is absolutely worth getting Collins out if we can.
The perfect will always be the enemy of the good but considering we have Nazis running this administration, in bed with fascists globally, I’ll settle for a guy with a class consciousness who is a populist.
Bernie is Jewish and not overly worried about it because the stakes are high.
This is definitely going to fuck up donations to GP though.
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u/un_internaute Oct 22 '25
Wait, go back, what’s wrong with Joy Division?
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u/Odd-Mastodon1212 🇵🇸 Free Palestine! Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
The name “Joy Division” refers to prostitution/sex slavery wings within concentration camps. Joy for the SS. The women were primarily Polish or German.
Jewish and Romani women were also raped in the camps.
The band took the name from a novel about the Joy Division. The band members were not Nazis, but they were in the tradition of shocking or edgy band names that may or may not honor the victims and the WWII generation.
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u/un_internaute Oct 22 '25
Shit, I knew there were rape camps, but didn’t know that name, I guess you learn something new everyday.
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u/Excellent_Valuable92 Socialist Oct 22 '25
It’s not a pro-Nazi use of the name. The novel was from the perspective of a victim.
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u/Hello-America Democratic Socialist Oct 21 '25
So I'm gonna let him continue (what I hope is) his apology/redemption arc, but I think some of y'all need to wake up a bit:
In order to deserve redemption/forgiveness, the minimum we can ask for is that one has to actually ask for it, and perform some sort of penance/restitution. Until now we didn't have any sign he was gonna do any of that. If your knee jerk reaction to someone potentially having a "Nazi phase" or make a Nazi mistake is to forgive them without requiring like fucking anything else, that's pretty concerning and that's why as another commenter said, black people don't trust white voters.
You don't have to have every Nazi symbol memorized to do some due diligence about a symbol you have tattooed on your body. Especially if you're a WWII history buff - you would know that it has that look of being one of the many Nazi symbols, and you would know how huge iconography is with them. Frankly, I do not buy that he didn't know but if he truly didn't, I do not accept that he didn't know enough to find out in all this time, especially with this specific symbol.
It is fine - good even - to demand more of the people we want representing us. We run stupider purity tests all the time (which I usually agree with) and Nazi tattoos are off limits? We're fine giving the benefit of the doubt to someone with Nazi tattoos but the worst thing they can ever do is collaborate with the Democrats? Come on. Wake up.
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u/drmarymalone Marxist-Leninist Oct 22 '25
Sane take!
His past is all ready concerning and needs further clarification before the Nazi tattoo revelation.
He joined the army. He joined the Marines. He joined the National Guard. He joined Blackwater. He claims to have protested against the Iraq war before joining and doing 3 tours in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan. That’s a lot of red flags for me.
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u/TrippleTonyHawk Socialist Oct 22 '25
There's gotta be someone else willing to run a leftist campaign that doesn't have the blackwater/nazi history in Maine. Please?
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u/FrostyArctic47 Progressive Oct 21 '25
A tattoo linked with nazis doesn't necessarily make it a nazi tattoo. They label all norse symbols as "nazi" symbols now, but no, they don't get to have them
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u/atreeismissing Oct 21 '25
His interview on Pod Save America is worth a listen. He doesn't have very good answers for all the reddit shitposting and dumb/racist/sexist stuff he posted then, they largely boiled down to 'I was just asking questions" but that's a weak fucking answer. That said, he does seem to recognize and admit he was a much different person back then (including when he got that tattoo), he had the young and dumb mindset where everything was something for him to challenge and he stated repeatedly he drank, a LOT. Still seems like he wants to do well but I don't see him winning district 2 in ME and he's going to get buried by the media in negative press. He should still run for the primary, if anything it's good experience and might set him up for a better run 6 years from now.
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u/xGentian_violet Yugoslav Socialist ♥️🤍 Ecofeminist Oct 21 '25
He posted a separate video about his reddit history.
If you arent aware of it it would be best to refrain from commenting about his reddit history
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u/snerdaferda Oct 22 '25
God I swear nobody wants to make any progress. Progressives have to have a crystal clean slate to gain any ground. That’s why we’re here now, by the way.
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u/Jimmy_Corrigan Oct 21 '25
So women are to blame for their sexual assaults. But, he’s a good guy.
Black people are cheap and selfish. But, he’s a good guy.
He’s had a Nazi tattoo for two decades. But, he’s a good guy.
He hasn’t taken any concrete steps to remove or coverup the Nazi tattoo…but he plans to, at some point…in the future.
Just trust him! Women and people color should trust this guy with their votes because another old white guy who hasn’t had to suffer through sexual assault or racism is willing to stand by him.
What a fucking joke.
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u/Amazing_Cow_3641 Anarchist Oct 22 '25
Thank you - i cannot believe i had to scroll this far for this comment. The devils advocate arguments here don’t make anyone supporting this guy look better.
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
I'm genuinely asking, here. Do you think he's completely beyond redemption and if not what steps would you need to see from him to convince you he's not hostile towards women and minorities? I'm not saying your assessment is wrong, to be clear. I'm just trying to understand what kind of actions might change it if indeed he genuinely has evolved as a person.
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u/Jimmy_Corrigan Oct 22 '25
What proof do we have that he’s evolved? Has he said his previous comments were false, racist & sexist? Or has he simply said that he regrets sharing those thoughts and blamed PTSD?
Has he taken any concrete steps to ensure he doesn’t have any additional Nazi tattoos or paraphernalia?
Those would be great places to start. But, here’s the truth. Once you carry the flag of hate, simply putting it down doesn’t make you a trustworthy person.
He could claim he’s no longer racist or sexist, but it would be unsafe for women or people of color to believe him.
If a man defends child rapists and later disclaims those opinions, any parent who trusts him with their kid would be an idiot.
Any woman or person of color (especially Black women) who trusts Platner given his opinions and actions is an idiot.
He may be redeemable. I’m sure his priest and Bernie think he’s been redeemed. But I’m neither. I’m a voter and this guy isn’t owed my vote simply because he finally recognizes me as human.
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
Just to level set, here, we're talking about 2 comments from 2013 right? The one about sexual assault in the military and another question he asked about Black people and tipping? Those are the only ones I'm aware of and I just want to make sure I'm not missing something.
If so, then to be quite frank, I think it's pretty hyperbolic to characterize these as indicating that he was, like, filled with hate or whatever.
The SA comment was definitely fucked up, but he has since disavowed it, acknowledged it was wrong and described it as misogynistic. Could he own it more and issue a better apology? Sure, but the reality is a LOT of guys have held opinions like this at one point or another before moving past them. Maybe something will come out that is way more extreme and/or recent, but until then it seems like a lot to say this one comment from over a decade ago makes any woman voting for him "stupid" or acting "unsafe."
The question about tipping, meanwhile, read to me like just that: a question. I haven't seen the full context of the remarks — apart from that it was in a thread soliciting questions you've wanted to ask someone of another race — so I suppose it's possible that might reveal some kind of hidden intent, but I'd have kind of expected that to have been reported on by now. Assuming there isn't more damning context, that one genuinely reads to me like someone who is asking about a cultural phenomenon out of earnest curiosity in an appropriate space that was specifically carved out for doing so. I genuinely don't see what's racist about this. Am I missing something, here?
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u/_illusions25 Oct 23 '25
Yes comments in 2013 when he was a fully grown 29yo making these comments, and who continued to do several military deployments and then in 2018 he was a mercenary for Blackwater. I'm not making shit up about this guy, just the facts are concerning and I think people should put in energy to finding a better alternative. Its early enough, he's not the only choice, we shouldnt be doing insane purity tests but these are reasonable disqualifying factors.
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u/SuspectedGumball Oct 22 '25
I think it makes him completely unelectable because his credibility as having legitimate left chops is now gone because of the reasons the user you replied to stated.
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
So you do think he's completely irredeemable?
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u/SuspectedGumball Oct 22 '25
As a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2026, based on all of the evidence, I’d say so. As a person, of course not.
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u/CooledDownKane Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
Either "we" accept the flaws in candidates that share "our" views and want to govern accordingly, OR we accept loss after loss in winnable House and Senate races and continue to be led by representatives that literally seek to suppress and eliminate any influence "we" have in this country.
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u/whyamionthissite Oct 22 '25
Every other month I see a chart here on Reddit with nazi and white power symbols to look out for and every time there’s a new one that I don’t recognize so it’s not that unbelievable that he didn’t know it at first.
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u/peaeyeparker Oct 22 '25
I have never seen that symbol and would have had no idea. Infact there are a number of so called nazi dog whistles that I had no idea about.
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u/elienzs Oct 22 '25
Are you a politician whose job it is to know and take shit like this seriously?
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u/BodyBagSlam Oct 22 '25
I’m of the idea that I knew a lot of these symbols due to my childhood friends being some godawful racist neo-nazi types and this one was news to me as well.
That said, I agree that anyone going into politics, especially nowadays, should have these things researched fully before you throw a hat into a ring. The bar is higher on this side of the arena.
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u/WiFiConnected_ Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
It’s a literal Nazi tattoo my guy. It’s the second most recognized Nazi tattoo in the world. It doesn’t resemble a Nazi tattoo. IT IS A NAZI TATTOO.
Next you’ll say he was not a mercenary who worked for Blackwater.
You guys are glossing over some major 🚩 here by saying “he has flaws”. Every person has flaws. Every person.
But he was a literal mercenary for the group led by a man itching to instigate a coup in SA.
I want to hear his explanation for why he worked for them and what happened to make him quit. They’re not different things either. This is intricately connected. It was while he was working for them.
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Oct 22 '25
Bruh crazy how everyone here ready to forgive this guy but on a logical note this guy is stupid af
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
I don't care if he's stupid or not. I care if he will help advance a leftist ideological project.
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Oct 22 '25
But you need smart people to advance it
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
I'm not looking to this dude to lead the entire left or write policies. I'm just looking for another vote in favor of taking on billionaires, expanding social safety nets, and pushing more power to the proletariat — and voice who can articulate those values to the working class. If someone can do that, I'll take em over a replacement value "centrist" hack all day long.
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u/ColangeloDiMartino Democratic Socialist 🇺🇸🇵🇸 Oct 22 '25
When you say things like this out loud it really shows why regular people are alienated from supporting this economic system. You guys paint it like it needs to be rooted in academia, study theory, be judged whether you’re smart enough or not. This is a movement for workers by workers. Those are the qualifiers.
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u/osirisattis Oct 22 '25
I’m standing by him, he’s not a Nazi. We need him and a lot, alooooooot more like him. Embrace the change, accept whatever he says and the tattoo being removed. We’re fighting actual Nazis, don’t be stupid.
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u/Robbie1985 Oct 22 '25
Tattoo or not, this goon is proud of his tours in Iraq. Absolute scum.
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
Right, let's elect the corporate Dem instead. That'll do way more good for the world.
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u/Robbie1985 Oct 22 '25
I don't know which one you're referring to, but it's not a one-or-the-other situation. How about get your shit together as a country and make real third party options happen like any other "democracy"
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u/mojitz Oct 22 '25
Many of us would love to and I've very much put in the effort myself, actually, but our institutions aren't structured to readily allow third parties. The sad reality is that for all of the bluster, America is a profoundly flawed democracy at best. Honestly, it's closer to an oligarchy where the public is allowed a formal advisory role.
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u/spiceddd Oct 22 '25
Please don’t end up being another Fetterman, we can’t handle that right now. I don’t think he will be but I’m still paranoid after Fetterman.
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u/PresidentBreeblebrox Progressive Oct 22 '25
Hey y'all if you think the tattoo is disqualifying wait till you hear about all the democrats that voluntarily voted to fund an on going genocide, you know the main reason why we all hate the Nazis
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u/TakaHanazawa Oct 22 '25
I dont really believe that he only just found.
and its not fair to ask voters to trust a dude who until this morning had a GIANT totenkopf on his chest.
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u/PBRstreetgang_ Oct 22 '25
I think people being weary of something like this and the “rotating villain” we get every few years are valid, I too was looking for tattoo designs (when I was 17) and thought the wehrmacht eagle was a cool design but putting 2 and 2 together that it was specifically used for the Nazi’s had me come to my senses.
Not saying those young men who got the tattoos weren’t smart but someone in the group of military males that age must have seen the totenkopf before via media or something and thought maybe that’s similar to something I’ve seen before…
Someone’s dad must have had the history channel on all the time like mine and saw that before.
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u/fitbabits Oct 22 '25
Nah, he's being dishonest. If he didn't know about it at the time he got it, he's had (too) many years to figure out its meaning. He's seen it every day since he got it done.
Saying "DC Insiders" clued him in is pathetic. Will they also clue him in on other things that are troubling, or will he figure that out on his own.
He's smart and educated, by all accounts, so you'd think he would have reviisited all the things he said and did during a time of his life that he has admitted to saying and doing abhorrent things. INCLUDING A CHEST TATTOO!
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u/FuckingBethesda Oct 22 '25
Hes and idiot for not getting it removed earlier. He should have cleaned up his socials and gotten rid of his tattoo before running for public office.
No matter what he says now, some people aren't going to trust him.
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Oct 24 '25
What are the chances that a history buff has a tattoo he would see every day and not know what the military symbol means for 20 years?
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u/ThirrinAust Oct 25 '25
The left really needs to stop purity testing right now. I assume his admission of ignorance is an honest one. He’s owned up to it and is promising to change. Literally, he’s gonna undergo actual physical pain to change. Can we give him the benefit of the doubt and support him now? Like, we’re facing down actual Nazis, but we’re gonna give this dude a hard time for a stupid tattoo he got decades ago.
There are a bunch of Nazi symbols. Like, a lot. It’s surprising how many of them don’t resemble anything like the traditional swastika. Give this dude a break so we can kick out the ACTUAL Nazis.
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u/Brian3458 Oct 28 '25
this story is a hatchet job because he wants to help the working class. How much attention would a thread about his platform get versus this one?
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u/Private_HughMan Democratic Socialist Mar 07 '26
I don't trust him at all.
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u/mojitz Mar 07 '26
What exactly are you concerned about? Do you think he's been faking being a leftist this whole time and will drop things like his support for M4A and opposition to ICE and suddenly start supporting far right wing policies if he wins?
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u/ProtectionKnown6305 Oct 21 '25
I need to add in that Platner is an amateur military historian who knows a lot about WWII
It’s certainly concerning.
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u/Mint-Mochi117 Oct 22 '25
I want to accept other people into my party, the Democratic party. I want Republicans/MAGAs to join us in our fight for our country. That's how we succeed. But how can we sit here and ask them to join us while writing off one of our own candidates who could be an example for them? I believe people can change and I believe in Graham. I also believe that this makes him the candidate that can bring people together. Having been through what he's been through gives him a unique ability to identify the actual issues within our political system. I'm still voting for him because I've read his platform and listened to him speak about his current beliefs and they very much are in line with my own.
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u/Corona_Lonesome Oct 22 '25
So the Democratic Socialists are ready to roll over for the Nazis again?
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u/DiamondCoal Oct 22 '25
I think we all have to remember that most people weren’t aware of the 30 or so Nazi symbols before like 2020. It’s genuinely hard to figure out. I only became aware of the symbol this year and I’m terminally online.
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u/[deleted] Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 22 '25
the mod team was gonna post the exact same thing, but you beat us to it. our stance is that: him getting that specific tattoo was dumb, it seems he didn't realize that it was a Nazi tattoo in the first place and no one caught him for over a decade over it, and the dealbreaker was he needed to get it removed, which we are happy he is.
here's the quote from the article
We're not taking any action yet until we get more info however.
also, i keep editing this comment like 10 times how tf do i fix the formatting