I really don't get why someone having a Nazi tattoo isn't disqualifying. Let's not forget one of his major talking points is that he's against AIPAC. It seems like a pretty easy line to draw that he won't be like Fetterman, because he clearly hates the Jews (sorry, "zionists"), and has a long history of such.
Nazi tattoo + conspiracy theories about being controlled by Jewish money = loved by progressives. This is the party of cancelling you for a microagression! When will they call someone on their side out for antisemitism?!
FWIW, I find the “I didn’t know” excuse plausible. It’s a skull and crossbones, not a swastika. Of course, even if that’s true, it means that he got a tattoo without knowing what it means, which brings me back to “man with bad judgment”.
Fair enough. I don't find it plausible. There's evidence that he was aware of the meaning prior to this disclosure. And it's not exactly an obscure image. Mitchell and Webb spoke about it in their sketch "are we the baddies"!
And frankly, if you get a Nazi tattoo, then you need to go above and beyond. He needs to go to a Holocaust museum, and give a heartfelt press conference where he expresses shock shame and grief that he, even accidentally, carried on his flesh symbols from those people. He should meet with some survivors and apologise. He needs to, as the vernacular goes, "put in the work".
If he can't do that, then I don't buy that he regrets that tattoo for any other reason than that he got caught.
Let's be real, the Holocaust is fading out of living memory. There are many American youth who don't think it happened, or that think if it did, it wasn't so bad. The term "genocide" was coined to describe what happened there, and as you have previously pointed out, that term has become so diluted to be practically meaningless. I don't (necessarily) think Platner is actually pro Holocaust or pro Nazi. But I, at the very least, think he doesn't consider it to be that bad. Charitably that's ignorance. But if he doesn't do at least some of what I suggested (or an equivalent), than the probability moves from ignorance into malice.
And again! (to belabour the point), this is the party of microaggressions and racism behind every Halloween costume! Why isn't the call coming from inside the house!?
It WOULD be good if at this moment, when left-wing antisemitism in the US is more prominent than at any point in my lifetime, candidates were broadcasting their opposition to antisemitism in the clearest terms possible. On the other hand, I don't want to play the NOT CONTRITE ENOUGH game. Nor do I want to engage in the "one strike from 15 years ago and your out" sort of cancellations that I've been consistently against (and I see further down in the comments you're pointing out to another reader that I've never been a fan of hair-trigger cancellations or the "call everyone a Nazi" game -- you've read this blog for a long time and know where I stand on this stuff).
I think a big point here is: I consider getting a Nazi tattoo a strike. But I also consider not covering up said Nazi tattoo a strike (let's be fair and call it once per month). So when I look at it that way, it's not one strike from 15 years ago, it's 181 strikes over 15 years.
If he had been a forum moderator on StormFront 15 years ago, even though that's actively engaging in the behaviour, I would be a lot more willing to go with "it's in the past".
Putting in the work, as you say, is a recipe for getting cancelled. Didn't you learn anything from the last 5 years? Apologies like this are simultaneously never accepted and make you look weak. I agree with just about everything else you say here though
Yes, it probably would get him cancelled. But how am I supposed to believe that he sincerely thinks that what he did was wrong and that he is a changed person who won't repeat it (for the right reasons) unless he does?
You may well be right, I'm really not going to die on this hill, but it was on his chest so maybe not many people saw it. I dunno...it's not really important to me to reach a verdict on this question because even if the tattoo was a bunny sniffing a flower I would still think he's a lousy candidate in other ways.
I think this is the most telling thing. And the reason this is getting so much traction. For a lot of people "is he a/does he harbour sympathies for Nazis" is actually the hill they'll die on. (and as I pointed out elsewhere, possibly the biggest issue for people who won't be impacted by any domestic policies he might potentially enact).
If he is a Nazi (I'm using this as code for someone who will intentionally get/where a Nazi tattoo), then he is a massive signal of where the Democrats are heading. If he's not, then I honestly couldn't care less. So he may or may not be as progressive as people want, I don't care how left or or right he is of the left wing party.
(to be clear, I'm not trying to shade you here. You, as an American affected by domestic policy have other concerns. I don't hold it against you, particularly if, as you say, you think he's disqualified in either case).
The Democrats are on (polling) record as saying they want to take children away from parents because the parents won't get their children vaccinated (with the covid19 vaccination. Even the Amish participate in vaccination programs when the measles is actively spreading). NY State was starting a bill to make detention camps like Australia actually did (some darling Abo kids ran away from one of them, and they hunted them down with dogs).
I don't think they need to wear emblems of the Nazi party in order to signal "where they are heading." (Israel, after all, does use Nazi-esque skulls on a lot of their uniforms). Kamala Harris thought it was a good idea to call Trump a fascist.
Jeff, I like your writing but be honest. The only reason you find it "plausiable" is because he is running as a Democrat. If we imagine the mirror universe, there is no way you extend such grace to a Republican. You know as well as I do that each and every single Republican running for dog catcher in the small district n Wyoming would be asked if they disavow Planter and up and down the media land scape "Tattoo proves Republicans are Nazis!!!" would be ringing out from sea to shining sea.
You should be furious the clowns that run Democratic politics are standing by this jackass and his Tottenkopf symbol. You believe what you want but I just dont think that deep down, way down in the cockles of your heart, you think you would have this same belief if he was a Republican.
I'll defend Jeff on this one. Although I think you're right about everything else, it's possible that he would personally extend this same level of plausibility to a Republican. The news media and the party certainly wouldn't, but I don't remember Jeff writing anything about Musk being a Nazi for the salute he did.
The “clowns that run Democratic politics” went to great lengths to nominate another candidate, even before the tattoo showed up in the news. I think that point is actually worth keeping in mind.
If it was a Republican who called himself a communist and complained that rural voters are a bunch of racist hicks (as opposed to the usual scenario where it's a Republican who "joked" about how Hitler was actually based and shared groyper memes) then I'd probably think the same.
Let's not kid ourselves though, in this scenario you imagine, literally nothing woild happen and nobody would disavow him. JD Vance would go out of his way to defend him even if he was never asked.
I think getting any tattoo demonstrates poor judgment, for which “I was drunk” is not a great hall pass. The bigger and more visible the tattoo from non-erogenous zones, the poorer the judgment. Among my own acquaintances, my son’s regret for a tattoo of the graphic logo of Daf Punk, whose music he no longer likes, and a friend who mis-spelled his own wife’s name nestled into a heart (at least they’re not divorced). And have you seen how those shapes deform and the colors turn into bruises as the applicable body part gets flabby/wrinkly with age? The subtle barbed wire armlet Pam Anderson sports is more and more on the tasteful side of the tattoo spectrum.
Oh please — spare us the moral theater. A guy has one bad tattoo from twenty years ago that he’s already covered up, and suddenly the entire progressive movement is a front for Nazi sympathizers? That’s rich coming from people who spent decades excusing actual neo-Nazis in Ukraine because it fit a State Department talking point.
Being against AIPAC isn’t “hating Jews”; it’s opposing a lobbying group that buys bipartisan silence while Israel flattens Gaza with U.S. bombs. Criticizing political influence isn’t antisemitism — unless, of course, you’re trying to shut down the conversation.
And if “cancel culture” is really your concern, maybe start with the police, landlords, and media conglomerates who’ve been cancelling people’s lives for profit long before Twitter existed.
So no — you don’t get to smear everyone who challenges a war lobby as a Nazi while pretending moral superiority from the sidelines.
Yeah, right? If AIPAC “bought silence,” they got the worst ROI in lobbying history — they’ve got half of Congress tripping over themselves to prove loyalty on live TV. That’s not silence; that’s a standing ovation.
Oh, you don’t say — shocking revelation that U.S. aid to Israel flows faster than oxygen. It’s been that way since the last president who even mildly pushed back — George H.W. Bush — got branded “anti-Zionist” for daring to slow a loan guarantee. Clinton learned the lesson and ran his campaign hugging AIPAC like a life raft. Every president since has gotten the memo: question Israel, and your political career becomes archaeological history.
I don't think he had any idea it was a Nazi tattoo. Skull and crossbones is just a common to the point of cliched icon. You see it in children's picture books beside pirates. It's the kind of tattoo you just pick off the wall off a tattoo parlour. He seemed to be taken by surprise by it, because he made no attempt to hide it and even initially mocking the idea that there was anything to hide, before evidently being convinced that he was wrong and had to get it covered up.
1. He's a 40 something year old men. They/we get really into WW2 or the Roman Empire (it's a cliche for a reason). It wouldn't take a deep dive to see that skull is a Nazi skull.
2. He's a veteran. "Busting chops" is a major part of that culture. I don't believe none of his buddies ever saw that tattoo, and if he didn't know what it was, tease him and call him a dumb ass for getting a Nazi tat by mistake.
4. His obsession with AIPAC. An antisemtic conspiracy theorist having a Nazi tattoo makes a lot of sense to me.
5. I would assume someone who had a Nazi tattoo on their body for 15 years, who was unaware, would become sick and have a breakdown. He has not done this, as far as I am aware.
You'll notice I refrained from a "I must return to my home planet" follow-up - which, given all that's coming out about this guy, is actually pretty apropos.
My husband goes to bed insanely early. As I started reading this he made our standard reluctantly-going-to-bed joke, “My home planet needs me.” Imagine my thrill to see a Poochie reference mere seconds later.
He's just your standard rich kid leftist wack job. His parents are trust fund rural cosplayer leftists, like Bernie, and his only redeeming quality is that he was a marine. There are plenty of marines, many of them have wonderful careers, families, values, and skills. He has a fake oyster farm funded by his mom's rich friends that he exclusively sells to his mom's restaurants. He's a very far cry from the normal Maine fisherman, and I can't believe how many people take his schtick uncritically. He seems not only dumb, but lazy and weird. I thank him for his service but GTFO if you think he's qualified for Senate or has any real connection to the working class.
I don't know jack about Platner beyond the headlines, but you hit the nail on the head with your description of Gabbard's political trajectory (and people like her).
The fact that we conceive of politics as a spectrum - or a grid - really obscures the actual *ideas* that people hold.
Gabbard's move to the Trump administration seems sudden and jarring from the POV of politics as a spectrum, but it seems very straightforward from her belief in outsider / antiestablishmentarian / conspiricist ideas.
We really, really, really need to try to get away from the spectrum thing. The Democrats lose because people dislike "leftism" but the word has too many meanings to actually communicate anything about a vision for government.
But I struggle to put a lot of ideas into words without the spectrum. It sucks. The shit is really baked in, and it's probably destructive even before you get to the butthole side being referred to with a homonym of a synonym of "correct," which is absolutely free fuckin' points for them.
One hundo p., as the kids used to say before they started getting obsessed with the sixth and seventh numbers.
Whenever someone in person tries to drag out my political beliefs (like some of my cheekier civics students), I usually try to list my first principles instead of using a right-left term.
(Incrementalism, individual rights, due process, checks and balances, moderate welfare state, limited and targeted regulations on economic activity, anti-tribalism, etc.)
It's... tedious, but it really turns down the temperature.
Kinda defeats the whole buzz we get from tribalism though.
It doesn’t really matter who the Dems nominate in Maine b/c Susan Collins is probably just gonna win.
I think it’s probably good that some Democrats are learning to not freak out about some past off-color comments etc. but I worry this is like the University Presidents discovering free speech principles once it became inconvenient to apply their “micro aggression” framework to Palestine protestors.
Just a few months ago we had people FREAKING out that Elon Musk did a gesture sorta like a Nazi salute. And like, he’s bad, but he’s not a secret Nazi.
Similarly, Platner is not a secret Nazi. But the left is showing him a lot more grace than they would show to someone they’re not ideologically smitten with.
So, I’m left hoping that we—as a country and party—start to show people more grace in public life and start to embrace free speech principles universally.
But I’m worried that we’re just circling the wagons around our own people and are still gonna pull out the pitchforks when the micro aggressions come from the wrong people.
Seeing what Musk did to Twitter, and the kind of political movements he openly and enthusiastically endorses in Europe, it's a lot harder to say definitively that he hasn't become at least a little bit Nazi-curious, or sees them as helpful to himself and his political aims. The Nazi salute (not sure how it's "sorta like" it as opposed to "a perfect example of") was probably just trolling for attention but it was trolling in the same way as Nick Fuentes making "jokes" about how hard it woild be to bake 6 million cookies.
Grateful for a sane take written with care, but smh.
C’mon. The DNC goes out looking for snappy young performers to safely cosplay whatever progressive meant last week. They want mildly photogenic word salad generators who will reliably vote as instructed, especially when it directly contradicts the crap they pretend to think.
“Don’t worry. Other than that one crank in Gomerton, none of your constituents really look at voting records, don’t be silly. You can vote against the Robot Cops with Death Ray Eyeballs bill next week; they’ve got the numbers for that one in the bag.”
Boxer on the left and maybe Paul Sr on the right; those were the last to vote as if they had an active conscience, or gods forbid, a principle. Yet millions of The Bernt still(!) snort any line of horseshit Sanders cares to cut, and think AOC is bravely determined to reform the team that signed her. Wow. Impressed, I’m. Just not in a good way.
AOC was not "signed by a team;" she was elected by voters in the Bronx and Queens, over the objections of said "team," who preferred to keep their guy in there.
She has made a lot of improvements and I think she genuinely has decided that "wokeness" is a terrible focus for the party - it's pretty clear that people like Omar and Tlaib are not her allies in the House anymore. But maybe she has not, and cannot do enough to overcome her initial associations.
And, you know, speaking as a "progressive" only slightly older than AOC, I know it's really hard to tamp down on the wokeness. We're so easy to bait. How many votes do you think Trump netted over the "garbage island" bullshit? And yet, how are you gonna let something like that pass without comment? 😕
Speaking for the tiny Neanderthal conservative element here in the comments, we on the right are glad for several reasons when the Democrats nominate a Platner: (1) it's at least a little bit more likely he or she will lose in a nominally-blue electorate; (2) he or she may switch at least partway right on some votes like Fetterman; (3) he or she may turn out so batshit crazy it will make the D brand even more toxic to future normie voters. So, keep it up,! the only downside is the Democrats really don't seem to care how crazy are the people they put in power over our beloved nation. It's as if power is all they care about.
> So, keep it up,! the only downside is the Democrats really don't seem to care how crazy are the people they put in power over our beloved nation. It's as if power is all they care about.
The GOP is uniquely unable to adopt the moral high ground in accordance with this standard.
This guy making that statement when the entire executive branch consists of some of the dumbest, most toxic, most evil, most batshit crazy sons of bitches ever in federal office is kind of hilariously out of touch. And talking about democrats love of power when their orange shitstain is so drunk with it, it's amazing he can walk upright is icing on the cake. The only reason I stopped turning right at independent is because of the insane cult leader currently running the white house.
Wow, not sure why I did not think of that . . . appreciate the input! I do think the response may have been put up a bit too hastily and overlooked a couple of necessary words: "easier to ignore the left when they [idiotically] call out the right's [imagined] Nazi contingent." And something about Godwin's Law.
Most of the people who've swung "right of center" despite being the type who go to Burning Man a dozen times just say, "I Haven't Changed My Views." You mention the headliners, I'd just like to say Union Pennsylvania used to be blue, and they haven't changed their views either (still like Social Security, still think Trump's a loudmouth). There's millions of these people, and they're all principled folk who didn't really move much.
What the HELL happened to the left, then? They went running for the end of the horseshoe.
Well, that and they let the church ladies take over (Literally, folks from the Christian Coalition), and now it's all "How Faithful are you To Our Saint George Floyd, Who Died on the Ground." The fun part is the Church Ladies have plans to "forswear their blue friends" and "reconvert to being Red" -- because the Christian Right has always understood and welcomed back sinners.
Blue Democrats (what few there are left) have been sold a pack of goods -- and that includes a lot of bullies who used to be church ladies, now being bullies about the latest Democratic Thing (including anti-bullying), because they REALLY REALLY like bullying people, and Team Blue is better at unleashing the bullying beasts, and telling them they're saintly for doing it.
Church is actually kinda fun now, as it's full of people who genuinely like hymns and stuff. Kooky, sure, but... so's the SCA.
The Church metaphor works particularly well since progressive institutions are happy protecting and enabling sex predators, but instead of priests it's men claiming to be women. See the case of Hunter Heckel who raped multiple girls and yet Virginia officials shuffled him to different districts and punished his accusers. I know in my own school district a girl and her father were suspended after accusing a male of harassing her in her locker.
Oh, look, he’s back. Speaking of iffy candidates who make progressives swoon, Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce is going to take another run in Wisconsin’s R+10 1st Congressional District. He knocked off a promising candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary and lost by twelve points in the general. Can he do it again?
You are definitely wrong here - both about the comparison between Fetterman and Platner, and in the way you’re carrying water for the democratic establishment by participating in a campaign to nominate another centrist who will lose to Susan Collins.
Pelosi is (actually a lot of old farts do it). They're calling it "stem cell replacement therapy" of course, because we gotta be all scientific about it, but it's unborn children (the "waste products" of abortion are Big Money for Certain People -- that's why Texas' law to give the remains to the mommas was so upsetting to The Powers That Be).
What's the matter, are your Christian pastors running out of fresh meat to rape? The foster care system still has hundreds of thousands of kids without families. Or do you want to enjoy the thought of even more starving kids whose parents are on SNAP? I know that gets republican peen hard. Or maybe you can scrape the ‘children’ off of Nancy Pelosi's face and raise them as your own.
The normal people from that side of the spectrum defected to "Anyone but Democrats" a long time ago. They'll vote for Bernie and they'll vote for Trump, and they'll pray that the Democrats come back to sanity someday.
The Cluster Bs never had a thought to begin with, so they do name-calling because it's their version of magic.
I don’t have a dog in this fight - let’s actually take a beat and acknowledge how bizarre it is that people across the country are invested in who wins the Democratic primary for a senate race in Maine - but he’s going to lose agains Collins. Collins is a popular and long-serving politician. She and her team are going to eat this guy’s lunch.
Ritzy private school graduate masquerading as a whatever. Calling the population of Maine stupid and racist. Approving statements about Antifa and - Jesus - communism. Forget the nazi stuff; she’ll go with those and win by a zillion votes
People across the world! These candidates are bellwethers for the party that approximately half of US Presidents are going to come from in the next few decades. The Commander in Chief of the biggest military in the world.
I don't care at all about the domestic policies of the candidates, they don't affect me. I do care about antisemitism and thoughts on American foreign policy, because these will affect me. As a Jew, in a world where antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise everywhere (call it anti zionism if you like, I don't care, the victims are Jews), seeing the Democrats be okay with a candidate who has a Nazi tattoo, tells me that the world is only going to become a scarier place in the near future.
As a person of Jewish descent, there’s one thing I find pretty unexplainable: Jews who spend their time watching one party build literal concentration camps and masked secret police forces, but seem to only be interested in the other party.
As an actual Jew, most Jews are concerned with antisemitism worldwide. We are very aware of the Manchester Yom Kippur attack. We know who Nick Fuentes is. We heard what Tucker Carlson said about "Hummus Eaters". We remember the "tentifada", and have memories of Jews being blocked from classes during "Israel Apartheid Week".
Most of us are also sensitive about analogies to the Holocaust. The US detained Japanese people during WW2. This was bad, but it was not the same as what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany. It's also telling that Nazi Germany is always what modern US policies are compared to, even when the Japanese camps make a much better parallel.
If you've only seen critiscism directed at the Democrats, you haven't been engaging as a Jew, you've been engaging as a Democrat.
All your doubts about Platner are well founded but Democrats really need candidates with biceps. Josh Hawley has been hitting the gym and is wearing tight-fitting T-shirts and we need to compete. Also, we need more cursing. Most importantly, as Bernie has scientifically proven, more hollering about billionaires is the key to putting us over the top. Harris was heading in the right direction when she picked football "Coach" Tim Walz but it turned out that he was only an assistant coach plus an assistant principal so that killed the testosterone-charged bad-ass vibe. If you want to follow a half-baked populism strategy, you can't do it with a skinny twerp like David Hogg, you need a real man.
Finally, with all the different skull/crossbones/death's head macho bad-ass tattoos available to would-be tough guys today, how was he supposed to know that the one he picked happened to be from the SS? Maybe Elizabeth Warren could introduce federal legislation requiring tattoo parlors to provide a warning label on all tattoo flashes that are based on actual Nazi insignia. We really can't expect young, likely drunk, and maybe not-too-smart guys to do that research on their own.
I still disagree. Nazi is a word with a special resonance, and calling something from a comic book, that looks no more like a Nazi skull than a pirate skull (because skulls all have a somewhat similar look), a Nazi-esque skull is a very provocative and offensive way to phrase it. Very "hyperbolic".
Is it a good look? No. Because it looks like Israelis want to "punish" Palestinians. This also isn't inaccurate. But the difference between "punish", as in the punisher, and genocide, as in the Nazis is a world of difference. And words matter.
I really don't get why someone having a Nazi tattoo isn't disqualifying. Let's not forget one of his major talking points is that he's against AIPAC. It seems like a pretty easy line to draw that he won't be like Fetterman, because he clearly hates the Jews (sorry, "zionists"), and has a long history of such.
Nazi tattoo + conspiracy theories about being controlled by Jewish money = loved by progressives. This is the party of cancelling you for a microagression! When will they call someone on their side out for antisemitism?!
FWIW, I find the “I didn’t know” excuse plausible. It’s a skull and crossbones, not a swastika. Of course, even if that’s true, it means that he got a tattoo without knowing what it means, which brings me back to “man with bad judgment”.
Fair enough. I don't find it plausible. There's evidence that he was aware of the meaning prior to this disclosure. And it's not exactly an obscure image. Mitchell and Webb spoke about it in their sketch "are we the baddies"!
And frankly, if you get a Nazi tattoo, then you need to go above and beyond. He needs to go to a Holocaust museum, and give a heartfelt press conference where he expresses shock shame and grief that he, even accidentally, carried on his flesh symbols from those people. He should meet with some survivors and apologise. He needs to, as the vernacular goes, "put in the work".
If he can't do that, then I don't buy that he regrets that tattoo for any other reason than that he got caught.
Let's be real, the Holocaust is fading out of living memory. There are many American youth who don't think it happened, or that think if it did, it wasn't so bad. The term "genocide" was coined to describe what happened there, and as you have previously pointed out, that term has become so diluted to be practically meaningless. I don't (necessarily) think Platner is actually pro Holocaust or pro Nazi. But I, at the very least, think he doesn't consider it to be that bad. Charitably that's ignorance. But if he doesn't do at least some of what I suggested (or an equivalent), than the probability moves from ignorance into malice.
And again! (to belabour the point), this is the party of microaggressions and racism behind every Halloween costume! Why isn't the call coming from inside the house!?
It WOULD be good if at this moment, when left-wing antisemitism in the US is more prominent than at any point in my lifetime, candidates were broadcasting their opposition to antisemitism in the clearest terms possible. On the other hand, I don't want to play the NOT CONTRITE ENOUGH game. Nor do I want to engage in the "one strike from 15 years ago and your out" sort of cancellations that I've been consistently against (and I see further down in the comments you're pointing out to another reader that I've never been a fan of hair-trigger cancellations or the "call everyone a Nazi" game -- you've read this blog for a long time and know where I stand on this stuff).
I think a big point here is: I consider getting a Nazi tattoo a strike. But I also consider not covering up said Nazi tattoo a strike (let's be fair and call it once per month). So when I look at it that way, it's not one strike from 15 years ago, it's 181 strikes over 15 years.
If he had been a forum moderator on StormFront 15 years ago, even though that's actively engaging in the behaviour, I would be a lot more willing to go with "it's in the past".
Putting in the work, as you say, is a recipe for getting cancelled. Didn't you learn anything from the last 5 years? Apologies like this are simultaneously never accepted and make you look weak. I agree with just about everything else you say here though
Yes, it probably would get him cancelled. But how am I supposed to believe that he sincerely thinks that what he did was wrong and that he is a changed person who won't repeat it (for the right reasons) unless he does?
Sadly, this is exactly right
I don’t think it’s plausible that no one told him about the symbolism for twenty years.
You may well be right, I'm really not going to die on this hill, but it was on his chest so maybe not many people saw it. I dunno...it's not really important to me to reach a verdict on this question because even if the tattoo was a bunny sniffing a flower I would still think he's a lousy candidate in other ways.
I think this is the most telling thing. And the reason this is getting so much traction. For a lot of people "is he a/does he harbour sympathies for Nazis" is actually the hill they'll die on. (and as I pointed out elsewhere, possibly the biggest issue for people who won't be impacted by any domestic policies he might potentially enact).
If he is a Nazi (I'm using this as code for someone who will intentionally get/where a Nazi tattoo), then he is a massive signal of where the Democrats are heading. If he's not, then I honestly couldn't care less. So he may or may not be as progressive as people want, I don't care how left or or right he is of the left wing party.
(to be clear, I'm not trying to shade you here. You, as an American affected by domestic policy have other concerns. I don't hold it against you, particularly if, as you say, you think he's disqualified in either case).
The Democrats are on (polling) record as saying they want to take children away from parents because the parents won't get their children vaccinated (with the covid19 vaccination. Even the Amish participate in vaccination programs when the measles is actively spreading). NY State was starting a bill to make detention camps like Australia actually did (some darling Abo kids ran away from one of them, and they hunted them down with dogs).
I don't think they need to wear emblems of the Nazi party in order to signal "where they are heading." (Israel, after all, does use Nazi-esque skulls on a lot of their uniforms). Kamala Harris thought it was a good idea to call Trump a fascist.
As an Israeli, what are you talking about Israeli using "Nazi-esque skulls on a lot of their uniforms"?
Jeff, I like your writing but be honest. The only reason you find it "plausiable" is because he is running as a Democrat. If we imagine the mirror universe, there is no way you extend such grace to a Republican. You know as well as I do that each and every single Republican running for dog catcher in the small district n Wyoming would be asked if they disavow Planter and up and down the media land scape "Tattoo proves Republicans are Nazis!!!" would be ringing out from sea to shining sea.
You should be furious the clowns that run Democratic politics are standing by this jackass and his Tottenkopf symbol. You believe what you want but I just dont think that deep down, way down in the cockles of your heart, you think you would have this same belief if he was a Republican.
I'll defend Jeff on this one. Although I think you're right about everything else, it's possible that he would personally extend this same level of plausibility to a Republican. The news media and the party certainly wouldn't, but I don't remember Jeff writing anything about Musk being a Nazi for the salute he did.
The “clowns that run Democratic politics” went to great lengths to nominate another candidate, even before the tattoo showed up in the news. I think that point is actually worth keeping in mind.
If it was a Republican who called himself a communist and complained that rural voters are a bunch of racist hicks (as opposed to the usual scenario where it's a Republican who "joked" about how Hitler was actually based and shared groyper memes) then I'd probably think the same.
Let's not kid ourselves though, in this scenario you imagine, literally nothing woild happen and nobody would disavow him. JD Vance would go out of his way to defend him even if he was never asked.
That group chat from the Republicans did lead to the groups being disbanded.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2318dn5yg4o
I'm not sure of the individual participants, but I imagine they're not going to be in prominent roles soon.
This isn't to compare or glorify any side. I'm just saying that there were at least nominal consequences.
How many Senators have kanji tramp stamps with unclear meanings, do you reckon?
I’d like to think it’s zero…. but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
I think getting any tattoo demonstrates poor judgment, for which “I was drunk” is not a great hall pass. The bigger and more visible the tattoo from non-erogenous zones, the poorer the judgment. Among my own acquaintances, my son’s regret for a tattoo of the graphic logo of Daf Punk, whose music he no longer likes, and a friend who mis-spelled his own wife’s name nestled into a heart (at least they’re not divorced). And have you seen how those shapes deform and the colors turn into bruises as the applicable body part gets flabby/wrinkly with age? The subtle barbed wire armlet Pam Anderson sports is more and more on the tasteful side of the tattoo spectrum.
To be fair "man with bad judgment" describes all men at the age at which Platner got the tattoo.
(Joining the Marines is arguably pretty bad judgment in and of itself!)
The Marines eat crayons. (And claim they "tasted better" than the tubular rations command eventually sent "for taste testing").
You’re being way too kind, Jeff.
https://youtu.be/ToKcmnrE5oY
Oh please — spare us the moral theater. A guy has one bad tattoo from twenty years ago that he’s already covered up, and suddenly the entire progressive movement is a front for Nazi sympathizers? That’s rich coming from people who spent decades excusing actual neo-Nazis in Ukraine because it fit a State Department talking point.
Being against AIPAC isn’t “hating Jews”; it’s opposing a lobbying group that buys bipartisan silence while Israel flattens Gaza with U.S. bombs. Criticizing political influence isn’t antisemitism — unless, of course, you’re trying to shut down the conversation.
And if “cancel culture” is really your concern, maybe start with the police, landlords, and media conglomerates who’ve been cancelling people’s lives for profit long before Twitter existed.
So no — you don’t get to smear everyone who challenges a war lobby as a Nazi while pretending moral superiority from the sidelines.
If AIPAC has bought silence it needs a refund 😂.
Yeah, right? If AIPAC “bought silence,” they got the worst ROI in lobbying history — they’ve got half of Congress tripping over themselves to prove loyalty on live TV. That’s not silence; that’s a standing ovation.
What AIPAC bought was money. No Strings Attached, No Vote Needed money for Israel, upon getting attacked...
No other country in the world gets money from us, without even a vote or a Trump Press Conference.
Oh, you don’t say — shocking revelation that U.S. aid to Israel flows faster than oxygen. It’s been that way since the last president who even mildly pushed back — George H.W. Bush — got branded “anti-Zionist” for daring to slow a loan guarantee. Clinton learned the lesson and ran his campaign hugging AIPAC like a life raft. Every president since has gotten the memo: question Israel, and your political career becomes archaeological history.
I don't think he had any idea it was a Nazi tattoo. Skull and crossbones is just a common to the point of cliched icon. You see it in children's picture books beside pirates. It's the kind of tattoo you just pick off the wall off a tattoo parlour. He seemed to be taken by surprise by it, because he made no attempt to hide it and even initially mocking the idea that there was anything to hide, before evidently being convinced that he was wrong and had to get it covered up.
I don't for a few reasons:
1. He's a 40 something year old men. They/we get really into WW2 or the Roman Empire (it's a cliche for a reason). It wouldn't take a deep dive to see that skull is a Nazi skull.
2. He's a veteran. "Busting chops" is a major part of that culture. I don't believe none of his buddies ever saw that tattoo, and if he didn't know what it was, tease him and call him a dumb ass for getting a Nazi tat by mistake.
3. This CNN article (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-evidence-kfile-invs). This is only very weak evidence, because it's a CNN article.
4. His obsession with AIPAC. An antisemtic conspiracy theorist having a Nazi tattoo makes a lot of sense to me.
5. I would assume someone who had a Nazi tattoo on their body for 15 years, who was unaware, would become sick and have a breakdown. He has not done this, as far as I am aware.
Obvious joke, but someone's gotta do it:
"And whenever Platner's not around, everyone else should sit around asking, 'where's Platner?'"
Thank you for your service.
You'll notice I refrained from a "I must return to my home planet" follow-up - which, given all that's coming out about this guy, is actually pretty apropos.
My husband goes to bed insanely early. As I started reading this he made our standard reluctantly-going-to-bed joke, “My home planet needs me.” Imagine my thrill to see a Poochie reference mere seconds later.
When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?
He's just your standard rich kid leftist wack job. His parents are trust fund rural cosplayer leftists, like Bernie, and his only redeeming quality is that he was a marine. There are plenty of marines, many of them have wonderful careers, families, values, and skills. He has a fake oyster farm funded by his mom's rich friends that he exclusively sells to his mom's restaurants. He's a very far cry from the normal Maine fisherman, and I can't believe how many people take his schtick uncritically. He seems not only dumb, but lazy and weird. I thank him for his service but GTFO if you think he's qualified for Senate or has any real connection to the working class.
And he went to Hotchkiss but couldn't do better than GW, 20+ years ago? He had to have been some combination of lazy, dumb, and a discipline case.
Your description of him is perfect. The tattoo is bad, but this entitled brat pretending to be just a regular guy, trying to get by, is disqualifying.
Democrats rolling this guy out as some sort of regular dude shows how out of touch they are.
I don't know jack about Platner beyond the headlines, but you hit the nail on the head with your description of Gabbard's political trajectory (and people like her).
The fact that we conceive of politics as a spectrum - or a grid - really obscures the actual *ideas* that people hold.
Gabbard's move to the Trump administration seems sudden and jarring from the POV of politics as a spectrum, but it seems very straightforward from her belief in outsider / antiestablishmentarian / conspiricist ideas.
Modeling politics as a one dimensional, horizontal spectrum is wrong and misleading. No one can even explain what this "spectrum" actually represents.
We really, really, really need to try to get away from the spectrum thing. The Democrats lose because people dislike "leftism" but the word has too many meanings to actually communicate anything about a vision for government.
But I struggle to put a lot of ideas into words without the spectrum. It sucks. The shit is really baked in, and it's probably destructive even before you get to the butthole side being referred to with a homonym of a synonym of "correct," which is absolutely free fuckin' points for them.
One hundo p., as the kids used to say before they started getting obsessed with the sixth and seventh numbers.
Whenever someone in person tries to drag out my political beliefs (like some of my cheekier civics students), I usually try to list my first principles instead of using a right-left term.
(Incrementalism, individual rights, due process, checks and balances, moderate welfare state, limited and targeted regulations on economic activity, anti-tribalism, etc.)
It's... tedious, but it really turns down the temperature.
Kinda defeats the whole buzz we get from tribalism though.
It doesn’t really matter who the Dems nominate in Maine b/c Susan Collins is probably just gonna win.
I think it’s probably good that some Democrats are learning to not freak out about some past off-color comments etc. but I worry this is like the University Presidents discovering free speech principles once it became inconvenient to apply their “micro aggression” framework to Palestine protestors.
Just a few months ago we had people FREAKING out that Elon Musk did a gesture sorta like a Nazi salute. And like, he’s bad, but he’s not a secret Nazi.
Similarly, Platner is not a secret Nazi. But the left is showing him a lot more grace than they would show to someone they’re not ideologically smitten with.
So, I’m left hoping that we—as a country and party—start to show people more grace in public life and start to embrace free speech principles universally.
But I’m worried that we’re just circling the wagons around our own people and are still gonna pull out the pitchforks when the micro aggressions come from the wrong people.
Seeing what Musk did to Twitter, and the kind of political movements he openly and enthusiastically endorses in Europe, it's a lot harder to say definitively that he hasn't become at least a little bit Nazi-curious, or sees them as helpful to himself and his political aims. The Nazi salute (not sure how it's "sorta like" it as opposed to "a perfect example of") was probably just trolling for attention but it was trolling in the same way as Nick Fuentes making "jokes" about how hard it woild be to bake 6 million cookies.
The “wrong people” never cared what the left said about them.
Grateful for a sane take written with care, but smh.
C’mon. The DNC goes out looking for snappy young performers to safely cosplay whatever progressive meant last week. They want mildly photogenic word salad generators who will reliably vote as instructed, especially when it directly contradicts the crap they pretend to think.
“Don’t worry. Other than that one crank in Gomerton, none of your constituents really look at voting records, don’t be silly. You can vote against the Robot Cops with Death Ray Eyeballs bill next week; they’ve got the numbers for that one in the bag.”
Boxer on the left and maybe Paul Sr on the right; those were the last to vote as if they had an active conscience, or gods forbid, a principle. Yet millions of The Bernt still(!) snort any line of horseshit Sanders cares to cut, and think AOC is bravely determined to reform the team that signed her. Wow. Impressed, I’m. Just not in a good way.
AOC was not "signed by a team;" she was elected by voters in the Bronx and Queens, over the objections of said "team," who preferred to keep their guy in there.
She has made a lot of improvements and I think she genuinely has decided that "wokeness" is a terrible focus for the party - it's pretty clear that people like Omar and Tlaib are not her allies in the House anymore. But maybe she has not, and cannot do enough to overcome her initial associations.
And, you know, speaking as a "progressive" only slightly older than AOC, I know it's really hard to tamp down on the wokeness. We're so easy to bait. How many votes do you think Trump netted over the "garbage island" bullshit? And yet, how are you gonna let something like that pass without comment? 😕
Speaking for the tiny Neanderthal conservative element here in the comments, we on the right are glad for several reasons when the Democrats nominate a Platner: (1) it's at least a little bit more likely he or she will lose in a nominally-blue electorate; (2) he or she may switch at least partway right on some votes like Fetterman; (3) he or she may turn out so batshit crazy it will make the D brand even more toxic to future normie voters. So, keep it up,! the only downside is the Democrats really don't seem to care how crazy are the people they put in power over our beloved nation. It's as if power is all they care about.
> So, keep it up,! the only downside is the Democrats really don't seem to care how crazy are the people they put in power over our beloved nation. It's as if power is all they care about.
The GOP is uniquely unable to adopt the moral high ground in accordance with this standard.
This guy making that statement when the entire executive branch consists of some of the dumbest, most toxic, most evil, most batshit crazy sons of bitches ever in federal office is kind of hilariously out of touch. And talking about democrats love of power when their orange shitstain is so drunk with it, it's amazing he can walk upright is icing on the cake. The only reason I stopped turning right at independent is because of the insane cult leader currently running the white house.
I do so appreciate a calm, reasoned response. Unfortunately, the vulgarians so often seem to pollute the discussion.
I will raise you the entirety of the Biden administration.
Says a guy from the party that put Hegseth in charge of the Pentagon.
Exactly the change in military culture I voted for, thanks for noticing.
I think you forgot 4) it makes it even easier to ignore the left when they call out the right's Nazi contingent
Wow, not sure why I did not think of that . . . appreciate the input! I do think the response may have been put up a bit too hastily and overlooked a couple of necessary words: "easier to ignore the left when they [idiotically] call out the right's [imagined] Nazi contingent." And something about Godwin's Law.
Most of the people who've swung "right of center" despite being the type who go to Burning Man a dozen times just say, "I Haven't Changed My Views." You mention the headliners, I'd just like to say Union Pennsylvania used to be blue, and they haven't changed their views either (still like Social Security, still think Trump's a loudmouth). There's millions of these people, and they're all principled folk who didn't really move much.
What the HELL happened to the left, then? They went running for the end of the horseshoe.
Well, that and they let the church ladies take over (Literally, folks from the Christian Coalition), and now it's all "How Faithful are you To Our Saint George Floyd, Who Died on the Ground." The fun part is the Church Ladies have plans to "forswear their blue friends" and "reconvert to being Red" -- because the Christian Right has always understood and welcomed back sinners.
Blue Democrats (what few there are left) have been sold a pack of goods -- and that includes a lot of bullies who used to be church ladies, now being bullies about the latest Democratic Thing (including anti-bullying), because they REALLY REALLY like bullying people, and Team Blue is better at unleashing the bullying beasts, and telling them they're saintly for doing it.
Church is actually kinda fun now, as it's full of people who genuinely like hymns and stuff. Kooky, sure, but... so's the SCA.
The Church metaphor works particularly well since progressive institutions are happy protecting and enabling sex predators, but instead of priests it's men claiming to be women. See the case of Hunter Heckel who raped multiple girls and yet Virginia officials shuffled him to different districts and punished his accusers. I know in my own school district a girl and her father were suspended after accusing a male of harassing her in her locker.
Oh, look, he’s back. Speaking of iffy candidates who make progressives swoon, Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce is going to take another run in Wisconsin’s R+10 1st Congressional District. He knocked off a promising candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary and lost by twelve points in the general. Can he do it again?
https://www.wpr.org/news/randy-bryce-making-another-run-for-congress-joins-other-early-candidates
Just one question: Are we the baddies?
https://youtu.be/ToKcmnrE5oY
Now the Republicans just need to run a candidate with a tattoo of a rat's anus!
lol!!
Yeah, hard pass on Platner. I pulled the lever for Fetterman over Connor Lamb during the PA senatorial primary and the buyer’s remorse is intense.
"The Brawny Man!"
I hope that nicknamed sticks because it fits. Strong presentation of a mediocre paper towel.
Oh and I will start writing my
Congress people right NOW on
the all important issue of
tax credits for Substack writers.....
You are definitely wrong here - both about the comparison between Fetterman and Platner, and in the way you’re carrying water for the democratic establishment by participating in a campaign to nominate another centrist who will lose to Susan Collins.
I never get counter arguments from your part of the political spectrum -- just name-calling and accusations.
Well and the lady who claimed the democrats are the ones protecting sexual predators in office. That one's priceless.
Do we really need to get into whether strangling children to death for sexual pleasure is better than bathing in the blood of unborn children today?
Nobody's bathing in the blood of unborn children though.
Pelosi is (actually a lot of old farts do it). They're calling it "stem cell replacement therapy" of course, because we gotta be all scientific about it, but it's unborn children (the "waste products" of abortion are Big Money for Certain People -- that's why Texas' law to give the remains to the mommas was so upsetting to The Powers That Be).
What's the matter, are your Christian pastors running out of fresh meat to rape? The foster care system still has hundreds of thousands of kids without families. Or do you want to enjoy the thought of even more starving kids whose parents are on SNAP? I know that gets republican peen hard. Or maybe you can scrape the ‘children’ off of Nancy Pelosi's face and raise them as your own.
The normal people from that side of the spectrum defected to "Anyone but Democrats" a long time ago. They'll vote for Bernie and they'll vote for Trump, and they'll pray that the Democrats come back to sanity someday.
The Cluster Bs never had a thought to begin with, so they do name-calling because it's their version of magic.
I don’t have a dog in this fight - let’s actually take a beat and acknowledge how bizarre it is that people across the country are invested in who wins the Democratic primary for a senate race in Maine - but he’s going to lose agains Collins. Collins is a popular and long-serving politician. She and her team are going to eat this guy’s lunch.
Ritzy private school graduate masquerading as a whatever. Calling the population of Maine stupid and racist. Approving statements about Antifa and - Jesus - communism. Forget the nazi stuff; she’ll go with those and win by a zillion votes
People across the world! These candidates are bellwethers for the party that approximately half of US Presidents are going to come from in the next few decades. The Commander in Chief of the biggest military in the world.
I don't care at all about the domestic policies of the candidates, they don't affect me. I do care about antisemitism and thoughts on American foreign policy, because these will affect me. As a Jew, in a world where antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise everywhere (call it anti zionism if you like, I don't care, the victims are Jews), seeing the Democrats be okay with a candidate who has a Nazi tattoo, tells me that the world is only going to become a scarier place in the near future.
As a person of Jewish descent, there’s one thing I find pretty unexplainable: Jews who spend their time watching one party build literal concentration camps and masked secret police forces, but seem to only be interested in the other party.
As an actual Jew, most Jews are concerned with antisemitism worldwide. We are very aware of the Manchester Yom Kippur attack. We know who Nick Fuentes is. We heard what Tucker Carlson said about "Hummus Eaters". We remember the "tentifada", and have memories of Jews being blocked from classes during "Israel Apartheid Week".
Most of us are also sensitive about analogies to the Holocaust. The US detained Japanese people during WW2. This was bad, but it was not the same as what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany. It's also telling that Nazi Germany is always what modern US policies are compared to, even when the Japanese camps make a much better parallel.
If you've only seen critiscism directed at the Democrats, you haven't been engaging as a Jew, you've been engaging as a Democrat.
All your doubts about Platner are well founded but Democrats really need candidates with biceps. Josh Hawley has been hitting the gym and is wearing tight-fitting T-shirts and we need to compete. Also, we need more cursing. Most importantly, as Bernie has scientifically proven, more hollering about billionaires is the key to putting us over the top. Harris was heading in the right direction when she picked football "Coach" Tim Walz but it turned out that he was only an assistant coach plus an assistant principal so that killed the testosterone-charged bad-ass vibe. If you want to follow a half-baked populism strategy, you can't do it with a skinny twerp like David Hogg, you need a real man.
Finally, with all the different skull/crossbones/death's head macho bad-ass tattoos available to would-be tough guys today, how was he supposed to know that the one he picked happened to be from the SS? Maybe Elizabeth Warren could introduce federal legislation requiring tattoo parlors to provide a warning label on all tattoo flashes that are based on actual Nazi insignia. We really can't expect young, likely drunk, and maybe not-too-smart guys to do that research on their own.
"has not phased"
fazed
I still disagree. Nazi is a word with a special resonance, and calling something from a comic book, that looks no more like a Nazi skull than a pirate skull (because skulls all have a somewhat similar look), a Nazi-esque skull is a very provocative and offensive way to phrase it. Very "hyperbolic".
Is it a good look? No. Because it looks like Israelis want to "punish" Palestinians. This also isn't inaccurate. But the difference between "punish", as in the punisher, and genocide, as in the Nazis is a world of difference. And words matter.