It was a skull and crossbones and he got it converted into a celtic knot with dogs on it, very quickly. Then eight billion bots tried to tell me he was a homophobe because he said "All officers are gay, and not in the fun dick-sucking way" on Reddit in like 2012. I really didn't buy that, and it primed me to get pretty dismissive of the noise pretty quickly.

You really Britta'ed this meme...

Graham Platner fought in the military, yes, but he has since gained consciousness of the Military Industrial Context and wants to limit its influence across the world. Veterans deserve a chance to develop dissent and grief for their active duty. Many that join the military at a young age fall hook, line, and sinker for propaganda.

Graham Platner had a totenkopf tattoo, yes, but he has since covered it up. Also, that tattoo was exposed for everyone to see at his sister's wedding where the fiancé's family was largely Jewish. I'd wager to say that most Americans don't know about a totenkopf as much as the Nazi symbol or iron cross as the skull might be mistaken with a pirate flag.

All of the above points to a story of a broken person lied to by the American government to use their body as a meat shield for endless worldwide conquer, and their rehabilitation and reeducation to attone for their actions and do better in the world.

But that rehabilitation story falls apart with these rape allegations. Platner doubling down and denying his involvement, when Racicot had receipts with her friends and therapist before he even started his political campaign, nullifying any political motivations unlike with Fifield, alludes to a masked narcissism that risks his character. Why go to therapy to work on everything about yourself except this one aspect of your life? It's inconsistent and introduces risks to how Platner might perform as a senator in the future.

Also, as a senator, Platner would have probably needed to undergo hearings about his past relationships to air out all of his dirty laundry in front of the entire nation if he gets elected. Other things may be dug up that Platner didn't want people to know.

While Platner's socialist policies are good, we can have better candidates with less baggage, like Troy Jackson.

The people are so desperate for progressive candidates they have backed this guy. That tells you how far gone the sysstem has gone.

At this point, I don't know, I can't change anything about it anyway, and so I'm just at peace with it for now. I'm not in a position to vote for the guy, I can't change the mind of anyone who is, and I have no idea if he is a leftist with a colored past or a fascist playing pretend with his politics. If he doesn't get elected, he'll probably get forgotten within a year. If he does get elected, he'll be voting on and proposing laws and we will see what his true policy positions are. I'm just waiting at this point.

TBH I did not know he was a Blackwater mercenary. News keeps calling him a Marine, which I don't think is the same thing.

That would have been a dealbreaker for me, but then I'm not a Mainer and did not do much diligent research about him.

ETA Ten years ago, I wrote a blogpiece discussing the Are We The Baddies skit by Mitchell & Webb, observing Skulls in military symbolism are actually not particularly odd, as indicators of toughness and ferocity... Skulls were a tradition of mobile units, first cavalry and later mechanized and air units as a symbol of their ferocity.

So when Platner allegedly had buyers remorse regarding a tat that he got in the service when he was a front-line rifleman, I could sympathize. I am lucky that the stupid things I did as a youth left no permanent record. (The internet never forgets, and I have plenty of bad takes still buried out there from my adult years.)

I would take one hundred Platners if it meant turning a swing state Blue. How much Nazi rape do you’ll think there will be in MAGA concentration camps if Republicans keep their majority until the end of Trump’s term?

If Platner withdraws, we have until 5pm on July 27th to run a new progressive candidate. Remember how well that worked for Biden and Harris?

I’ll take an unproven and lone rape allegation with a blurry tattoo over decades of past and future Republican violence against women any day of the week.

The misuse of this meme is far more upsetting than the political message

People on the left were so desperate for the representation that the center does everything it can to deny them that they were willing to ignore some pretty glaring red flags.

The left is sad that a republican is gonna win now. Centrists are happy.

Keep gloating about lost hope.

I got absolutely shit on for saying that I didn't support him due to my long standing policy of not supporting people who get Nazi tattoos. People falling over themselves to say he had grown a lot since getting it, or that he didn't know what it meant when he got it (bullshit). People saying I was some Collins loving conservative just because I refused to support a man who got a Nazi tattoo on his chest.

I hope this is a lesson to the idiots who thought I was being unreasonable and unforgiving. It takes a special kind of asshole to knowingly get a Nazi tattoo. Those kinds of people don't grow out of it. They don't change. They might get shamed enough to cover it up, but they will remain an asshole. The only good that someone with a Nazi tattoo can do is to throw themselves in a wood chipper and become fertilizer.