Context is for people that read US news

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Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/70e0cc4b-05be-4673-8cc5-e08daba33280.jpeg

I can’t believe a former US marine who joined specifically for Iraq would be violent towards women.

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uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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.

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- cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Okay but consider his pattern of violently impulsive bad behavior.
  
  Violent. Impulsive. Electing him would put him in a room full of congressmen.
  
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  - Formfiller@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    That’s a great point. I’m thinking about nominating this guy
    
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Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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 riskas to how Platner might perform as a senator in the future.

Also, as a senator, Platner will probably need 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.

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- ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  If your instinct is to think the guy with the Nazi tattoo openly talkrd about how he enjoys war and killing people, bombed a city center, without being ordered, out of his own volition and joined Blackwater isn’t an opportunist psycho taking advantage of you, you’ve crossed the line from sympathetic to gullible.
  
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  - Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Show me where he said he enjoyed killing people.
    
    All I’ve seen since the late 2010s is Platner denouncing his involvement with the MIC, and MIC as a whole.
    
    Otherwise, you sound like another ML ultra that sees veterans as a monolith and has no room in the revolution for vets that have come around to leftist ideas.
    
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DoubleDongle@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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.

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- Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  And that’s the other thing, dude has been being AGGRESSIVELY smeared since he announced his run. And it’s very obviously because he’s one of the only candidates in the US that are espousing actual leftist talking points. It’s also why I was immediately skeptical when I heard this.
  
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  - Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    We all need to start expecting oppo drops against progressive candidates with centrist primary runners-up the week or so before ballots finalize.
    
    If they have progressive runners-up, expect the oppo drop in October the week before early voting opens.
    
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  - wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yeah, republicans and centrist dems alike are terrified of this guy, and yet tankies are still going “nah, he’s a fascist!”
    
    And then they’ll complain that america never elects leftists and the overton window keeps ratcheting to the right. Like gee, I wonder why…
    
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- mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Dude was defending people getting the SS doppelrune tattoo’d has “military tradition” or whatever on reddit. He had the tattoo for 18 years, there is nothing “quick” about it.
  
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  - ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The only part I believe about this is that it’s tradition in the US Military to get matching Nazi tattoos.
    
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  - vapeloki@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Source?
    
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- IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  he only covered it when pressured by national outcry, he spent his adult life with a nazi tattoo and never regretted it.
  
  I fucking hate nazi apologists.
  
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- vapeloki@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  German here. Is there any real image of the tattoo anywhere? I could only find some images with a big black blob.
  
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  - mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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  - Vittelius@feddit.org ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Image
    
    houseandwhips.com/…/graham-platner-totenkopf-tatt…
    
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Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The people are so desperate for progressive candidates they have backed this guy. That tells you how far gone the sysstem has gone.

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- cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I’m actually just in favor of putting violent impulsive murderhobos in rooms full of congressmen. I know the system can’t and won’t work for me.
  
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- Battle_Masker@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  You think this might be a psyop by the military to discredit progressive moments as a whole by having a progressive candidate that’s the worst human they could get to be a believable candidate?
  
  Not sure if I worded that right, but hopefully you get what I’m tryna say
  
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- uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yes, in fact, we are that desperate.
  
  One of the gubernatorial candidates here in California was a private prisons billionaire with a progressive platform who took the climate crisis seriously. He got third place and beat the progressive woman who at most has temper issues.
  
  I’m personally afraid of establishment Democrats doing nothing and going full Neville Chamberlain.
  
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QuiteQuickQum@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
You really Britta’ed this meme…

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kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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 stop 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.

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wuffah@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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.

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- DoubleDongle@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The rape allegation is pretty credible. Unless they’ve fabricated old texts and emails and gotten multiple people to lie about hearing her talk about it, it’s legit. I have been a staunch Platner supporter and fought through a lot of bullshit and bad-faith Astroturfing against him, but this one isn’t setting off my bullshit alarms. And it will kill his campaign.
  
  However, if he drops, there are three solid options. First is Troy Jackson, an older guy who will vote exactly the same but looks like he golfs instead of like he kills people. Or Janet Mills, which would be a little frustrating but honestly pretty good as old-guard Dems go. Forgot the name of the third, but she’s a young woman with progressive stances and would also be great. Odds are Platner will drop out and one of them will get the nomination by some emergency means, likely not a proper election.
  
  I hope it’s Troy Jackson. He did decently in the primary and is the best drop-in replacement for Platner.
  
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  - wuffah@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Thank you for the first real credible take I’ve finally seen on this issue. While I’m still convinced this is a hit job, I’d be perfectly happy to see a replacement swoop in successfully to turn the state blue.
    
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- IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I see, nazis are only bad then conservatives have them.
  
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  - wuffah@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Even if I did think Platner was a reformed or crypto-fascist Nazi, it sure would beat the open and proud and practiced Nazism of MAGA conservatives happening now.
    
    Of course, the Overton window has been shoved so far to the right that even modern progressives seem to the right of the Republican party before Regan. Hell, maybe there are some Democratic Nazis? But I don’t see very many of them.
    
    If a shitty tattoo and the Marine Corps make Platner a Nazi, then I’ve got some bad news for you buddy.
    
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  - Jumi@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Believing that the world is just black and white, good or evil is really idiotic way of thinking.
    
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I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
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.

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- webadict@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  The problem with your logic is that you are saying knowingly gets a Nazi tattoo, but you’re against anyone having a Nazi tattoo, knowingly or not. So, let me take a slight detour before I get to the point.
  
  The problem I have with an absolutist statement like that is that there are plenty of reasons someone might have a Nazi tattoo, even knowingly, that wouldn’t make me immediately not support them. Now, given that statement, the circumstances are probably gonna be pretty stringent, but I don’t think it’s necessarily unforgivable or even disqualifying… BUT I think it mostly is, especially because you’re right that you can probably find someone that is just as good as whoever I could find that fits the bill, but does not and has not ever had a Nazi tattoo. So, like… I guess the point is simple.
  
  You’re right. And I am wrong.
  
  I think it’s worth noting that many of the people who supported him did not do so out of idiocy. They were taken advantage of, their willingness to forgive exploited. They knew all of these things and were wary of them, but chose to ignore them because they were lied to about the kind of person he was. They trusted him. And they were scammed.
  
  It is easy to say in hindsight that this was easy to see. I was willing to forgive the tattoo at first and the military service at first (though, not the mercenary work, nor the reddit comments, and definitely not the fucking rape) because, well, in some ways I am kinda gullible, and in other ways, I kinda give a lot of leeway to certain privileged people (mostly rich white men) who make mistakes that ruin lives because they never considered the consequences of their actions because society allows them to do so with little to no repercussions, and that subconsciously affects my opinions.
  
  For the record, I wasn’t a Platner supporter before this, but I understand how many of them got there. He said a lot of things that people desperately wanted to hear, and that is how people get scammed. They aren’t dumb, even if they did act like morons. They’re desperate. They’re hopeful for anything that can make their lives better. They’re even gullible to believe a man with a Nazi tattoo who was a Blackwater mercenary that assaulted many women was a good candidate, and responsible for perpetuated a culture that allows these horrible decisions to continue not being as bad as they should rightfully be. But, even though I understand why you think so, I still don’t think they’re stupid. And maybe that’s another thing on me.
  
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- tresspass@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Platner aside, are you saying if someone had a controversial tattoo at any point in their life, then you would never vote for them?
  
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  - I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    A Nazi tattoo? Yes. I am saying that.
    
    If someone had a Nazi tattoo at any point in their life, I would never vote for them. They will forever be a piece of shit. I don’t see how this is a difficult concept to grasp.
    
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Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
People on the left were so desperate for the representation that the center does everything it can to deny thdm 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.

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- Cruxifux@feddit.nl ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  See, this right fucking here is exactly it. I’m not American but this would be my exact frustration with the situation if I were.
  
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- tonytins@pawb.social ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  There have been plenty of criticism aimed at corporations, for example, and how their support for progressive movements of being mainly performative, such as pride month, often described “pinkwashing” or “rainbow-washing.”
  
  And that’s scratching surface.
  
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- gtrcoi@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Moderates weren’t happy as soon as his first scandals came out, but the left cried foul at any criticism. The only reason they are happy now is because all of you with your lame ass critical support of him has been exposed and you’re running like rats from the sinking ship. They are NOT happy about the election itself, which the leftists darling candidate has completely fucked up. If you want representation then find someone viable to represent you, balls in your court, next time maybe you can find someone that isn’t a an obvious trainwreck of a human being, but that seems to come with the territory.
  
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  - Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    Moderates weren’t happy as soon as his first scandals came out, but the left cried foul at any criticism.
    
    You really can’t imagine why the left might no longer trust centrists’ motives, can you?
    
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ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Love how we still got people defending the Nazi Mercenary part of this Nazi Mercenary Rapist.

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TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The standard is perfection. You establish that any and all leftists must attain this standard, or they are not true leftists. This works because perfect is an unattainable standard for every single leftist, so all are guaranteed to fall short of it. It’s such an easy, effective means of suppressing actual leftist movements. Remember, liberals are not new to this. They’ve been doing this for the better part of a century now, and they’ve gotten quite good at it.

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- yesman@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Don’t be a Nazi rapist. -impossible standards of the puritanical left.
  
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  - BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    The other side of that coin is that we have structured a lot of our society to foster certain viewpoints.
    
    It works real good to control people. It kinda makes sense that it works. It’s sort of what we’re all talking about.
    
    It doesn’t seem like he can win, or should run so that’s sort of that. If someone’s going the same way as you are, you can walk together for a bit without moving in. Who knows we might hear from him again sometime.
    
    I liked a lot of what he was saying, but I don’t live in Maine so I haven’t really looked into this person like someone on a ballot. So I may be out of line in this case.
    
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  - TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Even if he was completely free of controversy, you’d find something to disqualify him. Maybe even just the fact that he’s white and/or a man. Men are inherently sexist and white people are inherently racist, so either of those characteristics alone would be enough.
    
    But I will concede that there could potentially be a candidate who could be deemed acceptable, but such a candidate would necessarily hold limited appeal to the working class broadly, and especially the white working class, specifically, thus making them not a threat to capital. So, yes, liberals might allow a candidate who fails to meet their unattainable standard, but only if that candidate poses no threat of organizing the working class.
    
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IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
every single person who supported him was a literal nazi supporter.

at least you blue Nazis draw the line at raping white women. y’all didn’t give a fuck about him killing brown people for money.

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- Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I been saying fuck him since day 1, but calling him a Nazi is ridiculous. ex-Nazi at best. Anyone can and should fix their ideology but nobody can undo their actions. Killing peoples for fun and for profit, and very likely sexually assaulting women can not be undone
  
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  - IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    he kept his nazi tattoos until there was national pressure.
    
    every day he woke up with a nazi tattoo and decided to keep it. yhea, it’s a nazi.
    
    don’t gaslight me, “people can change”, then point to a blackwater merc with a nazi tattoo. yhea, they can, he didn’t.
    
    under that logic, you can’t be mean to Elon, because he can change.
    
    And even if he changed, I don’t want a Blackwater merc that had a nazi tattoo either.
    
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VeryBlandUsername@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
He was a history buff who said he didn’t know what his tattoos meant.

Anyone that supported Platner is just another blind zealot voting because of the letter (D). Same shit we accuse Republicans of doing. We’re supposed to be better than them.

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Echo5@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
🌽

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