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[PeaceWave]

This message was self-deleted by its author (PeaceWave) on Fri Oct 31, 2025, 12:03 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[JBTaurus83]

1. I don't want his life destroyed

And I do think people can change. I’ve seen it in my life with people I know. We aren’t perfect. That doesn’t mean he’s the best candidate. I think he has a lot of serious things going against him for a general election.

[CousinIT]

2. He needs to drop out. Dems don't need or want his baggage.

We’re all young and stupid at a particular point in our lives. Most people grow up and learn to own it, including the consequences. He’s going to have to do that too. Nobody else is to blame for his mistakes.

[Norbert]

3. Those who lived with a dad or granddad in WW2

will be hard to convince. I had a dad who served and the tat is a deal breaker. Sorry, dude. That's the way it is.

[DFW]

30. My wife and I had dads who fought on opposite sides of World War Two.

Hitler's buddy, Hermann Göring, said after the war, "Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?"

My dad graduated from Harvard, interested in journalism. He was drafted in 1943. My wife's dad was Göring's "slob on a farm." He was drafted at age 17 and sent to Stalingrad at age 18. He did not come back to his farm in one piece. Emblems of Hitler's regime were not welcome in either household. With my dad's family, that was a given. My wife's family risked their lives if they said so in public. They experienced it all from vastly different perspectives--my dad came back with both legs attached, for example--, but with similar views.

[Starbeach]

49. Agree

My relative flew missions over Germany. So no.

[Stargleamer]

4. He needs to have that tattoo removed pronto

meanwhile this candidate can carry on just fine:

Jordan Wood is running for Senate in Maine.

No apologies, excuses or Nazi tattoo cover ups required.

Just saying.

— 🪷MsGrumpyBunny🪷 (@msgrumpybunny.bsky.social) 2025-10-26T17:51:28.765Z

[Celerity]

5. He has already had it covered:

https://apnews.com/article/maine-platner-senate-trump-mills-tattoo-collins-fa8328a3c8aa5d5e0f34adb379e977b8

[Cha]

8. Nice pic... sorry, what does the Tat

say? TY

[Stargleamer]

10. I believe it is a black-and-white tattoo of Obama's logo

when he ran for president:

[Cha]

11. Oh Wow... a Real Dem Tat!

TY

[JoseBalow]

6. There it is... Now he's a victim

[eShirl]

7. blue boxes that say "imgbb.com uploading this content requires registration"

[JoseBalow]

14. imgbb has a quota that throttles the number of views on free accounts

like postimages and some other sites do. Try imgur.com, I think it's unlimited views without restrictions.

[JoseBalow]

16. Still broken for me

[JoseBalow]

18. Yup, working now

[Cha]

9. What a surprise... not taking responsibility ..

It's Us not him.

[MagickMuffin]

13. I think he's a Plant

He has all the Reich characteristics.

[betsuni]

19. Exactly what I've been thinking. Warrior, all the talk of fighting for and standing up to and passion. ?

The populist way: righteous victim of evil enemies conspiring against you. Nothing is ever your fault. Projection that it's others who cave, throw in the towel, are spineless, etc.

[Cha]

20. "The Situation With the Shirtless Oyster-Farmer Democrat's Nazi Tattoo Is Getting More Ridiculous by the Second"

Interesting article by Luke Winkler.. TY PeaceWave..

Snip***

This whole situation seems unbelievably careless. Like, how did he think this was going to work out for him? He’s trying to be a senator, for god’s sake.

Your guess is as good as mine. Even the most charitable reading of the sequence of events—an idiot accidentally signs up for a Nazi tattoo, and celebrates its edginess for years before having a change of heart—is tough to swallow. It’s the kind of baggage that poisons every aspect of one’s political project. Are you really going to reprimand Trump’s fascist leanings with a totenkopf on your chest? Do you really think you’re the one to advocate for more humane treatment of Palestinians? There is an attitude, among Democrats, that we must be more amenable to voices that don’t fit neatly within the confines of the platform. That we need to be less preachy, and administer fewer purity tests. Where do we draw the line of who gets invited into the big tent? I’ve got an idea. How about we draw the line at Nazi tattoos? I think we can all agree on that.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/10/graham-platner-maine-senate-tattoo-totenkopf.html

[Cha]

23. Low bar..

As you know that's just one section of the article.. the Rest riveting, too.

Luke Winkler is not impressed with Graham Planter.

It's a long time until the Primary.. we'll see how this goes.

[QueerDuck]

24. Indeed. It's a long time to do a lot of damage and create a lot of division and distrust and resentment...

and to ignite old tensions and open old wounds. If he does not withdraw and say goodbye, we'll be saying hello to Susan Collins again.

I remain optimistic (somewhat) because I expect that more and more will continue to drip-drip-drip out about his past words, deeds, writings, actions, etc. There's still more to come.

[jaymac]

27. Janet Mills is not the answer

if Platner can't explain or make sense of this to voters then he'll lose. But if Janet Mills is voted in, we Mainers will lose.

[obamanut2012]

34. Then get a non-Nazi to run

[Stacey Grove]

46. So let me get this correct:

Maine wins with a Nazi?

[jaymac]

55. C'mon

language and sentiment just a bit over the top.

[Stacey Grove]

56. Yeah

no.

[yardwork]

57. The dude literally had a Nazi tattoo for 20 years.

Somebody is over the top here but it's not us. It's him.

[Torchlight]

51. Quite the unsupported assertion.

[TheProle]

53. Who knew there was all this nuance,

likely by some of the same people who have cut family or friends out of their lives as "complicit in nazism" for simply casting their votes.

[flamingdem]

22. Nein

Just nein.

[Conjuay]

25. I'm sure this will not be appreciated...

But I think every tattoo is a bad decision.

[sop]

28. Some worse than others.

[DFW]

29. I think that depends on the tattoo, the situation, and who is wearing it.

My younger daughter got a small tattoo of a Honu (Hawaiian sea turtle) on her ankle when she finished school there. She was involved in the tagging and conservation of sea turtles, and wanted the memory, since she didn't intend to stay in Hawai'i. Years later, when she was being recruited by one of the top international law firms, she was warned that her tattoo might interfere with her career advancement. But she said, the hell with it, either they want me for my ability, or screw them. It quickly became apparent that she excelled in her field, was in demand by other top worldwide firms, and was granted a partnership at the almost unheard-of age of 31.

Is anyone here going to tell me that Platner would be struggling to justify a sea turtle? The subject doesmatter.

[peggysue2]

50. My younger son has several tattoos

A tribal band on his upper right arm (this was the first one and I actually liked it). He also has a large Celtic design on his shoulder and the word 'lucky' on his wrist, a reminder that he almost died at the age of nineteen.

His body, his choice.

But he stayed away from Nazi symbolism because even as a young man he knew what those symbols represented. He also knew that both his grandfathers and a slew of great uncles had served in WWII fighting the fascists.

[Torchlight]

52. I'm the same in regards to beards

but all things being equal, it holds no bearing on my vote... unless a swastika is shaved into it.

[DFW]

26. Trying to destroy his life, right, gotcha

Trying to end Susan Collins's political career, maybe, but not destroying his life. He wasn't prepared for all the noise over his SS tattoo, OK, that's legitimate point, but he could have handled it a LOT better. He should have known who the Waffen SS was before getting it inked on him. Like any large military machine, the German military in WWII had a lot of different divisions. The Wolfpack (attack submarines) wasn't the same as Göring's Luftwaffe, and the three arms of the SS weren't the same as the general Wehrmacht.

My father in law was drafted off his farm into the Wehrmacht in 1941 at age 17. He was sent to Stalingrad in the middle of the winter of 1942, lost a leg to a Soviet artillery shell at age 18, and returned a cripple at age 19. Not exactly SS material (he hated them before getting grabbed off the farm, he hated them a lot more after returning). That tattoo is not a symbol of the National Socialists (Nazis for short). It is a symbol of the most cruel and brutal divisions of their military. The National Socialists weren't a military, they were a political party. Platner's tattoo wasn't a "Nazi" tattoo any more than a tattoo with the emblem of some division of Stalin's Red Army was a "communist" tattoo. In the case of the Waffen SS, it was an emblem of something far more sinister than just the ruling party. If he never understood the difference, maybe he should have taken a course in 20th century military history and had it removed prior to running for the US Senate.

There are no free tickets--not with us anyway. Just because the Republicans nominate and elect a pig farmer from Iowa or an ignorant football coach from Alabama, that doesn't means that an oyster farmer from Maine gets an automatic pass from us. I don't expect every Democratic nominee for the Senate to have Jon Ossoff's intellect, but the Senate is a national stage. It's not enough to prove you're a good guy. You also need to prove that you can stand up to the bad guys, and that is where Platner is coming up short.

[Irish_Dem]

32. DFW I concur with your analysis.

And further:

We have all had dark periods in our lives, we don't decide to become nazis.
There will be dark periods during leadership crises, what will he be tempted to do then?

And yes, the way he is handling the campaign, he is not ready for prime time.

[Stacey Grove]

33. Der Totenkopf

was likely the last thing countless innocent people people ever saw.

I remember seeing films of Einsatzgruppen terrorism and war crimes - it left an indelible mark just being a curious student here in the US 35 years after the war.

I could never imagine the impact it had on the people who survived, let alone the sheer terror victims must have felt.

[yardwork]

36. The main issue I see here is immaturity and lack of character.

This is not senator material. As you say, just because the Republicans have no standards doesn't mean we Democrats agree.

This guy is a whiner. Hard pass. I hope the voters in Maine pick a better candidate.

[dsc]

31. I will concede that this isn't so recognizable that he should have known for sure it was a NAZI symbol

but it isn't exactly a tattoo for the well adjusted.

[obamanut2012]

35. It is 100% recognizable as a Nazi symbol

[dsc]

39. It does look like the symbol

but I admit, without being told, I wouldn't have known it was a NAZI symbol.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

40. Just because it "isn't so recognizable" TO YOU doesn't mean it's not instantly recognizable as exactly the Totenkopf

to others.

[dsc]

41. As far as I know he isn't an expert on or student of WW2

I will admit, seeing the tattoo without context, I wouldn't have known it was a NAZI symbol and I think I am reasonably well educated.

[Stacey Grove]

43. I was educated in the US

and I knew what Der Totenkopf was by age 10.

Although YMMV, since that was 40ish years ago and people are generally more stupid nowadays.

[dsc]

47. On the uniform yes

but not on the uniform and not the same color as it usually is, I would be willing to give him some benefit of the doubt here. Also, as pointed out both of us graduated much closer to WW2 than he did. Even my high school was less good about covering WW2 than one would think given that I was only 40 years removed. Again, without context, I honestly wouldn't have known what it was.

[Stacey Grove]

48. I might be making a crucial mistake:

I can't assume everyone used the public library as a child to learn stuff outside of school.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

44. A person doesn't need to be either an expert or a student of World War II to regularly see the Totenkopf.

And with the sizable extremist contingent in the U.S. military, it's laughable to think he never ran into anyone who knew exactly what that symbol is.

[yardwork]

37. According to a friend he's known what it was all along.

He only had it covered up because he got pushback.

So, to me this is a revelation of very poor character. He gets this tattoo, apparently thinking it's all a big joke. He jokes about it for years. He decides to run for senator (!!??) and not unexpectedly this comes up - since he likes to dance half naked at weddings (another ???!!)

So then he pretends to be all surprised and shocked and gets it covered up but there's still some criticism so he whines that we're ruining his life.

He sounds like the 10th grade class clown/bully. He needs to grow up before he runs for office. Maybe serve on a town council or something first. See if politics is really for him.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

38. It is exactly the Totenkopf.

[Stacey Grove]

42. It isn't so recognizable to the uninformed, the uneducated, and people who are actually Nazis in spirit

if not in form.

[Torchlight]

45. He sounds less viable every day

We're getting close to "I had no idea the confederate battle flag is flown with racist pride" excuses. Might be a good idea for him to reexamine life in the private sector.

[IbogaProject]

54. Drop out rich boy

He is from a family of political grifters he needs to drop out and walk the walk for awhile if he really wants to do good.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

60. This candidate losses another campaign manager

Link to tweet

[struggle4progress]

61. Another not-ready-for-prime-time player

[Blasphemer]

62. Has this guy been living under a rock?

Does he know how dirty the GOP is? Did he see what happened to Clintons and Obamas? Definitely too naive for politics (assuming he wasn’t just a GOP Trojan horse).

[BeerBarrelPolka]

63. It's all political parties

Harris wasn't very kind to Biden in the democratic debates. And that's just one example.