So just to be clear, we’re still stuck on “single anonymous source” as the cite for the claim that he was telling people it was a totenkopf?
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Completely obvious claims, like that the self described world war II buff knew what the tattoo he had on his body for 20 years was, really don’t.
Just to be clear, what reason is there to doubt the claim?
As it’s the by far the most relevant evidence that he knew the significance of that tattoo, it seems like it ought to be confirmed.
Speaking as someone who would not have known the significance of that tattoo, and so finds his claim plausible.
I actually doubt the GOP is going to go after the tattoo. AFAICT actual right-wingers are focused on the fact that he identified himself as a “communist” in one Reddit post sometime in the last couple decades, and used the taboo phrase “ACAB”. They’re already used to the Red-baiting playbook and don’t like cognitive dissonance.
And if he actually made a habit of saying that to people, it seems like more of them would have come forth by now.
You also didn’t have a tattoo of the symbol on your body for 20 years so I can actually believe that.
The word knew, as that requires the ability to read minds.
Hold up now–the party that elected a billionaire because he was just like them, who elected Epstein’s best friend in order to get the Epstein files released, who elected a convicted felon in order to drain the swamp–this is the party that doesn’t like cognitive dissonance?
Dude, cognitive dissonance is their jam. There is nothing in the world that they like better than cognitive dissonance. They will have no problem at all calling Platner a commie and a Nazi at the same time.
I can also believe that someone told him, but he didn’t take it seriously/thought it was obscure enough that it didn’t matter/chose to ignore it, because of the sentimental value of getting the same tattoo as his friends. Especially if it didn’t bother his Jewish relatives. The meaning to him wasn’t a Nazi symbol, it was about camaraderie in the Gulf war (or whatever the occasion was ). I still own that tablecloth covered with hundreds of swastikas.
Does that make him a liar? Yes. But not a remarkable liar as politicians go.
They’re going to call him a jew hating communist or a hamas terrorist.
They have no reason to make these kinds of attacks now and democratic primaries never grt ugly enough to really test if the candidates can weather the level of negative campaigning they’ll get in a general election.
I’m sure that’s exactly what happened. What I don’t understand is how that doesn’t disqualify him from office in your mind.
A person with Nazi insignia on their body who thinks it doesn’t matter is not someone I want anywhere near office.
An idiot like that who votes Democratic in the Senate is still a million times better than Collins.
I don’t follow the logic of this.
You seek to be saying that if a person has a tattoo for many years then they must know what it means.
How does that follow? Couldn’t he have selected it from a list, and was never confronted about its meaning? Or never made the connection with later symbols he saw in history books?
Why is it outlandish to think that somebody could get a tattoo and not really know what it symbolized?
Aren’t there lots of Americans who got stylish Chinese characters tattooed on their body that are unknowingly going around with nonsense (or maybe something worse!) on their skin?
That would incude Platner,
I can’t wait to see what that tattoo proves now that we’re also informed that knotwork is associated with White supremacy!
One thing is that I’d have no trouble believing that he knew what it is but isn’t a Nazi.
That requires supposing that he thought it was badass in the same fashion that many think pirate tattoos are. Nobody would be making this fuss over a pirate tattoo — because they think of actual pirates as a historical thing, not a current concern. Nobody assumes that a pirate tattoo or a pirate Halloween costume means that the wearer seriously endorses taking civilian ships by force, in the process either murdering or kidnapping everybody on them. They think pirates are over.
Which isn’t entirely true, of course. But that’s how most people in the USA seem to think of it.
And I think a lot of people, at least until recently, thought the same way about Nazis.
Clear back in the 1970’s, I had a very definitely non-Nazi friend who was working on a local production of Cabaret. And the production had printed up some promotional Tshirts, which said Cabaret on the front — and had a swastika on the back. When I saw him in that shirt, I freaked out. He defended it, and said it was meant to advertise Cabaret (true) and that Cabaret is an anti-Nazi work (also true.) I was unable to convince him that anyone seeing that shirt from the back was just going to think he was a Nazi. Because he thought Nazis were over, historical, done with.
I’m not saying that’s what’s been going on with Platner; and of course if that’s what it was for most of 20 years, then he’s lying about it. But he’d be lying about it, if (and I agree it’s very much an if) that’s the reason he had that tattoo, because he’s realized that, politically, "I just thought it was unthreateningly badass until recently because I wasn’t taking Nazis seriously ’ doesn’t go over well. Which would be a different thing than lying about it because he’s trying to hide actually being a Nazi.
Wait: you don’t think he got it because of its Nazi connotations, you don’t think he kept it because of its Nazi connotations, but because of its personal meaning to him at a time he had no idea it had Nazi connotations, you don’t think he was ever in a position to need to defend or explain his “Nazi tattoo” because no one who knew him knew it had those connotations, but you think that it’s totally disqualifying forever that he wore that tattoo during the time that it didn’t mean “Nazi” to him?
You know what, he’s gotten rid of the tattoo and said it was a mistake.
Let’s get back to what he’s said over the years that supports white supremacy, or something else that’s actually disqualifying.
What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I think he got the tattoo because he thought it was a cool skull, and then he never got it removed after learning it was a Nazi tattoo, because he has an affinity for Nazis and their conspiracy theories about Jewish billionaires nefariously controlling the world, because he exists half a skip away from them across the ever shrinking gap at the bottom of the horseshoe.
And if he done that before he was being raked over the coals for having the tattoo, I might actually believe he was being sincere!
So do you think I’m a Nazi sympathizer because i keep that swastika-covered tablecloth?
What, are you suggesting that we leave the tattoo bailey and retreat to the motte of ridiculous assertions?
I mean, i agree that he might be a Nazi. And I’m worried about electing a guy who is young and handsome and appears to be healthy to the Senate, a guy who might turn out to be a Nazi and is likely to remain in the Senate for many years, assuming no incredibly stupid missteps on his part.
I’m very interested in what he’s said and done over the years, but fear that there’s no way to know for certain what he believes.