I will concede that the overall silhouette could be interpreted as resembling a totenkopf. At the same time, Platner’s tatt is missing the nose hole, and the crossbones are very weak sauce.
IMHO, it looks like not resembling much of anything. Certainly not a “hey dude, check out my bad ass skull and cross bones tatt.” I certainly lean towards it was prolly originally a generic skull‑and‑crossbones flash design that looked a lot better in the flash, and that both the artist and the recipient were drunk off their asses.
Can we agree that, yes, the silhouette actually could be from a totenkopf? However, the actual execution sure is difficult to decipher what it is supposed to actually represent. Hell, personally, I wouldn’t call it a “pirate tattoo” simply because it doesn’t really look like anything readily recognizable. But if you squint really hard, you could maybe make the leap to some kind of skull and bones motif.
Cite? And, in keeping with the whole fighting ignorance thing, second hand or worse unattributable pontification is not a cite. Thanks for playing.
Please share a direct quote or real cite from “He”, Graham Parker, acknowledging that he knew it was a totenkopf or knew he had a Nazi symbol tattoo well before he started his Senate run.
Hold up, that is a big change. You said it may or may not be a totenkopf, not that he may or may not have known. He has explicitly acknowledged the former and denied the latter.
This is the best i could find. He says it looked like a Nazi symbol, i couldn’t find him saying it was a Nazi symbol
Years ago I got a skull and crossbones tattoo with my buddies in the Marine Corps.
I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol. I altered it yesterday, into something that isn’t deeply offensive to my core beliefs.
I am very sorry to all of you who had to contemplate a symbol of hate over the past 48 hours.
Also, here’s a very friendly interview with Jon Stewart. At around 46 minutes he talks about having written stupid things on the Internet and why he didn’t join the alt right
Appreciate this direct quote from Platner being dug up: “I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol. I altered it yesterday, into something that isn’t deeply offensive to my core beliefs.”
I don’t see how it can be implied or read from this quote that
Platner knew it was a Nazi symbol when he got it
Platner learned it was a Nazi symbol and kept it for decades
Ipso facto, Platner is a Nazi
Furthermore, Platner is a trojan horse that will do the worst imaginable to jews, LGBTQ, and anyone else the left thinks should have human rights.
If you start from the assumption the quote is a face-saving lie, then the rest follows naturally.
One major problem with the post-truth era is that it becomes all too easy to assume everything everyone says is a self-serving lie.
I honestly don’t have an opinion on Platner’s veracity in this whole flail. I don’t know and finding truly primary sources that don’t (potentially) have any interest other than the truth is darn near impossible.
I can sure see where many people would be unwilling to believe he’s telling the truth when it being a lie would be exactly the convenient thing to say.
Ditto that the truth would also be exactly the convenient thing to say. Pretty hard to prove a negative. Thus far, haven’t seen a cite from a direct source worthy of the SDMB that it’s a lie.
In a world where BS has crowded out rational discourse there is no way to tell the difference. Leaving everyone to guess based on their pre-existing notions.
So … on the one side we know that control of the Senate is much more likely R with Collins win, with less check on Trump’s fascist agenda.
And whether or not we think Platner’s true thoughts are as he says they are, very much not fascist or Nazi aligned, instead more progressive populism, is depending on an individual’s preexisting notions. Not known. “Denial of being witch is exactly what a witch would say!” And that if the true thoughts were Nazi-aligned he is currently and likely moving forward keeping them to himself. (Like I am confident others who never got that tattoo do, including some D leaders.)
Yeah. Where I a Maine voter I’d vote for Anyone (D) and leave it at that.
In the D primary? Vote for the one you think has the greatest chance of winning the actual election. Even if their stated platform, policies, or persona are not the candidate you prefer.
The only thing that matters is that the Rs lose both parts of Congress. Even if the entire D cadre are not good people.
Though there’s always at least one senator who’s an R in D’s clothing.
First there was Lieberman who gutted the ACA, then there was Manchin who made Obama’s presidency much more difficult than it sould have been and was consistently against any kind of climate legislation. What is it with senators named Joe anyway? Then Sinema, about whom the less said the better. Now John Fetterman.
I am afraid that even it the Dems take the senate, Platner will be another in that mold.
The photo I’ve seen of the original tattoo is 100% the totenkopf. It has the same overall shape and white space for the eye sockets, nose, and jaws. It’s hard to see the lines for the details (like teeth), but I think that’s due to the resolution of the image.
There are some variations that were used at different points in history. Wikipedia associates this version, where the long bones are behind the skull, with Nazi Germany.
I have a confession: I would not have recognized the skull that the Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner had tattooed on his chest as a Nazi symbol. I knew that a skull and crossbones formed part of the insignia for the Nazi SS, but had never really clocked the image’s particularities — its three-quarter profile, the bones at the side of the skull instead of underneath — that gave it meaning even when stripped of all other Nazi context. So when Platner insists that he and his military buddies, drunk on shore leave, picked it off a tattoo parlor wall without recognizing it, it’s easy for me to believe him.
I also can’t quite blame those who detest Platner’s left-wing politics for refusing to give him the benefit of the doubt. They have an easy line of attack, and naturally they’re going to use it. Still, it’s worth drawing a distinction between what is true and what makes an easy political narrative.
The first thing you need is enough people with the D label that you are the majority and your party holds all the leadership positions. Without that you’re just sitting there watching the R trainwreck run unfettered.
Then you need enough real Ds that the fake Ds don’t hold a blocking minority. Sorta like the problems the R congress had with the Freedom Caucus awhile ago where their ability to add value to the R cause was zero, but their ability to destroy the R’s political value and momentum was huge.
Obama’s problem was that even when he had a majority, it was so slim that one or two fake Ds could repeatedly hold everyone in the D party to ransom, both in Congress and the executive.
As of this writing, Snopes could not independently verify Platner’s intent or determine whether he recognized the tattoo’s resemblance to the Totenkpof when he received it. Because resemblance is subjective, we also could not definitively confirm that Platner’s original tattoo design was intended to depict a Nazi symbol.
I’m not too fond of the DINO or R’s in D’s clothing designation. Durable coalitions will contain people who disagree with you. Thin majorities will contain potential for special interest hostage taking. The undeniable part is that those who caucus with the Dems will hand control of the committees, the subcommittees and agenda-setting to the Dems. That’s a big deal. After that you need a majority of more than a couple of votes to form a reliable coalition. Plus consensus on eliminating super-majority requirements such as the filibuster.
People keep saying this, and I really don’t get it. Fetterman is just straight up mentally ill and hopefully will be a unique case. The others you mention always ran as moderate/conservative Democrats. Platner is running as a left-winger. He seems like kind of a loose cannon and could embarrass himself and his wing in any number of ways, but I don’t think “suddenly turns into Michael Bloomberg” is high on the list of possibilities.
Did you look at the photos at both of those links? It is absolutely without a doubt the Nazi totenkopf. The only thing that’s in doubt is whether Platner knew it was a Nazi symbol.
