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n one thread from 2019, Platner weighed in on a conversation about the “Totenkopf” — the skull-and-crossbones emblem worn by Nazi SS units that his own tattoo would later draw scrutiny for resembling — to note that many US service members had adopted similar imagery, such as the Punisher skull used by some Navy SEALs.
Using his longtime Reddit handle P-Hustle, the former Marine infantryman and future Democratic Senate hopeful also argued in a 2020 online discussion that “SS” lightning-bolt tattoos were a “culture” marker within Marine Scout Sniper units, not an expression of White supremacist ideology.
When commenters in the 2020 thread described the lightning bolts as a Nazi or racist symbol, Platner dismissed the criticism, writing that outsiders “have no idea what they’re talking about” and added, “I will be sure to inform the Black guys I know with bolts that they’re Nazis now.”
Copies of the threads were archived through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and on a separate Reddit archiving website.
CNN also spoke with an acquaintance of Platner from more than a decade ago who said Platner spoke about his tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol. A second person told CNN that they learned of the tattoo years ago from the acquaintance, who told them that Platner had described it as a Nazi-style design.
CNN also reviewed a text chain between the acquaintance and another person discussing Platner’s Nazi-like tattoo several months ago, before the story became public.
....
His campaign has since fielded questions about whether Platner was aware of the tattoo’s resemblance earlier than he has said. Jewish Insider first reported about the former acquaintance, who recalled Platner referring to the image as “my Totenkopf” in a joking way more than a decade ago. CNN spoke with that same acquaintance, who reiterated the recollection.

Quote (Goomshill @ Oct 25 2025 02:14am)

In another sign of our times
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/graham-platner-nazi-tattoo-evidence-kfile-invs

Graham Platner, running for the senate in maine, had excused his Nazi totenkopf tattoo by claiming he didn't know it was Nazi iconography and just tattooed over it when it was revealed this past couple weeks
BUT
it turns out he had a reddit account that had been archived by people investigating him, and he was actively posting about nazi iconography and the totenkopf symbol back in 2019;


So we can reasonably surmise:
The guy got a Nazi tattoo
The guy knew it was a Nazi tattoo
The guy lied repeatedly when he claimed he didn't know it was a Nazi tattoo
The guy claims to not be a Nazi.

I mean, my old metric was I judge Nazis to be Nazis by the way they get Nazi tattoos because real Nazis want to show the whole world what a Nazi they are. This guy walked the walk but didn't talk the talk, except we know he's lying about it so it sure seems like he's a closet Nazi, contradictory as that usually is.

Quote (TiStuff @ Oct 25 2025 06:09am)

closet nazi :D

Quote (Goomshill @ Oct 25 2025 04:24am)

I need to distinguish closet nazi from cryptonazi
Cryptonazis like William Buckley Jr were people who secretly held fascist beliefs but never admitted to them, never expressed them, and showed no signs of it in their whole lives and gave zero indication they were actually fascists and spent their whole lives denouncing white supremacy and antisemitism and championing causes like amnesty international and so on- but we just knew they were secret nazis, because we said so, because we're intellectual nitwits who can't argue with ideas.
Closet nazis like Graham Platner get together with their nazi buddies in nazi bars and hold nazi pride parades or whatever, but haven't outted themselves yet and don't want their parents to learn about their nazi activities. They might post on nazi websites, have nazi outfits and dress-up, even get together and have nazi sex with other nazi men, who knows what they do. But those nazzits will protest and call it a horrific crime if you out their nazidom to the world.