And to me the whole story makes sense. I didn't realize his tattoo was a Nazi tat. He got it in Croatia (I think) while he was on a MEU, just a dumb Marine who presumably saw a picture and was like "That looks neat," in the same way I said "That looks neat" when someone linked the Wikipedia to the Nazi unit. The Nazis really had a monopoly on cool symbols, it really sucks.

Whether he is or isn’t is irrelevant, it’s the image of him portrayed by media that counts. The medium is the message. You should really look into Vladislav Surkov, the architect of Russia’s post-truth society, which the Trump admin imported to the states and is now common practice. The guy is clearly an idiot, maybe he means well but again that is irrelevant. This has Republican hit job written all over it from the get-go, I wouldn’t be surprised if Collins team found out about the tattoo (before he even decided to run) and directed “political technicians” to infiltrate his social circle and subtly nudge this guy to run, consequently becoming an unwitting accomplice to sabotage a genuine left-wing movement.

I may be reading too much into it, but consider “His former political director said he "knows damn well" what the tattoo signifies.”.

I understand you’ve invested a lot of emotional energy into this guy. It’s best to disconnect those feelings from things you can’t change, if he wins he wins, if not that’s ok, learn and grow from the experience.

Not sure you're responding to the right person. Maybe get some sleep, boss.

Well, you can now read his full reddit comment history if you wanna know what he's about.

What if it DOES matter if they did it deliberately or accidentally, and it DOES matter how they respond when confronted about it? What if they're humans who make mistakes, and are able to own them like an adult?

Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good, that's the left wing cat herding part that earned us this fascist takeover in the first place. If you have someone better to vote for, by all means. But you can always convince yourself that the progressive candidate is secretly a right wing extremist. Always. That's right there with QAnon rational.

I grew up in Piscataquis county and knew plenty of guys like him

You know lots of people from Piscataquis county who call themselves communists and are really vocal about medicare for all?

The difference with Fetterman is that his background was as a rich nepo-baby who got his start in politics getting elected mayor and having major government functions flow through his family's charity.

My understanding of why fetterman got such a good rap, was because of his social media strategy being run by an especially talented progressive campaign staffer who (I wish I had the citation sorry) I believe has since denounced him as an elected official

For Platner there really is nothing that smells insincere about him to me. Definitely questionable judgment, but scheduling a tattoo coverup basically the instant it became a campaign issue is a plus in my book. But I'm not from Maine so I'm not going to push too hard for any candidate

So you would rather risk Janet Mills doing exactly nothing positive than risk Graham turning right? Have you listened to what he has to say vs what Sinnema had? It's definitely different. It's sad to me that people are so desperate to paint him with his past. How many of us haven't made pretty awful choices? If we want an Everyman progressive we're going to have to accept some skeletons imo. If Mills wins the primary LePage is going to sweep the general.

at least now you got a year to figure out of hes going to do the opposite he says. but the alternative it Chuck shcumers endorsed candidate.

Yeah you've got the right idea there. I too never vote for the candidate that markets themselves as progressive ever since Sinema. I'm playing the 4D chess route, always voting for the fascist just in case they're secretly a closet progressive.

Agreed, but folks up here are seriously rallying around him right now. It doesn't seem as hopeless as it really should. Anybody that has met the man, and he is making a GIANT effort to meet anyone that cares, knows that his checkered past has no bearing on his desire for a better future. He is a shining example of human growth and what we should be defining Manliness by, ability to adapt, change and grow from a place of ignorance.

Yes, but the bigger question is, if it was a mistake, why didn't he remedy it in the part 20 years since? He apparently did learn it was a Tottenkopf at some point, if the reports that he has told others that exact thing are to be believed; why wait to cover it up until he was running for office?

Also, he had it covered with a Norse wolf, which, Nazis appropriate Norse imagery to cover up their most unsavory bullshit is a whole goddamn thing...

Good to know, thanks

Depending on the person, id give it the benefit of doubt for a case of "You were in the wrong tattoo parlor and didn't recognize the more subtle nazi and/or supremacist dogwhistles".

Politicians are blatantly exempt from any benefit of doubt. They have PR teams for this shit, and couldn't be bothered to utilize that.