Not yet but I'm sure that's coming

Related:

To me, just dealing with the Lemmy reaction to Platner, by far the most telling indication that the obedient Lemmy freakout about him was fake news was how focus-group-driven it seemed. There actually are reasons to criticize him that I could see a Lemmy-minded person seizing on. He was in the US military, for fuck's sake, he almost certainly shot a whole bunch of people in service of the American empire. Why the fuck weren't they screaming about that? And I'm sure there are things you could cherry-pick out of his Reddit history that would be sure problematic (the Jacobin article lists some of them, as well as some Reddit posts that partially exonerate him for having been in the US military at least in my opinion).

But anyway, it is none of that. Nothing along the lines of what the average Lemmy user seems to me like they would have as a reaction if you just surprised them on the street, described Graham Platner in 100 words, and then asked what his pros and cons were. It's all this focus group driven "Did you hear he had a SECRET NAZI TATTOO? Yeah I'm sure he just never noticed in all the years, just another lying politician pretending to be progressive like all the rest, he's as bad as Bernie, etc etc blah blah." It's the "tan suit" "invented the internet" "Bernie didn't call it a genocide" type of picking one objectively accurate fact that looks pretty bad if you light it from one very specific angle, and then banging it like a fucking snare drum relentlessly from that exact angle to try to attach it to whoever it is indelibly.

To me it is incredibly notable that it's all that second thing and none of that first thing.

I think Susan Collins' campaign is probably doing some of the heavy lifting on this one.

There are some differences, but yeah, there's plenty in his background to suggest possible scumbag. We won't know til he's in, but I do take a little heart in the fact that the positions he's advocating for actually work against him getting elected, which suggests authenticity.

I would agree with you if the election was next month. The primary election literally isn't until June 2026 and general November 2026. There is no reason to hold onto an absolutely unremarkable guy like him. If the progressive left wants a candidate they should burn his bridges and build up an actual principled candidate.

Even IF you gave him full benefit of the doubt on the Nazi tattoo. Like, you assume he was just an edgy "23 year old child". Well, he literally had a Nazi tattoo for two decades and was too dumb to realize that? Yeah, red flag of stupidity. I wouldn't want that person driving the bus I'm riding.

I'm absolutely for people "being able to change". But that's for people that aren't my policians. Please, have a higher standard for politicians than you're favorite YouTuber or Twitch streamer.

For other audiences, they are claiming that his Reddit comments expose him as a secret communist.

It's exactly the same as Kamala Harris. To some audiences, she was a corporate tool who was going to sell us out to big business and make immigration worse because she loved ICE. To other audiences, she was a horrible communist who was going to kill business in America with her communism and believed in open borders. And they both bought it.

Fortunately, if Lemmy is any indication I think this kind of stuff is becoming less effective. One of the problems about Platner is that unlike Kamala Harris, he actually seems like he has genuine very good sincere things to say about what he wants to do, which makes a lot of this stuff kind of fall at the first hurdle. Hopefully.

I mean they've still got time to refine the strategy for a while, I'm sure they'll keep workshopping it.

I had to look up the Reddit comments and I can say they don't make me hate him. It reminds me of the musings of a edgy teenager.

I watched the video, but it is hard for me see the tattoo. I can't tell if it is a Totenkopf. The fact that he won't show a before and after picture is pretty sus.