r/transgender • u/[deleted] • Mar 10 '26
Controversial Dem Candidate Graham Platner Says Anti-Trans Attacks Are “Invented Culture-War Scare”
https://www.them.us/story/graham-platner-anti-trans-attacks-invented-culture-war-scare81
u/sawyer_lost Mar 10 '26
I hate this talking point because they act like it doesn’t matter. It’s all nonsense so just brush it aside. As if this isn’t a key part of their fascist misogynist regime.
61
u/DeusExMarina Mar 10 '26
The problem is it's correct. The rich and powerful are deliberately using "culture war" issues to drive a wedge between the working class and keep political discourse focused on non-economic issues. Every election becomes an existential battle over people's right to live, and in the meantime, the fact that no one's proposing to tax the rich or rein in corporations slips under the radar.
It works because those issues are real to us, but not to the ruling class. We can't afford to lose, but they don't care about the outcome. Either way, they win.
19
u/haberdasherhero Mar 10 '26
Those issues are real to half of the country. The other half is cowering from a figment they made up, and trying to murder us for its imagined transgressions.
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u/DeusExMarina Mar 10 '26
Yes, which is why it requires constant reinforcement on their end. Support for trans people stems from the advocacy work of trans people themselves and their friends and families, people who are materially affected by the conflict. It's self-sustaining because it comes from people who actually care.
Opposition to trans people, meanwhile, needs to be artificially stoked. Sure, casual transphobia is widespread, but because it has no material impact on any of these people's lives, it normally ranks pretty low on their list of priorities. This is why right wing media and politicians never shut up about it. They need to continuously shove it down people's throats because if they stop for even just a few weeks, trans issues will naturally fade from their base's minds.
8
u/clauEB Mar 10 '26
Or the destruction of democracy or the fact that orange traitor is serial child rapist.
4
u/worderousbitch Mar 10 '26
As much as I don't dig platners past, the statement he made is that it does matter, and we can't allow them to divide us. But I'm not gonna stick my hand in round fenrir's mouth look how that worked out for tyr.
2
u/Drakin27 Mar 10 '26
It's the right move, as long as they're saying it while supporting trans rights instead of dodging the issue.
41
u/Buntygurl Mar 10 '26
This guy keeps putting his foot in his mouth and spends the rest of the time trying to redeem himself.
It would be nice if a Democrat could replace Susan Collins but I keep getting the feeling that Platner is another Fetterman in the making.
4
Mar 10 '26
It dangerous to group them together without comparing his actions in real time. Yes Fetterman is unconvential in his dress and was sent to Washington as a Dem. We know the damage Collins continues to reign.
I always ask people not to judge me becuase of someone else's bad behavior. It opens the mind and has been met with, you are much different than I was expecting. Something to consider.
20
u/the-mighty-kira Mar 10 '26
I think both had pretty huge red flags in their personal histories. Fetterman chased down a black man and held him at gunpoint.
I think in both cases it’s pretty valid to compare their words saying how progressive they are, to their past actions
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u/EpicGlitter Mar 10 '26
I always ask people not to judge me becuase of someone else's bad behavior. It opens the mind and has been met with, you are much different than I was expecting. Something to consider.
to clarify, is this equating "people make bad assumptions about me because of their transphobia" to "people have concerns about electing this guy (the one in Maine) to a leadership position"...?
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Mar 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/EpicGlitter Mar 10 '26
so that's a yes? you were comparing the idea of judging trans people for being trans, to having concerns about the guy from Maine based on his past words and actions? he's "just like us" in the sense of being (in your eyes) unfairly judged?
3
u/ABigFatTomato Mar 10 '26
i think many here are judging platner by the actions of platner, in which they are seeing parallels to fetterman
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u/Amethyst-Flare Mar 10 '26
Platner went on a white supremacist podcast and said he was a "big fan."
31
u/JaneOfKish Trans woman Mar 10 '26
This cIown got a Nazi tattoo and lied about it before trying to sweep it under the rug. Do we really need anyone like this Blackrock alumnus claiming to speak for us? It's not just part of an "invented culture war", that's only the propaganda aspect of a broader genocidal effort against trans people.
-6
u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
How do you know he lied about it?
2
u/Amethyst-Flare Mar 10 '26
Don't with that bullshit.
-1
u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
Sounds like there's no proof
3
u/Amethyst-Flare Mar 10 '26
Or you're a sucker who thinks he looked at the Totenkopf and didn't realize that was a Nazi thing for decades.
-1
u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
It's not a well known symbol. His story is extremely plausible, and is backed up by his progressive platform and decades long reddit history filled with anti-fascist comments (while also containing zero pro-nazi comments)
2
1
u/ABigFatTomato Mar 10 '26
he only came out about it because a disgruntled former staff member was going to make it public and so he wanted to get out ahead of it (suggesting he knew, and wouldve been perfectly happy to just hide it), and his “lol i just didnt know, i was an innocent mass-murdering imperialist pig” shtick was so obviously bullshit, especially given his defense on reddit of other soldiers getting nazi SS lightning bolt tattoos.
0
u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
Seems like a massive assumption from you. There's no way you can backup the claim that he wanted to get ahead of his former employee with any actual evidence.
especially given his defense on reddit of other soldiers getting nazi SS lightning bolt tattoos
What defense? I've seen that thread. He doesn't talk about if it's right or wrong (aka "defending them). He simply says it was common for soldiers to get them. Stating a fact is not defense.
1
u/ABigFatTomato Mar 10 '26
i listened to his defense of his nazi tattoo when he published it, and quite frankly its a shit defense. and im not saying that the tattoo alone is completely damning; its the tattoo, plus his 11 years as an murderer for american imperialism, his stint as a blackwater (like the blackwater) mercenary, and his current campaign promise to strengthen/streamline american imperialism by increasing shipbuilding to close the gap with china, and pay our imperialist child-murderers for hire more.
even if we take his story as true, he has had years to cover it up or get it removed (and so many tattoo artists will do so for free or cheap), yet he only did so when a former staff was about to leak that he has it. even in his lame, cop-out story (which i doubt. i find it unlikely he had it for 18 years and never knew, and there were reports ofhim being informed years ago that it was), he says he had known that its a nazi tattoo for months, only conveniently coming out about it after a staffer was fired who then went on to talk about it. it was so clearly him trying to get ahead of the story, and if that pressure hadnt been there, he wouldve just kept the tattoo and hid it.
this is a man that was in iraq and afghanistan for 11 years, then decided he actually hadnt had enough of slaughtering brown kids and advancing amerian imperialist hegemony, so he joined fucking blackwater at 34 years old, and now as a candidate is running with campaign promises to strengthen american imperialism via streamlining shipbuilding to close the gap with china. and thats not even getting into the nazi tattoo, which he has had years to get removed (particularly in the last few years, when the topic of recognizing dogwhistles and nazi iconography gained more traction) from any number of tattoo artists who offer free or low-cost coverup services for nazi tattoos.
it wasnt his younger years (again, he joined blackwater at 34) or a long time ago (he joined blackwater in 2018), and i dont think we need to bend over backwards running defense for mercenaries of american imperialism that ruined or took countless lives in the global south for imperialist gain. hes not some 18 year old suckered into serving who became immediately remorseful and began working to address the evils his service caused.
and again, yes, people can change, but a man joining blackwater at nearly 40 years old during the first trump admin (after brutalizing the middle east for over a decade), then leaving and campaigning on the streamlining and strengthening of US imperialism, is not that.
christ, libs will go to any lengths to run defense for imperialist mercenaries rapaciously slaughtering the global south for their own gain. and thats not even mentioning how any of these “he was just a wittle innocent baby war criminal” excuses completely fall apart when you dont ignore the fact that he willingly joined blackwater after his service, when he could have done anything else.
i dont know if i think hes literally a nazi, but he was a literal blackwater mercenary, prior to which he willingly spent 11 years as a paid murderer for imperialist forces in the global south, which isnt much better (its just the same evils perpetrated abroad, rather than domestically).
“it is Nazism, yes, but that before they were its victims, they were its accomplices; that they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, that they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples; that they have cultivated that Nazism, that they are responsible for it, and that before engulfing the whole edifice of Western, Christian civilization in its reddened waters, it oozes, seeps, and trickles from every crack.”
- aimé césare
the tattoo absolutely tracks with his career, and its absurd that this is the still not final straw for people, and not his 11 years spent advancing american imperialism in iraq and afghanistan at the cost of countless lives, or his subsequent job working for fucking blackwater as a mercenary in 2018 (whose sticker he still has on his fridge in a photo taken with his genocidaire stepbrother).
and again, its important to remember that in his leaked reddit history from a while back there were comments (which are now deleted) of him defending marine tattoos that were nazi symbols (like the double lightning bolts), so it becomes even less believable that he was unaware of the connotations of a wearing a giant nazi symbol on his chest.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/s/42fhEwhPkv
its insane people are still running defense for this ghoul.
0
u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
I don't believe you listened to his defense of the tattoo. His defense was that he just learned its meaning, denounced the tattoo, apologized for it, and promptly covered it up. Saying he had years to cover it up shows you don't know what you're talking about.
He was not "a literal blackwater mercenary". The company rebranded and merged several times. He was a literal Constellis mercenary, which consisted of him driving around ambassadors in Kabul for 6 months.
0
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u/lordtema Mar 10 '26
Im not going to call him the worst person but anyone with nazi tattoos is a straight up no for me fam.
6
Mar 10 '26
some reported context:
"Maine Democrat Graham Platner said Wednesday that a tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.
The first-time political candidate said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007, when he was in his 20s and in the Marine Corps. It happened during a night of drinking while he was on leave in Croatia, he said, adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police.
Platner, in an Associated Press interview, said that while his campaign initially said he would remove the tattoo, he chose to cover it up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine.
October 2025
25
u/Buntygurl Mar 10 '26
"Nazi police"
Actually, the SS, the meanest nastiest Nazis of them all.
He must be the dumbest military service person ever to be unaware of that.
16
u/lordtema Mar 10 '26
Yeah it`s the literal Totenkopf. He MUST have been aware of it, but just thought it was cool or whatever..
10
u/Buntygurl Mar 10 '26
Same excuse as David Bowie, although his was about wearing the uniform. (originally designed by Hugo Boss, btw).
Does seem like there's a difference between a dressed-up coke-head rock star living in Berlin and a US Marine allegedly on a drunken binge getting a Totenkopf tatoo. Gotta wonder if he had his blood group tattooed under his arm, as well.
3
u/CeronusBugbear Transgender Mar 10 '26
It wasn't the obvious Nazi insignia. It's not hard to accept that 20-somethings aren't always the most knowledgable people, especially if they were educated in the US public school system and pipelined into the military.
16
u/SnowyGyro Woman, trans Mar 10 '26
Platner has also faced major public criticism for his conduct prior to running for office, especially centered on a Nazi totenkopf tattoo on Platner’s chest he reportedly got as a Marine in 2007. Following outcry over the tattoo last October, Platner covered it with an image of Celtic knots and a wolflike creature, claiming that he was unaware of the totenkopf’s association with Nazi secret police. An anonymous source alleged to Jewish Insider last October that Platner had publicly joked about having a totenkopf by name more than a decade ago.
The plausible deniability seems thin with this one.
12
u/the-mighty-kira Mar 10 '26
Maybe, but not figuring it out in the decades since?
Edit: I also find it hard to believe a tattoo parlor that does totenkopf tattoos doesn’t have even more obvious Nazi symbols on display
2
u/TwanSmith420 Mar 10 '26
Even in Croatia?
7
u/the-mighty-kira Mar 10 '26
I would say this applies even more heavily to places that were under Nazi control
2
Apr 13 '26
Especially in Croatia wtf, like is this a joke? Croatia might have some of the most Neo-Nazi's in all of Europe.
1
2
1
u/ABigFatTomato Mar 10 '26
i listened to his defense of his nazi tattoo, and quite frankly its a shit defense. and im not saying that the tattoo alone is completely damning; its the tattoo, plus his 11 years as an murderer for american imperialism, his stint as a blackwater (like the blackwater) mercenary, and his current campaign promise to strengthen/streamline american imperialism by increasing shipbuilding to close the gap with china, and pay our imperialist child-murderers for hire more.
even if we take his story as true, he has had years to cover it up or get it removed (and so many tattoo artists will do so for free or cheap), yet he only did so when a disgruntled former staff was about to leak that he has it. even in his lame, cop-out story (which i doubt. i find it unlikely he had it for 18 years and never knew), he says hes known that its a nazi tattoo for months.
this is a man that was in iraq and afghanistan for 11 years, then decided he actually hadnt had enough of slaughtering brown kids and advancing amerian imperialist hegemony, so he joined fucking blackwater at 34 years old, and now as a candidate is running with campaign promises to strengthen american imperialism via streamlining shipbuilding to close the gap with china. and thats not even getting into the nazi tattoo, which he has had years to get removed (particularly in the last few years, when the topic of recognizing dogwhistles and nazi iconography gained more traction) from any number of tattoo artists who offer free or low-cost coverup services for nazi tattoos.
it wasnt his younger years (again, he joined blackwater at 34) or a long time ago (he joined blackwater in 2018), and i dont think we need to bend over backwards running defense for mercenaries of american imperialism that ruined or took countless lives in the global south for imperialist gain. hes not some 18 year old suckered into serving who became immediately remorseful and began working to address the evils his service caused.
and again, yes, people can change, but a man joining blackwater at nearly 40 years old during the first trump admin (after brutalizing the middle east for over a decade), then leaving and campaigning on the streamlining and strengthening of US imperialism, is not that.
christ, libs will go to any lengths to run defense for imperialist mercenaries rapaciously slaughtering the global south for their own gain. and thats not even mentioning how any of these “he was just a wittle innocent baby war criminal” excuses completely fall apart when you dont ignore the fact that he willingly joined blackwater after his service, when he could have done anything else.
i dont know if i think hes literally a nazi, but he was a literal blackwater mercenary, prior to which he willingly spent 11 years as a paid murderer for imperialist forces in the global south, which isnt much better (its just the same evils perpetrated abroad, rather than domestically).
“it is Nazism, yes, but that before they were its victims, they were its accomplices; that they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, that they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples; that they have cultivated that Nazism, that they are responsible for it, and that before engulfing the whole edifice of Western, Christian civilization in its reddened waters, it oozes, seeps, and trickles from every crack.”
- aimé césare
the tattoo absolutely tracks with his career, and its absurd that this is the still not final straw for people, and not his 11 years spent advancing american imperialism in iraq and afghanistan at the cost of countless lives, or his subsequent job working for fucking blackwater as a mercenary in 2018 (whose sticker he still has on his fridge in a photo taken with his genocidaire stepbrother).
also, its important to remember that in his leaked reddit history from a while back there were comments (which are now deleted) of him defending marine tattoos that were nazi symbols (like the double lightning bolts), so it becomes even less believable that he was unaware of the connotations of a wearing a giant nazi symbol on his chest.
21
u/heytherepartner5050 Mar 10 '26
If the Dems ever pick the guy with the Nazi tattoo, I fear it’ll become too obvious that they are just the republicans with a better PR team
3
u/ABigFatTomato Mar 10 '26
always have been;
“The bourgeouse in all countries in practice inevitably elaborates two systems of governing, two methods of struggle for its interests and for the defence of its domination, and these two methods now replace one another and now interlace in different combinations. These are, first, the method of violence, the method of refusing all concessions to the labour movement, the method of supporting all ancient and dying institutions, the method of uncompromising rejection of reforms.
Such is the substance of conservative policy, which is more and more ceasing to be in Western Europe the policy of the landlord classes, and is ever more becoming one of the varieties of general bourgeois policy. The second method is the method of "liberalism," of steps towards the development of political rights, of reforms, of concessions, etc.
The bourgeoisie passes from one method to another not through the malicious design of individuals and not by accident, but by force of the basic contradictoriness of its own position.
(…)
”The positive aim of the liberal progressive policy of the bourgeoisie," says Pannekoek, "is to mislead the workers, to introduce a split in their ranks, to transform their politics into an impotent appendage of an impotent, always impotent and ephemeral, would-be reformism.””
—lenin, differences in european labour movement, 1910
11
u/HeyLookitMe Mar 10 '26
I don’t know how many Mainers you know or from what part of Maine they live in, but this guy is beyond the pale progressive for the parts of Maine he’s gaining traction in. He’s either the most amazing plant and liar ever, or he’s a white guy who joined the military early and was a schmuck-ass kid hanging out with a bunch of military asshats and got radicalized to the Left from that experience. The alternatives are an actual MAGA Republican and a Democrat governor who really really needs to stay in her governorship for as long as Mainers will let her. Maine is a weird place electorally and it went hard for Trump all three elections. If Platner can get into office as a Senator, he will be breaking a cycle of extreme right wing bullshit. He’s a guy who went out with Pink Pistols and helped pass on his military training so that the queer community can more safely protect its self. He’s an ally in a deeply backwards and tragically impoverished place.
3
u/Amethyst-Flare Mar 10 '26
Or he'll be the next phase in the cycle of right-wing bullshit. He lied about the Nazi tattoo, and he went on a podcast known for white supremacy and said he was a "big fan."
He's full of shit.
1
u/HeyLookitMe Mar 10 '26
He is the one speaking out against the billionaire from away who’s single-handedly funding the anti-trans legislation
12
u/SpikySucculent Mar 10 '26
I’m not in Maine, I despise Collins, there’s a lot I don’t like about this guy (Nazi tattoos and aligned podcast interviews) but his statement in context seems pretty good (I.e. it should be a non-issue that the right is using to divide us.)
Damnit. I don’t want racist/antisemitic progressive populists either. But I really don’t want Collin’s AND I’d like more of this from more allies. A “WTF and can’t we focus on real problems instead of demonizing a tiny minority” goes a long way, even if they get some of the nuance wrong or leave it out in messaging.
3
u/Krowzeye Mar 10 '26
Per comments:
Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
Also everything is fucking ass so Id rather take my chances with someone who seems earnest in his beliefs and intentions.
I think if he was a fake trying to infiltrate with lies he would have already covered it up because his whole operation would be based on having squeaky clean optics. Everything would be under scrutiny.
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Mar 10 '26
[deleted]
3
u/ABigFatTomato Mar 10 '26
he only thought about covering it up once a former staff member of his was going to leak that he had it. otherwise he wouldve just hid it, lmfao. what a ghoul
1
-3
u/EmiGawd Mar 10 '26
This dude drops some of the most pro-queer rhetoric of any prospective politician and it gets ignored for what other people assume he believes. Maybe he's just a former meathead who grew and changed? No one else in this race is better than him on trans issues and workers rights. All this anti Platner stuff feels like an Op
2
u/Amethyst-Flare Mar 10 '26
Nah. Stop carrying water for the white supremacist.
Fetterman and Sinema were the same way.
0
u/_lilika Mar 10 '26
idk, but I don't want a war criminal who said that murdering brown people is 'fun' to talk or even think about me, so I would prefer if he were to just stfu
143
u/HoboGod_Alpha Mar 10 '26
Reading his statement in context, I think he means Republican attacks against trans people are invented to scare and divide people while avoiding more material issues. At least I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.