Leftists on Lemmy falling for establishment Democrat smear campaigns is not something I had on my 2025 bingo card
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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"It's cool. I covered it up. I didn't even know it was nazi-ish"
Next, it'll be "I'm being targeted. This is a smear job"
I think I still believe his politics are genuine and that he's not a secret Nazi. Definitely a bad look though, seems like he did indeed lie about when he knew. Probably has good memories connected to it and made excuses for it to keep those despite its obvious imagery. Very unfortunate that the scandal is getting more teeth because of what appears to be a bad and false attempt to minimize it.
If this was a mistake about something that wasn't literal nazismz it would be a witch hunt. However it's actual nazi imagery and lies and cover ups and comments that align with nazi type beliefs. He may be reformed but denying it and pretending is not a sign of reformz even if human.
We should welcome Nazis who reformz that haven't committed nazi acrsz only expressed their horrible views, but they should be denouncing those views and apologising.
I think the bad attempt to minimise it is what is giving it legs.
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forget the rape and racist comments and tattoos which he keeps saying he did all these things when he was drunk;
isn't there any other canidate who didn't keep participating in war crimes for 13 years and still does not see anything wrong with it? giving him the best benifit of doubts, the guy is an emotionless conciousless psycopath. he will lie to tell you whatever you want to hear. people with a resume like his killed themselves from the guilt of profiting and participaring in shamed invasions and from ptsds of seeing civilians die while he is proud of it.
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I don't see anything in the article that is a cause for concern
It's just cause he said it didn't know what it was until very recently, and this hints otherwise. I've also heard that he's interested in war history as well, so I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't know, likely the 3rd most known Nazi symbol. I still believe he's changed, and grown, but this is a tough hole to dig yourself out of, especially if you're not honest about it.
Yeah. There are a few ways to read this but what we know is:
- He had the tattoo for about 20 years until he finally removed it as part of his political campaign
- He insisted, as of even this week, that he had no idea about its meaning or the concept of an SS skull even though he is terminally online and a self proclaimed military history buff
- Apparently he DID know exactly what it was and defended it as just being a thing people in the army get as of 5 years ago
So... that means he was lying to voters AND had the tattoo for at least 5 years after knowing it was a nazi symbol. Maybe he changed... in the last week... which was like two and a half months into his political career. Or, you know, maybe he is lying about more than one thing.
To be clear. I think a VERY reasonable take is that he didn't want to acknowledge the military was rotten back in 2020 because that would be acknowledging he was part of something evil. It happens.
But to not have gotten it removed/covered up the MOMENT he considered running for office? That is just immense stupidity.
And to continue to not want to acknowledge that "yeah... the US military has a hard-on for nazi imagery" as part of that campaign? Absolute best case scenario, that depicts someone who cares more about votes than truth which, again, raises the question of what else he is saying to get those votes.
If the election were next week? I mean... we all voted for Kamala, right? But it isn't. This is pre-primaries. We got time to find a candidate who has progressive ideals but doesn't have a fucking SS skull on their chest. And, preferably, someone who is actually a leader and isn't afraid of addressing the wrongs of the world.
It’s a BS distraction. Nobody reporting on this honestly thinks this guy is a nazi. But they think they can knock him out of the race by running nazi stories about him.
It’s just like the phrase “globalize the intifada” being brought up in every single media interaction with Mamdani. He doesn’t say it, but simply doesn’t condemn people for saying it cause it has many meanings. He’s made it clear and yet every interview or debate I’ve see it is brought up.
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I'm terminally online and just thought it was a funny looking skull until this article. It's not distinct like it's a hammer and sickle or a laser shooting kiwi. It's a skull and crossbones and there's probably 100 combinations of those and only this one with the Nazi roots.
It doesn't seem like something unreasonable.
It does seem like a well funded smear campaign.
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Apparently he DID know exactly what it was and defended it as just being a thing people in the army get as of 5 years ago
This is a bit of a nitpick, but he didn't defend the totenkopf. He said SS bolts were common in the military and in his opinion not indicative of nazism. He commented in a thread that mentioned the totenkopf, but his comment was in reply to a message about the punisher skull and didn't mention the totenkopf. It's not inconceivable he didn't read the parts about the totenkopf (though the root of the thread is a mention of it).
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Not to mention that he was in Blackwater, so there is a lot of truth in US military being rotten, but he would have to acknowledge that part of his life if he wants my personal support. Then again, I'd guess that most of the vets who commit suicide have acknowledged it, so it's not a winning path for him either way.
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Hegseth has shitty tattoos but we talk about him leaking chats, shit policy, chastising the troops, being a sloppy drunk. Lots of REAL reasons to dislike Hegseth.
But this guy... people just bring up his tattoos?
...
No, people very much do point out hegseth is a nazi. It is just the rationale behind his evil acts.
In the case of platner? We very much do point out his history of homophobic comments (at least as recent as 2020) and that he is a fucking Blackwater merc. It is just that he isn't in power to enact a nazi ideology so we instead focus on "Yo dog, muhfugger is a nazi and we have seen how poorly that ends"
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