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This is mostly just cope. Platner needs to actually talk about the tattoo, what he learned, how he learned it, how it applies to the context of US politics and the military, why people might be upset about it, what he's doing over and above what a normal person needs to do because the fact that he had a fucking tottenkopf permanently drawn on his body requires some more soul searching and actual consciousness than the kid who thought rap music was garbage when they were 15.
What's NOT doing the work is retreating to innocence. "I didn't know. How could I know? I removed it, what more could I possibly do? Actually people who are upset just don't understand."
That's not the work. That's literally text book crypto white supremacist defense mechanisms. It's the same playbook that allows Bostonians to believe they aren't racist when pretty much any POC who interacts with the city will tell you it's one of the top racist places in the country.
Everything is meaningless if your entire theory of action is vote blue no matter, so it's not surprising you think that saying Platner hasn't done the work is meaningless.
But don't worry. In a few more days you'll need to explain why he was sexting with women on TikTok and his wife found out and she chose to share it with the campaign. And of course, he didn't know it was wrong at the time. He was just caught up in the moment. He deleted the messages now so everything is fine. What more could I ask from him?
Not sure what you think I'm trying to cope with. "Just cope" is another meaningless thought-stopper that people like you employ whenever they're faced with disagreement.
He's already addressed it. You expect him to keep beating a dead horse, just because you'll never let it die? And dwell on the thing with really bad optics during an election cycle? Instead of, you know, talking about the economic turmoil and the fascists in power and calling out those things and presenting people with his ideas for what to do about it?
But no, you just want to lock him into a cycle of performative virtue signaling because he'll never be redeemed in your eyes. Only idiots bend themselves into knots to please the people that will never forgive them or accept them.
You don't know how much soul-searching he's done or "actual consciousness" he has. You're just assuming that he hasn't, and no matter what he does you'll always insist on that.
And your insinuation that people not liking rap music is racist is kinda laughable. Nobody is morally obligated to listen to music that doesn't suit their tastes. Cope harder.
"Vote blue no matter who" is usually used as an argument to justify voting for establishment/corporatist/centrist/milquetoast Dems. Platner isn't any of those things, he's literally a progressive. And if you want to focus on this overblown issue to sabotage his campaign because you can't accept the fact that people make mistakes out of ignorance but are capable of learning and growing, then all you're left with is Susan Collins so you're pulling a lot of weight for the actual fascists.
And I say saying he hasn't done the work is meaningless because he clearly has, and I've seen that phrase weaponized against people who have done the work so many times that I'm just desensitized to it now.
Are you just jealous that a white guy is in the spotlight? Nothing's stopping more POCs from running for office, so why aren't they? Stop trying to trip up the few progressive candidates we have over some manufactured race war that the oligarchs created in order to divide the working class in the first place.
And unless you have a source for your last paragraph, I'm just going to assume that's blatant disinformation. Shame on you.
LOL. Someone's not paying attention
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/us/politics/graham-platner-maine-senate-texts.html
Tell me you haven't done the work without telling me you haven't done the work.
Tell me more about how hard it is to be white when people are constantly telling you that white people you support (or maybe even you yourself) aren't doing enough.
I'm going based on his communications. I know people who are on the journey of recovering from white supremacist patriarchy and not only is Platner not showing evidence of having done the work, he's executing the classic "retreat to innocence" without a hint of self-awareness. I know former military who have done the work and I would vote for them. I know former neo-nazis who have done the work, but I wouldn't put them up for election because collective enforcement of norms and consequences for past behavior are critical social technologies.
No. I expect him to actually do something with his journey that isn't immediately attempting to put himself into a position of power. I expect him to go work with troubled teen boys, work with skin heads in prison, work with veterans recovering from toxic masculinity, work with violent men to show them a path towards healing. It's part of doing the work. You don't just go to therapy, read some books, do some journaling, remove a tattoo, and then run for senate without doing ANY of the reparative work. That's not how any of this works.