I mean, some people do sincerely believe that bad people can become better people and I think that much is true (even if that's separate from the pragmatic question of if such people should be let near levers of power, which they probably shouldn't be), the issue is that there is literally no reason to believe Platner has remotely become a better person and in fact we have been given no shortage of evidence that he is just as bad as he ever was, if not worse.

Edit: Also OOP is glossing over or outright denying bad things Platner did to begin with, so it's really a separate question. I think these people are just miserable chauvinists trying to use leftish rhetoric for their own careers.

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago

it is a mix of this and the classic "lesser evilism" that people who still believe in bourgeois electoralism have to subscribe to. since voting is required to them, they have to pick someone, and in this race it was between a zionist and platner who claimed a lot of positions that are more progressive than his opponent. if his platform was everything you went off of, he was clearly the more progressive candidate, so they have to support that because someone has to run in their eyes