Even if this is all this guy is, I would like him on the senate floor. Especially if this is all this guy is. If electing him is the easiest way to get him there, so be it.
this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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“At the time, I was proud…that I was good at it…I was proud of my service,” Platner said. “And for quite some time, actually, it was the most important thing that ever happened to me.”
“I derived a lot of pride and purpose from it,” Platner said of his military service. “As I've gotten older and come to grips with the fact that the violence I took part in effectively had no purpose, or it had no benefit for the United States. I don't think that the war in Iraq did anything good for the American people.”
By 2021, Platner’s change of heart appeared on Reddit.
“It was always difficult to square my politics with the job,” Platner wrote in a May 12, 2021, post. “Every day was a stark reminder of the ethical horror show that imperialist adventures often turn into.”
Crazy how despite saying there are 17 comments on the post, yet the comments are empty.
Edit 1: Its counting the comments from a different community, but not showing those comments.
Edit 2: Is Graham Platner a perfect person? No. Is it possible his reform from a fascistic mercenary to communist is all a facade? Maybe. I am certainly not fully sold, but I am still leaving room for the possibility he really has changed. But cherry picking quotes without also showing that he has also confronted and condemned those very quotes I feel is very disingenuous. If your point cant hold up with the full context, maybe its not a point worth considering.
Remember, no one has ever had an actual redemption arc, no one has ever had strong convictions and then realized they were horrifically misplaced, and definitely, no solider has ever come back from a war and realized then that the machine that sent them to fight was the true enemy, the entire time.
No, none of them, none of that, nothing like that has ever happened in the history of the US.
I think its entirely possible he has changed. I am just distrustful of politicians and people who seek positions of power.
Sorry, my snark wasn't directed at you specifically, I should have been more clear about that.
It is always completely reasonable to be highly, highly skeptical of any politician.
I'm just mostly pissed at the level of purity testing on display here in the image, which I'm near certain comes from a bunch of priveleged permaonline dorks that are mostly into leftism for their own ability to feel smug and be the best crab in online leftist pot.
Oh yeah, I thought that you might not be directing it at me but then I second guessed myself and figured I should play it safe. Thanks for the clarification.
No problem! =D
And Aaron Bushnell
Warning, self emmolation: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/2/26/suicide-vs-genocide-rest-in-power-aaron-bushnell
Fucking hell, I'm ashamed I forgot about him.
... when I went to Uni, an underpaid and then fired groundskeeper/janitorial staff member... immolated himself in a similar manner, in the middle of a square with a lot of student foot traffic.
No clue if he was ex military or not, the story was barely covered by any even local media...
I wasn't close enough in time or space to directly see it, but my friend was, destroyed his own coat trying to put out the flames...
By the time I got there it was basically a crime scene, saw the smoke, but not the fire... just a burn mark... ambulances, crash carts...
I remeber watching Anark break down into tears when Bushnell sacrificed himself... Anark had known him personally...
I've got enough PTSD from similar things (and other things, now) that I just blocked all of it out.
Oh yea that weird, maybe its counting the comments in the memes comm post
Yeah its weird af. I was thinking it was comments getting removed by moderators, which made things appear fishy as fuck. But I have also just noticed really weirdly high comment counts on other posts as well. Idk, fediverse being janky ig.
Edit: You're right, its the meme comm comments being counted. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
A lot of very stable and not at all unhinged takes from ml in the cross posted thread.