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Shitposting in other comms please!
Let me start off by saying I hate Graham Platner, for all the obvious reasons.
But this is a Republican hit piece that the NYT is running because it wants Susan Collins to win. The main woman quoted is a lifelong Republican operative who co-hosted a DC podcast with Bethany Mandel.
Understandable
It does also sound like a very specific type of guy that Grahm Cracker is
I'm sorry if I snapped at you. It's just this whole thing is super annoying. I wish Graham Platner had died in Iraq.
It's all good buddy
I understand the sentiments
Shit is wild out there and information is a powerful tool
Just like Graham Cracker is a powerful tool
This is the sort of attitude I hope we can have more of on this site
This is the sort of attitude I hope we can have more of on this site
"I understand it's a smear piece but It sounds right based on my judgement of the type of guy he is"
Can you PLEASE not make me defend Graham Platner? Can you please just dismiss everything in this article so I don't have to keep explaining how and why it isn't credible at all and am thus put in the position of defending a Blackwater mercenary with a Nazi tatoo?
You could just stop defending the war criminal with the Nazi tattoo who wishes he "got to fight in Vietnam" and gets mad that other people "got their bolts" without earning them.
Look, he's a piece of shit, but you can't just believe lies about him because he's a piece of shit. That's not how it works.
I don't. Those are the things he has admitted to. I'm just not going to read the obvious hit piece.
Okay, then why are you getting on my ass for calling the obvious hit piece what it is?
Because this forum currently has too many people saying "I hate the guy but you should vote for him as harm reduction" and that's obvious horseshit. He's a naked imperialist running in the Zionist democratic party, there's no way that his sole good foreign policy position survives the first five minutes and it's fucking exhausting to watch. Apologies if that's not your position but I am so goddamn sick of watching ostensible communists defend a man who says America should "stop fighting stupid wars that don't benefit us" (ie, start fighting ones that do). It's revolting and honestly shouldn't be allowed in a supposedly anti imperialist space.
I have not seen a single instance of someone saying to vote for him. How many of us even live in Maine lmao.
I've seen some... Possibly exaggerating it in my own mind because of how upsetting it is.
I guess maybe it's because I'm an old fucker but like I just don't get invested either way and I hate seeing people at one another throats over this shit that absolutely does not matter. Is he maybe less bad than the even more fascist he might replace? Maybe who fuckin knows. None of us even live in Maine except like maybe two users on the site. This shit is tiring and not worth all the animosity it is causing.
I'm no spring chicken either (mid 40s) but as I've aged I've also been further minoritised, which might be why I'm less likely than ever to compromise on this shit. It's not minor, this guy guarded the torture prison, went overseas to murder poor brown people multiple times, and his only problem now is that he feels like he didn't get paid enough for the mass murder. It honestly feels like the worst kind of troop worship. I get where you're coming from, but we don't allow other fash apologists, y'know? I thought that was a matter of principle. Where do we draw the line?
We should be able to recognize and call out obvious smear campaigns rather than signal boosting them. It's important for the credibility of our own criticisms, as well as knowing how to recognize it and respond effectively when these same tactics are used against our comrades.
My concern is there's a real problem with people actually defending Graham "we should stop fighting stupid wars that don't benefit us" Platner as the harm reduction candidate. Even with their different positions on Gaza (and he's running for a Zionist party, remember! No way his position survives election, unless he doesn't get elected until after we reach "one day everyone will have been against this") there's nothing his opponent has done or could ever do to inflict more violence and misery on the global south than he has, and he clearly doesn't regret anything about it except the part where he thinks he should've been paid better. He's running on building more ships and increasing military wages! That is to say, growing the American military. I'm not saying he would necessarily be worse in office (no way to tell), just that this is a clear 99% Hitler situation and I thought we were agreed that voting for Hitler is bad.
Sorry, that's got little to do with this being an obvious hit piece but I am really disgusted by seeing people here, in an ostensibly anti imperialist space, defending the dude. I wish this had just been reported as propaganda and pulled down rather than even the very mild defense of saying "the dude sucks but this is just a hit piece".
On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, the only reason we even know about his nazi tattoo is precisely an "obvious smear campaign".
God damn I want some fucking Graham crackers now!
Cracker was lifelong republican (so he could have met others of this caliber), so let them fight it out in court eh? his campaign is spending in the millions, he can afford lawyers, or his new friend chucky schumer can provide some
He had what she described as a “warrior ethos” and would fantasize about killing people he deemed a threat, she said.
A huge portion of the GOP platform justifies itself by appealing to this type of depressingly common male fantasy.
Is very common in ex military guys too.
Ms. Fifield, who is affiliated with Independent Women, a conservative group, insisted that her political beliefs had nothing to do with her choice to come forward. She worked briefly on Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign and before that for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Ok cool main source is someone who works for the fucking fascist Heritage Foundation
Caroline Lemp, who dated Mr. Platner for several months in 2013, described him as a “gentle giant.” She said he never made her feel unsafe or showed any signs that he was struggling with the physical or mental effects of his military service.
“He was a great boyfriend,” said Ms. Lemp, 36, who now lives in St. Louis. “He was super kind, very nice, fun.”
The others, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Platner was never physically threatening. One, a nurse from Belfast, Maine, who dated him for a couple months after he returned home to Maine, described him as responsible, intelligent and supportive. Another, who dated him in Washington between roughly 2011 and 2013, said she witnessed some “potentially problematic behavior,” referring to his heavy drinking. But she “felt really safe with him,” she said.
Planter has like 400 red flags and is literally the most suss candidate I have ever seen, we don't need to go along with reactionary rags to dunk on him
if anything the alleged willingness to brutalize a home invader should make him more appealing to rightwing voters so i don't think the hit is going to accomplish anything.
somehow every one of these smear campaigns is like "
, this is now the least disgusting thing i know about him"
I think Platner is the first politician since Trump where the meme "Ah, well, nevertheless" can be applied to its fullest
The chaos gods of America have forsaken Trump and found their new host; slicker, woker, GenZer, somehow even more cracker, I look forward to the Platner Heresy-era of American history
I don’t have an anti-social personality disorder. I have a warrior ethos.
Platner has lots of Sus things, but we also can't fail into obvious right wing smear campaigns. I continue to stand by my strategy of ignoring him until he's elected, and seeing what he does then.
Do republicans really hate the ex-nazi that much? Or is this by zionist lobby?
Republicans hold a majority in the Senate but not by much and the Maine incumbent is a Republican, they are worried she will lose to Planter. But also yea it's cause he is critical of Israel.
Watch for the Dems attacking Planter, those are the real Zionists willing to cut their nose to spite their face
Why would they attack somebody who will so obviously outflank Fetterman to the right once he's elected? They can just buy him, he is a literal mercenary.
I think insofar as it's aimed at Republicans (rather than democrats, his actual voter base) it's about team sports - something to be performatively outraged by. But why think this is intended for people who already wouldn't vote for him? He's a democrat and from what I have seen Republicans are very good at always voting for the Republican candidate so it doesn't make much sense to bother smearing him to them.
I'm feeling very vindicated in my original take, that he's completely amoral but non-ideological, and just extremely into doing hands-on violence. I think he just hit a certain age and realized he'd need to change careers to social murder instead.
Looking forward to the next scandal involving taking trophies from his victims, like Ben Roberts-Smith and that prosthetic leg.
He had multiple Reddit comments defending soldiers taking "human trophies" in ww2 so I wouldn't be too surprised if he also did it.
Wow! I was ALL IN on Platner because the CURRENT Regime of Politicians has made my life HELL but this Republican Article COMPLETELY Changes my Mind and I'll have NO CHOICE but to Vote for WHOEVER the Oldest and Richest Candidate is!
-Alpha Americans who Read the News!
I think Graham Krakkker is shitty pee pee poo poo out my stinky doo doo ass
I SHARPEN MY AXE IN THE LIVING ROOM BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME I COULDN’T DO IT ON THE KITCHEN TABLE ANYMORE!!! BITCH THIS IS WHY WE BROKE UP!!!
If there was no electoralism, you would be my concubines