It’s the Marine Raiders expeditionary flag, a military unit in WW2.

Skull and crossbones imagery has been used by militaries since the dawn of time. And if you look on the wikipedia article for Totenkopf, you’ll find it is indistinguishable from other skull and crossbones imagery. Totenkomf is just the German word for skull and crossbones. Wikipedia explicitly labels the following image a Totenkopf:

Honestly, you’re doing the equivalent of right wingers who hyperventilated about the fact that Obama attended a “Madrassa” for awhile as a child. The mouth breathers were too stupid to realize that madrassa is just the Arabic word for school.

There is no difference between a deaths head and a “totenkopf.” It literally means “dead person’s head” in German.

It is the same fucking thing. Here’s a WW2 Luftwaffe version:

Here’s a historical pirate one.

They’re the same fucking symbol.

But you’ve been arguing that any Totenkopf or Death’s Head is by definition a Nazi symbol. So clearly you must think the US Marines who flew that flag while killing actual historical Nazis must themselves have been Nazis.

Do you think this is a Nazi flag as well?

Because this is a flag of people who literally fought and died against the actual historical Nazis.,

Look at the actual Wikipedia article on the symbol. It literally has a whole section on the use of the symbol in pirate flags.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totenkopf

Oh hey, look at all this Nazi symbolism!

How many pirate movies have been picketed by Jewish rights groups? Pirate movies feature deaths head flags quite prominently. If the actual Holocaust remembrance and Jewish rights organizations don’t have a problem with it, then you’re probably just being a moron.

IF it’s that terrible a symbol, why aren’t pirate movies boycotted and picketed by Jewish rights groups?

If it’s that terrible of a symbol, why aren’t pirate movies protested by Jewish rights groups? I guess Johnny Depp is a Nazi too?

You are betraying the memory of all those killed in the Holocaust by watering down the term Nazi. People one here are calling Platner a Nazi even though there has never been any evidence that he has ever been a member of a neo Nazi group, ever espoused Nazi ideals or policies, ever attended Nazi events, etc.

You’re like a 17th century witch hunter looking for weird looking moles on people, concluding their signs of the Devil’s corruption. You can’t actually demonstrate Platner doing any actual Nazi stuff, so you have to grasp at the straw of a tattoo a drunk kid got one day while in the Marines.

And really, go to the actual Wikipedia article on the Totenkopf Note that the exact same symbol was used as a pirate flag. For most people, that’s what they associate with the deaths head.

If what you claim is true, why has every pirate movie not been picketed by the Jewish rights groups? I imagine they would be protested if they had pirates flying swastika flags. Yet, no one gave a shit about pirate symbols until a progressive candidate has one on his chest.

Can you tell me which of these are Nazi symbols and which of them are pirate symbols?

BWAHAHAA!

That sketch came out a year before he got the tattoo. You think a deployed early 20s marine was watching a lot of British comedy shows? You’re a buffoon.

He was a fighter, a WWII buff, a marine, a mercenary, who bragged about “fun wars”, and got a Nazi tattoo in a former Nazi-aligned state, and beyond universal healthcare, he really isn’t even terribly progressive or radical. If the boot fits…

So he sounds like basically every soldier I’ve ever met? And quit slandering him with the Nazi label. You’re insulting the victims of the Holocaust every time you water down that term.

Platner is not a neoliberal. He defeated a neoliberal in the primary, running on an unabashadly progressive ticket. Demanding better Democrats is exactly why we now have Platner.

Your attitude is precisely why we’ve been stuck with such milquetoast candidates. Your approach selects for psychopathy. You demand candidates have perfectly manicured pasts. You only accept people with spotlessly clean backgrounds with nothing you find uncomfortable or problematic. The only people with those backgrounds are power-hungry psychopaths who’ve been groomed their entire lives for paths of power. You’re looking for wealthy white people who went to private school, did debate club in high school, and attended an Ivy League school. That’s the only kind of candidate you find acceptable - highly polished, a perfectly curated social media history, absolutely nothing objectionable about them.

That’s how you end up with soulless corporate goons. You end up with people that ultimately believe in nothing except achieving power, and they’ve lived their entire lives ensuring that they do absolutely nothing that could ever offend someone. You’re looking for candidates that have spent more time obsessing over their image than actually living their lives.

Sorry, but real people make mistakes. Real people have flaws. And if the Democratic Party is going to have any future, it needs to stop crucifying every male candidate that doesn’t have the vibe of a Harvard gender studies major.

It’s only an “obvious Nazi symbol” because you’ve chosen to call it that to slander Platner.

Before this campaign, you wouldn’t have been able to pick it out from a line up of pirate flags. You’re full of it.

Wow. So you’re saying that if you inadvertently got a Nazi tattoo (which is already being generous btw), and then found out later that you had a huge SS tattoo on your chest, your reaction would just be “oh lol that’s a bummer” and go on with your life and not get it covered? Cause I’d be pretty fucking horrified.

Honestly, yes. I would react just that way. If I knew I didn’t get it as a Nazi symbol, and I realize that 99% of the population doesn’t recognize it as a Nazi symbol? Then yeah, I would be in no hurry to get rid of it. The Nazis had tons of symbols. We can’t just let them delete whole swathes of our culture. It’s OK to let go of the most blatant ones, like the swastika. I’m not going to try and redeem that. But the swastika is also the Nazi’s most well known symbol. Any prior association has been completely washed out by this. But a deaths head? That’s not a a Nazi symbol. That’s a pirate flag Nazis decided to appropriate.

If I got a tattoo that I thought was cool, but later found out it was also co-opted by some group of Nazis in a minor way? No. I’m not going to be in a rush to remove that. I refuse to let Nazis control my life. As long as the vast majority of the population doesn’t see it as a Nazi symbol, and I know in my heart I don’t mean it as a Nazi symbol? I’m not going to be in any rush to remove it.

Imagine if I was old enough to say, have a wedding anniversary or other important event in 1988, and, before knowing the neo-Nazi implication, got a tattoo that said “88.” If I later learned about the implications of that number, unless that tattoo was in a highly visible location, I wouldn’t remove it. I’m not publicly advertising the 88 by showing it off. The only people who ever see it are those close enough to me to know I’m not a Nazi. No. I see no reason to remove that. But maybe if I was going into public office, I would then remove it so that I wasn’t placing that symbol in the limelight.

Or, we can stop with this childish gotcha bullshit. Unless Platner has actually advocated Nazi policies, then STFU. Having poor symbolism doesn’t make you a Nazi. Believing in Nazi ideals, Nazi policies, and trying to enact them makes you a Nazi.

I can see why he took his time because honestly, it’s not that big a deal. I would have no problem hanging out with someone who had a such a tattoo. Hell, I wouldn’t view it as disqualifying to date someone with such a tattoo (if I weren’t already married.)

Again, it’s a pirate flag tattoo. That’s almost certainly what he was thinking of when he got it, and what it meant in his mind.

I’m sure his thought process was something like, “yeah, that pirate tattoo I got as a kid does unfortunately resemble the one the Nazis used. Everyone I know close enough to actually see the tattoo knows I’m not a Nazi, but as I’m entering politics, I better get it covered up before the hyperventilating morons on the internet use it as an excuse to slander me as a Nazi.”

In fact, I think you need to delete your lemmy username. Why? Because your name included “de Sol.” The Sun. You know what a major Nazi was? That’s right, the Black Sun!

The Nazis used solar iconography. Your account references the Sun. Therefore, you are a Nazi. Please delete your lemmy account, Nazi scum.

Ok. You’re crazy.

Seriously. This is downright tame as far as military tattoos go. A 23 year marine was drunk with his buddies and thought a pirate tattoo would look pretty badass. And honestly? If it weren’t for the Nazi connotations, I would say it is pretty badass.

I swear, some people won’t be happy with a male progressive candidate unless they have the sanitized and castrated vibe of a gender studies major.

Yeah, it’s so bad faith it’s comical. It’s ridiculously transparent. You could create a police line up of various deaths head iconography, from pirate flags to black death symbolism to US military units, with a few Nazi ones thrown in. Then ask these mosquitos sliming about Platner if they can identify the Nazi ones. I imagine 90% of them would fail that test.

Frankly, unless they’re an anti-fascist activist or a historian, anyone with that level of encyclopedic knowledge of SS symbols is a little sus. If someone told me they had that level of knowledge of Nazi symbolism, I would ask them if they also have that level of knowledge of other famous military or authoritarian movements. Do they also have such knowledge of Soviet, Chinese, Roman, or ancient Egyptian military symbolism? Do they study military iconography of all sorts? Or just the SS stuff? Honestly, I think anyone with that level of SS knowledge is telling on themselves.

I still see it as a just a pirate symbol. I’m 90% certain you wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as a Nazi symbol in a line up of other deaths head symbols before this campaign started. Here it is:

To me this is just a pirate flag. Do you also call everyone that owns a dog a Nazi, because Hitler owned a dog?

My first association of skull and crossbones isn’t Nazis. It’s pirates. When I think of Nazis, I think of the Swastika. That’s at least distinctive enough that it can be relegated to a Nazi symbol. But I’m sorry, I’m not letting the Nazis own the skull and cross bones. I’ll fly that flag high as a symbol of piracy and rebellion. I see nothing wrong with getting a skull and cross bones tattoo even today. I’m not letting the Nazis steal our culture from us.

Oh, and then there’s the part where he has reddit comments prior to being called out on his tattoo literally talking about the totenkopf. And comments saying how lots of US military personnel have Nazi-adjacent tattoos but it’s totally fine.

Who cares? He got it in his early 20ss. I’m sure at some point he later figured out the connection, or someone pointed it out to him. There was probably a several year delay before he went from “yeah, I suppose this does look a bit like that Nazi symbol, but I know I didn’t get it for Nazi purposes, so I don’t care” to “shit. I’m running for office. I’m seeking to be a role model. Best to cover that shit up before I put myself out in the limelight. It’s a bad example to send to children.” Self-discovery takes time.

I’m not looking to smear leftists though, so I don’t see what the big deal is.

If you can’t believe that a person can change, what hope can you have that societies can?

Sorry, to me it just looks like a pirate flag. That’s the exact kind of tattoo I would expect a marine to get.