ITT: Stop purity testing American “progressives”!!!
source: Graham Platner’s Reddit account, just before declaring himself a communist, lol
There were a lot of people that got caught up in that patriotic shit, that believed they were going to make a difference, do something good. I worked with a guy that was blown up in an armored HMMWV somewhere in either Iraq or Afghanistan; he survived, some of his friends didn’t. He had a TBI that–last I knew–he still wasn’t recovered from. He had pretty brutal PTSD from his entire time overseas.
And yet, he still loved the people he served with, said it was a great experience, and also thought (in hindsight) that we were there for bullshit reasons.
I was abused by my first spouse. Doesn’t mean that I didn’t also love them for almost all of our marriage.
Shit’s complicated, man.
It was pretty obvious in 2003 that it was an awful war. Normal people don’t get ‘caught up’ in this, they have buyer’s remorse because they didn’t end up being seen as the badass war hero who isn’t afraid to kill.
Really? Was it though?
I don’t know how old you are, but my partner was protesting the wars in Madison, WI–which is notoriously left for Wisconsin–and drivers would yell at them and throw thing at the protestors. By 2005 or so, opinion had definitely soured, and the military was having problems meeting recruitment goals; they started dropping requirements for enlistment. I remember this clearly because I’d tried to enlist in the Navy in '99 and been rejected due to being on Prozac. In '05/'06 I got a call from a recruiter while I was recovering from a major spine surgery trying to get me to join, because they were now giving out waivers like candy on Halloween.
Again, I don’t know how old you are, but this is shit that I actually remember, because I was a whole-ass adult. I remember W dragging the entire rest of the world into Iraq and Afghanistan over this shit, because you were either with us, or with the terrorists. And a lot of people bought that. If I’d been fresh outta highschool in '02 or '03, I absolutely would have gotten suckered by the propaganda.
Schumer still hasn’t even endorsed Mamdani because he’s more concerned with representing Israel than representing New York.
And the Democrats are taking credit for Mamdani’s successes even though they fought against him.
We need to primary every AIPAC funded Democrat.
And this is why she didn’t deserve to be considered for the race. She’s only in it for herself. She doesn’t care about anybody else. She played dirty politics while Graham Platner refused to do so. It backfired on her big time, so she’s taking her toys and going home. Selfish bitch.
she went all in for a datacenter to be built in maine apparenlty vetoed the ban on datancenters, schumer decided to endorse her over graham.
Seems a lot of people have only seen his tattoo or heard about his reddit comments. I encourage you to watch some of his long form interviews or campaign events. The guy is demanding real change from the neoliberal norm and so threatens their sovereignty over the party, I’d be surprised if they ever endorse him.
Whether or not you’re from Maine, if all you’ve seen is his controversies then you’re in a specific news echo chamber that does not want to share his policies.
A lot of people really can’t take nuance in scandals and individual negative attributes. There’s things about ME that suck that I’m glad don’t get exposed online. Might come up if I run for office, which I’ll have to deal with.
I can honestly say until Graham, I had no idea there was a format of the pirate skull-and-bones symbol that had direct Nazi connections. I respect those who know the details of history better than me.
I get it… And if I lived there and had to vote I would absolutely do more thinking on it, but my view from afar is why can’t we just find people to run with these campaign platforms who don’t have Nazi tattoos? It isn’t that hard.
I think one of the issues is, to have these people that grow up into roles where they choose to shoulder a lot of responsibility, see the world’s faults, and act beyond their station to resolve it…you kind of need a complex character for that. Someone who didn’t just grow up in a poor environment, saying no to every opportunity (because they’re all offered by evil crooks) to finally come out as a competent legislator with big social media presence.
We’re very lucky to have waitresses turned Senator like AOC, but those perfect, morally unblemished stories of zero to hero are hard to come by. Hence why a lot of noir stories about a detective getting justice for the marginalized (anyone playing Mouse, PI?) will emphasize how morally grey they act. A lot of people are working to fight fascism because they want to recognize how they’ve unknowingly contributed to it (not necessarily by voting for Trump) and want to amend their mistakes.
To give an example: I haven’t contributed to fascism. I also don’t personally know people hurt by it. While I consider it a civic duty to fight, at times I struggle to develop motivation to do risky, above-and-beyond actions that may take up a large part of my day for low gains. That might be different for someone who’s either been hit hard by it, or feels direct responsibility for it, eg by joining the army.
Nah, don’t forget he gleefully went to kill brown people in an armed invasion. Fuck that sociopathic sicko.
Your purity testing guarantees that only the worst human beings will ever be elected to office. When you demand saints, you don’t get saints. You just get psychopaths pretending to be saints.
Yeah I know a ton of people that joined in 2001 after 9/11 to “protect” the US. Their subsequent military experience radicalized them against the military complex and American exceptionalism.
Didn’t radicalize him at all - he did several tours and keeps bringing it up as something positive.
Like I said, typical sociopath. He’ll say anything to get you to listen, pretending he’s left wing he’s made a huge platform for himself. Don’t fall for it.
Either you’re right and he hasn’t changed and is lying for votes.
Or he has changed and actually is going to implement his platform.
Either way getting Collins out of office is the better outcome. If he actually follows his platform that’s even better.
I’m leaning towards he intends to actually follow his platform based on how poorly the DNC is reacting to his primary win.
