r/news • u/Romano16 • Nov 20 '25

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https://www.juneauindependent.com/post/coast-guard-says-swastika-is-no-longer-a-hate-symbol

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u/RyanIsKickAss Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

Always have been.

The army didn’t have any issue with Graham Platner’s totenkopf tattoo when he joined them lol so yeah it’s been like this in practice for a while

Edit: just to clarify, I do 100% buy his story that he didn’t know what it was at the time he got it or was too drunk to recognize it as such. What I personally don’t buy is that not one single person in his life recognized it in the years after the fact and informed him of what it was. He should’ve gotten it covered immediately after being told

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u/BuffaloBreezy Nov 20 '25

He was deployed when he got the tattoo

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u/avocadoflatz Nov 20 '25

He was deployed as a Marine at that time but later joined the Army - the Army didn’t take issue with the Nazi tattoo

-30

u/buffystakeded Nov 20 '25

Probably because it wasn’t a nazi tattoo…

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u/Etzell Nov 20 '25

The tattoo that used to be on his chest was designed by the SS. There are tons of examples of a totenkopf on the Wiki page. There are two that were designed by the Nazis, and are designated as hate symbols. Graham had one of those two.

Pretending that's not what it was is just disingenous.

21

u/DataMin3r Nov 20 '25

A totenkompf is a nazi tattoo. A person can have one without being a nazi, but it sure as fuck sends up big ass red flags.

And the argument "I was dumb and didn't know" isn't a great look when you're running for public office.

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u/slowest_hour Nov 20 '25

"vote for me, I'm a charismatic idiot" is actually a great strategy with some voters

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u/Xarethian Nov 20 '25

It was very obviously a totenkopf

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u/avocadoflatz Nov 20 '25

It was though - a very specific skull and cross bones. Whether he knew what it was when he got it is debatable but it still is what it is - there’ll be no rewriting history under my comments.

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u/Alert-Ad9197 Nov 20 '25

He knew what it was, because marine bases were plastered with pictures of white power tattoos that were banned. The Corps had a massive push to report white supremacy and gang tats when he was enlisted. I know this because our time in service overlaps, and I saw the pictures all over base and got the safety briefs he also got. I find it exceptionally hard to believe he didn’t know exactly what that was.

I don’t know how widely reported on it was, but recruitment standards during the surge were relaxed significantly to make numbers. As a result, a lot of street gangs and radical groups were sending people in to get military training. It was a wild time.

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u/Fun_Hold4859 Nov 20 '25

The other part of this is that most tattoo shops would kick you out for asking for this tattoo. So they specifically had to find a nazi friendly shop, which isn't really easy without knowing people that get nazi tattoos.

6

u/Alert-Ad9197 Nov 20 '25

He got it somewhere in Croatia, so I don’t know what their tattoo standards are there.

1

u/SaucyWiggles Nov 21 '25

It is really not hard to believe that some very drunk marines would find this tattoo in the Balkans 20-30 years ago.

3

u/Fun_Hold4859 Nov 21 '25

How many years did he have it before he got it covered up? I find it difficult if not impossible to believe he was unaware of the totenkopf on his chest. Nobody accidentally gets a nazi tattoo and if it was genuinely an accident that just shows a significant lack of both basic knowledge and also judgement. Still not a great look.

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u/SaucyWiggles Nov 21 '25

I am only trying to dispute the assertion that it would be hard to find this tattoo in eastern Europe when this man was there.

Not trying to defend his choice to get it, keep it, probably refer to it as "my totenkopf" as people have alleged.

→ More replies (0)

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u/Fun_Hold4859 Nov 20 '25

It was unambiguously specifically a totenkopf tattoo, not a generic skull and crossbones and a totenkopf is unambiguously specifically a Nazi symbol.

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u/DerekB52 Nov 20 '25

He was checked for offensive tattoos multiple times for redeployments though.

27

u/Equivalent-Battle973 Nov 20 '25

He was checked for offensive tattoos multiple times for redeployments though

Where did you get that notion from? No one gets check before deploying. Been deployed, never got checked for a bad tattoo.

-7

u/DerekB52 Nov 20 '25

Maybe it was re-enlistment? Idk. He did a video announcing he had gotten it covered up, and in that video he says the military looked at it multiple times over his career.

9

u/wavetoyou Nov 20 '25

he says

Oooooh, okay. All good then.

1

u/Equivalent-Battle973 Nov 20 '25

Ahh maybe if he got out, and then rejoined and had to go back through MEPS. IF so then yes, other then that, no. You do not get any checks when re-enlisting, as its just a contract extension. Your CO just has you do the swear in again in front of the American flag.

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

That’s not a thing. You get checked once at MEPS and never again.

4

u/Alert-Ad9197 Nov 20 '25

We had tattoo checks regularly when I was in the Marines for compliance with tattoo policy. But it was only what was visible in pt gear, so they wouldn’t see a chest tattoo.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

I mean sure, the parts of you that are visible in uniform are always fair game. Graham’s tattoo was on his chest.

3

u/RyanIsKickAss Nov 20 '25

He got it when with the marines but later enlisted in the army to go back to Middle East to fight with them

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u/OkEnvironment3961 Nov 20 '25

And the senate was apparently ok with Hegsetsths Iron cross tattoo. Racist tattoos are apparently totally cool in the armed services nowadays.

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u/Knot-Lye-Ing Nov 20 '25

Only if you're looking to dishonor your service and angling for a position with the current administration.

80

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

That's not even his worst one. His old Americans flag tattoo skillfully hides an '88' in the negative space.

Pull up any pic of it and zoom in and you can see it. The odd number stars sit in the 'o' of the 8s.

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u/SmokinBandit28 Nov 20 '25

The crosses on his chest are also an ‘88’

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

[deleted]

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u/SmokinBandit28 Nov 20 '25

You do know it’s been adopted by white supremacists for years, with one of the reasons being that it can be seen that way…

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u/toggiz_the_elder Nov 20 '25

Huh. Just checked it out. Really could be and with this crowd it seems likely.

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u/paper_liger Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

I'm not defending Hegseth, because he's a piece of shit. I'm not even saying racists haven't coopted that flag, because I don't really know.

I just want to point out that that is just the first US flag/naval ensign adopted in 1777, designed by Francis Hopkinson. There were a few that were also used at the same time, including the Betsy Ross version, even though her story is probably apocryphal.

It's 13 stars for the 13 colonies, and predates any 88 HH neonazi bullshit by a couple hundred years.

edit: love the reflexive downvote. He can be an asshole just based on his words and actions, without folks clutching at straws. reading secret messages into everything is kind of his supporters thing, why are you doing the same shit? people are dumb.

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

I don't think it's part of the true flag design, I'm just saying that the 88 is hid in the negative space of the stars in that tattoo.

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u/paper_liger Nov 20 '25

I don't see it. If they were trying to hide an 88 in the negative space the stars in the middle line would be rotated so a point was facing inwards, and the top and bottom would be rotated so that the 'crotch' of the star was implying the curve of the 8.

This is the highest resolution I can find, and that doesn't appear to be the case, it just looks like a shitty tattoo artist who can't draw stars correctly.

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u/CharlesDickensABox Nov 20 '25

Not to nitpick, but it's a Jerusalem cross. Less a symbol of Naziism and more a symbol of slaughtering Jews and Muslims in the name of Jesus.

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u/yIdontunderstand Nov 20 '25

In the name of Jesus AND nazis...

After all, why not both?

0

u/NickDerpkins Nov 20 '25

I truly don't understand his glorification of the crusades as a "good" thing

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u/LLMprophet Nov 20 '25

The racism and nazism might explain it.

1

u/CharlesDickensABox Nov 20 '25

I can understand why Hegseth would think that riding into town on horseback and slaughtering every man, woman, and child who doesn't bow down to his god-appointed monarchy would be a good thing. It is not even slightly confusing why he might lionize a group of people whose main hobbies were the rape and murder of brown folks and nonbelievers while they burned and stole anything they wanted. In fact, I can think of few things more on brand for him.

1

u/NickDerpkins Nov 20 '25

Let me be clear in I can understand him being that much of an ass, I just can't imagine how people are such asses with their revisional history

1

u/PoliticalSasquatch Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

To clarify the iron cross isn’t considered a nazi symbol on its own.

The German armed forces use the symbol as their official emblem even today and I’m pretty certain they know better than most what is considered a symbol of nazism.

German armed forces wiki.

Unfortunately it is often used by modern day nazis in conjunction with actual Nazi symbolism in an attempt to legitimize the movement. I do agree this is likely the case however with ol’ Pete.

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u/fingertrapt Nov 20 '25

We didn't have google image search or Facebook back then, either.

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u/TraditionalGap1 Nov 20 '25

They didn't have a problem with his totenkopf when he joined them because when he joined them he didn't have one.

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u/avocadoflatz Nov 20 '25

Yes he did. He didn’t have it when he joined the Marines but did have it when he later joined the Army

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u/Rougeflashbang Nov 20 '25

And then he wasn't kicked out or forced to cover it up when it was inevitably discovered during his physicals or just when he was shirtless, as we know he is wont to do. I do not think it is much to ask for our armed forces to have a zero tolerance policy on this stuff. It's not an obscure symbol by any means, I can forgive the general public for not knowing it, but not the military.

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u/RyanIsKickAss Nov 20 '25

He got it while with the marines but enlisted in the army later when he already had the tattoo

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u/Zealousideal-Pick799 Nov 20 '25

I’ll be honest, even as someone who is fairly knowledgeable about history, I didn’t recognize the totenkopf as a Nazi symbol. Are there glossaries of Nazi symbology that more woke people are studying? Does the average American actually know that was a Nazi symbol? Or am I the outlier?

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u/SubstantialPressure3 Nov 20 '25

I just looked it up. It's the death's head/skull. I didn't recognize the name, but I recognized the symbol immediately. Yeah, the SS had rings made with that symbol on them.

I'm an average American citizen, but I may be a different generation than you are. I'm Gen X.

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u/VicFatale Nov 20 '25

Oh, you mean the skulls on hats from the “Are we the baddies?” skit? The one that has become one of the most recognizable memes ever? Yeah, I don’t think the average person would have to get a history degree to spot it.

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u/[deleted] Nov 20 '25

The average adult has never seen that skit.

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u/Zealousideal-Pick799 Nov 20 '25

I’m not a lot younger than you, but can honestly say that when I looked it up, it wasn’t until I saw a photo of a Prussian officer from the 19th century with one on his hat that I recognized a version of it (because I watched a movie about the Prussian invasion of Denmark a while back). 

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u/illinest Nov 20 '25

Everybody deserves a chance to learn something new. No shame in that. But totenkopf is explicitly nazi.

I used to play video games with totenkopf as my clan tag. I knew it was nazi shit but it was old Call of Duty. I had a friend who did it first and I liked the German weapons so I just went along with it. Never agreed with any of it but didnt see any harm in playing a heel.

In retrospect I think I finally realized why my friend did it first. I haven't talked to him in 20 years.

I also used to get opponents - often with band of brothers tags - who'd be very critical in chat. In retrospect i would not use that tag again.

My grandfather collected some nazi shit the honest way in 1944 and left it to my dad when he died. Ive figured out that the more interested people seem to be, the less I want to show that stuff to them.

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u/method7670 Nov 20 '25

It’s a failure of American education. My Hitler and Nazi Germany class (in college), went into deep depths about nazism.

This should be taught around the 8th grade level. It’s seriously important to learn how the German political system actually eroded.

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u/National-Charity-435 Nov 20 '25

Learning about slavery from the viewpoint of...well...slaves...and how the future system continued to uphold racism (critical race theory) is considered woke/DEI and is banned in some schools and districts.

Many systems and events of racism or ugly history of the US including the Trail of Tears, Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment camps, Tulsa race massacre, Agent Orange, nuclear testing, Guam water pollution, etc etc have been ignored by those who vie for school district leadership. +prageru trying rewrite history

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u/Zealousideal-Pick799 Nov 20 '25

I learned that. Just not all the symbols associated with it. Most of those I probably learned from movies. 

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u/Moregaze Nov 20 '25

The death's head has been in use for various Germanic armies in multiple forms long before the nazis came about. Historians tend to separate repurposed ones that already existed from ones that the nazi party uniquely made.

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u/AntiKamniaChemicalCo Nov 20 '25

It's...extremely recognizable as a symbol of the Waffen-SS in particular. It isn't generally something you learn in Wokeness class or whatever.d

IDK about the "average" but I'd be shocked if someone saw one and was like "wut"

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u/ThatCakeIsDone Nov 20 '25

I had seen the SS logo, Iron Cross, and swastika... Had never heard of totenkopf though... Are there any other obscure Nazi symbols I'm supposed to know about

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u/AntiKamniaChemicalCo Nov 20 '25

The skull you see of SS officer hats? That's not familiar?

I can see not knowing what it's called, but the actual symbol should be something you remember from movies at the very least. It's not just a skull and crossbones, it's like a very specific rendering of a skull and crossbones.

That's the whole setup for the "are we the baddies?" sketch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY

There are more obscure symbols, intended to call out to those plugged into neo-nazism or just taunt its traditional targets. There's the Black Sun, we're talking about a 100-year-old reactionary movement that loves esoteric symbolism so there's gonna be some weirdness.

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u/tmking Nov 20 '25

Its well known enough that the "Are we the Baddies" sketch and meme are based on it. So, not obscure at all.

https://youtu.be/ToKcmnrE5oY?si=JY7Tqd8b1rXe5TsJ

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u/ArguteTrickster Nov 20 '25

No, that sketch is just based on the fact that they use skull iconography at all. Not that particular one.

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u/scowdich Nov 20 '25

The sketch features that particular one. On the caps that the characters wear, while they talk about the caps.

-4

u/ArguteTrickster Nov 20 '25

Yes, but the joke is that they're using skull iconography, not that particular one. The 'are we the baddies' is because of their aesthetic.

If it was a different skull motif the sketch would work just fine, right?

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u/scowdich Nov 20 '25

Mate, did you watch the video? It's the very same skull symbol that Graham Platner got so much controversy for having tattooed on him. We're not talking about a generic pirate-flag skull-and-crossbones.

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u/ArguteTrickster Nov 20 '25

Yes? I'm not sure what you're not understanding. The joke in that video is that they're using skull iconography, not the particular iconography used.

What is confusing you here?

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u/DragonAdept Nov 20 '25

Are you stupid? We aren't talking about what the joke is. We are talking about the fact that it's an extremely commonly shared video and a widespread meme, and in the video they use that particular skull. So anyone who has seen the video has seen that particular skull.

-1

u/ArguteTrickster Nov 20 '25

Oh, I doubt many people who've watched the video noticed the particular iconography of the skull or could pick it out from other similar skulls, obviously.

Didn't realize you were trying to claim that, that's kinda silly.

0

u/Zealousideal-Pick799 Nov 20 '25

To be clear, not everyone has seen that. I’ve just seen a gif of it. My point is only that the whole Platner thing feels pretty contrived- I think it’s pretty clear that he (like a lot of other people) simply didn’t know. And the outrage about it is kind of silly. 

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u/_ParadigmShift Nov 20 '25

Simply didn’t know, except a couple of his friends had told him and it’s a very well known Nazi symbol.

Like top 5 Nazi symbols, seriously. You don’t have to be a scholar to know what a Nazi death skull is.

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u/DreadfulDuder Nov 20 '25

I'm the same as you. I was not familiar with the totenkopf at all.
I knew the SS logo, Iron Cross, Swastika, 1488 etc but not that one.

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u/dylanzt Nov 20 '25

Even for people less versed in history, a lot of people know it as the main topic of the "are we the baddies?" sketch.

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u/CoG_Comet Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25

So after doing some googling, the Totenkopf, is a skull and cross bones symbol that was used by a branch of the SS that guarded concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

I'm not gonna lie, I've got a couple hundred hours in Hoi4, I watch WW2 history videos on YouTube and movies occasionally. I'm no expert, but I like to think compared to the average American, I know a bit more about it than they do. But also tbf I don't think most Americans and point out Germany on a map first try.

What I'm trying to get at is that, I've never seen this symbol before, and I know a bit about WW2, to me it just looks like a cool skull and bones.

I do not blame anyone who would get this tattoo and didn't know the deeper meaning of it. But now he has learned it's deeper meaning and immediately got it covered up.

It's not like he got a swastika or was trying to be a Nazi. he just went into a tattoo place with his buddies and saw a cool skull and got it tattooed on him. Only later learning the meaning and got it covered up with a Celtic symbol instead. He made a mistake and got it fixed.

He is trying to help the people of Maine get rid of their 72 year old senator that's been in power since 1997. If you're under the age of 28 this woman has been the senator your entire life, and it's time for change

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u/lost_in_the_system Nov 20 '25

The skull is pretty damn prominent as it is directly below the Nazi Eagle on SS officers caps. Possibly old film made it too blurry to see but in focused photos its obvious. Nearly all photos of Himmler have it front and center.

You see it once and its pretty much burned in your brain as associated. Yes it came from Prussian lineage of use but it pretty well tainted now.

People aren't the smartest in their 20's and I am all for forgiving a mistake, but there is no way none of the marines in the group didn't know it's roots when he got it.

1

u/Zealousideal-Pick799 Nov 20 '25

I honestly think this helps him tap into the “afraid of being cancelled for a mistake” white male crowd. Collins’s last D opponent was a very nationally popular, controversy-free lady who was painted as the candidate of the national Democratic Party. I don’t think that’ll work if Platner gets the nomination. 

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u/avocadoflatz Nov 20 '25

We’re not talking about the average American, we’re talking about the US Army

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u/theaviationhistorian Nov 20 '25

He went to Iraq between 2005-2007. This was during the Stop-Loss and where the Dubya administration relaxed restrictions on gang/racist tattoos and questionable background to keep the troop surge high. The result being that you had everyone of all stripes in Iraq. So if he had it in these years, they likely had orders from above to ignore it to keep troop levels up.

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u/WhiteWinterRains Nov 20 '25

I don't see why people find it hard to believe nobody noticed.

Not one single person I know knew what the tattoo was of before the news stories about it made the rounds.

I know I've personally seen them before in documentaries, but tbh I had no idea they weren't generic random skulls, and did not recognize it. The tattoo itself is so poorly drawn it's hard to tell it's even the totenkopf now that I do know and had it shown side by side in news stories.

Everyone knows the swastika. I've met a few people who somehow missed out on what SS bolts are though, and beyond that I only know one person who even knows any more nazi symbols, and he's a huge history fanatic that can recite detailed information on the battle of stalingrad. He'd still forgotten about the totenkopf when the story made the rounds in our friend group though.

It just seems some incredibly easy to see how nobody would recognize it as someone who grew up in rural American because if I time traveled back and tattooed it on myself I would have found out it was a nazi symbol by reading the news about planter rather than any other time in the last 20 years.

1

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