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Lemmy.ml mods don't like Graham Platner and are trying to imply he is a literal Nazi
(media.piefed.social)
Still not sure how I feel about him, but if lemmy.ml and Chuck Schumer are both trying to smear him that seems like good indications.
No idea why this wasn't suitable for !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works. it seems obviously to fall under the "general tankie behavior" category and/or the tankie folks trying to weigh in on American politics to depress support for progressive-ish candidates which they periodically do.
Anyway, whatever, it was removed there, and it's posted here now.
So this is why this kind of propaganda works perfectly. Long story short, he really does have a deaths-head tattoo, and so it literally doesn't matter if he didn't get it for Nazi reasons, isn't a Nazi, it wasn't used exclusively by the Nazis, all that kind of stuff. All someone has to do is sound rock solid confident and say something like this, and it undoes all of that, and all of a sudden this kind of label will stick to him like glue especially when it is repeated from all kinds of different corners. Just like "AOC = genocide" based on one vote on one trivial amendment, just like "Bernie = Zionist" based on some very bizarre definitions of "Zionist," you can undo all the potential good this person can do and all the total factual wrongness of the accusation just by being simple, super-confident, and repetitious with it. That's really all you need to do. It works really well.
Anyway. Why is this always applied this way towards the most progressive candidate? And, more to the point, why don't you ever apply this electioneering energy against someone like Nancy Pelosi, or Nancy Mace, or Susan Collins, or someone who actually is part of the dark side?
I realize that by even making a long comment, I'm feeding into it. "If you're explaining, you're losing" type of thing. But anyway: Yes, it's total bullshit, it's not a Nazi tattoo any more than the swastikas on Hindu temples are Nazi symbology. It's just a death's head, he's in no way a Nazi, and all of a sudden now we're talking about that instead of about what he wants to do politically. Good job.
I'm sure there is room for a progressive candidate without a Nazi tattoo to run also. The platform seems really popular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaPgDQkmqqM&t=135s
In this case, the "positions" are "he is in any way a Nazi" vs "he is NOT in any way a Nazi," and the "next argument" is whether or not we can find anyone who isn't a Nazi in any way, instead. The frame is that having this tattoo means he's in any way a Nazi or that's relevant to this discussion.
(Watch the video for how "next argument" and "frame" line up within the propaganda technique. It's a very powerful method, it's especially effective in this type of online discussion.)