We read Graham Platner’s whole Reddit archive. The vilification of the Maine candidate for Senate doesn’t square with what he actually wrote in his posts.
So I’ve said this before, and this is actually a perfect example: The tell for these people is how lazy the argument is.
This dude doesn’t actually believe that this Reddit discussion about Punisher skulls under this particular picture is proof that Platner knew he had a Nazi tattoo. He doesn’t even seem to be trying very hard to make you believe it. He’s just… kind of “marking time,” it seems like. Making words go together in the vague shape of an argument, with a lot of confident aggressive energy and leading to the conclusion that puts “Platner” and “Nazi” vaguely into the same landscape, and then moving on.
I have talked with people before who I disagree with (obviously) and even on Lemmy some people who I really strongly disagree with. Usually it’s fine, we just talk. But the particular bizarro-world conversational flow of something like this exchange is very unique to a particular type of Lemmy interaction, and it always comes in conjunction with some very specific political messaging.
Absolutely. It’s telling that in this new oppo campaign they’re pointing to the same Reddit comments to say he’s both a communist and a secret Nazi. Those things aren’t remotely compatible and it kind of reveals the goal isn’t to present a real critique of his past and they just want to use some combination of throwing everything against the wall and hoping one of the options strikes a chord with each individual and trying to get people to think that if there’s a lot of accusations, something must be real. You don’t have to “summarize” things that didn’t happen if you’ve got a real argument. But having a real debate wasn’t ever the purpose.
So I’ve said this before, and this is actually a perfect example: The tell for these people is how lazy the argument is.
This dude doesn’t actually believe that this Reddit discussion about Punisher skulls under this particular picture is proof that Platner knew he had a Nazi tattoo. He doesn’t even seem to be trying very hard to make you believe it. He’s just… kind of “marking time,” it seems like. Making words go together in the vague shape of an argument, with a lot of confident aggressive energy and leading to the conclusion that puts “Platner” and “Nazi” vaguely into the same landscape, and then moving on.
I have talked with people before who I disagree with (obviously) and even on Lemmy some people who I really strongly disagree with. Usually it’s fine, we just talk. But the particular bizarro-world conversational flow of something like this exchange is very unique to a particular type of Lemmy interaction, and it always comes in conjunction with some very specific political messaging.
Absolutely. It’s telling that in this new oppo campaign they’re pointing to the same Reddit comments to say he’s both a communist and a secret Nazi. Those things aren’t remotely compatible and it kind of reveals the goal isn’t to present a real critique of his past and they just want to use some combination of throwing everything against the wall and hoping one of the options strikes a chord with each individual and trying to get people to think that if there’s a lot of accusations, something must be real. You don’t have to “summarize” things that didn’t happen if you’ve got a real argument. But having a real debate wasn’t ever the purpose.