/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>"Wanted to have an adventure and kill some people. Joined up in ‘04, did Fallujah and Ramadi, and managed both. Hell of an excellent experience."

>"There are times in this world when, for the good of tolerance and humanity, you need to kill a motherfucker. Sadly most people who are true believers in tolerance and humanity find that activity repulsive. Which I suppose is morally good, but pragmatically a shortfall."

>"Out of curiosity, what would you say to the many Marines and Soldiers who took trophies and desecrated bodies while fighting the Japanese? I find the urinating on bodies as a poor choice, but only because of the current state of media affairs. It's amusing that today killing a man isn't worthy of comment, but god forbid you display dominance. Only 50 years ago, and for the rest of the history of warfare, this stuff was pretty standard."

>"We are going to kill thousands. By the end of it, it may be millions. Our way of life is better, and if that is what it takes to prevail, let's get this show on the road. I don't disagree with your point, I just disagree with the fact you seem to think we shouldn't do it."

https://archive.org/download/graham_platner_reddit_comments/graham_platner_reddit_comments.txt

the tattoo and the racist and misogynistic stuff graham platner has said in the past were certainly red flags for me, but honestly when i actually started reading through the comments myself, i realized it's actually worse than people seem to realize. it goes beyond just teenage edgelord internet shenanigans, this is someone who seems to have a genuine fascination with killing and hurting people, he talks about it a lot and brags about it a lot, he claims that he joined the military because he wanted to kill people and that he enjoyed killing people and he constantly talks about how empowering it feels and how much he misses it.

i've known a lot of people who have served in the military and i've never known any of them to say things like this. but i have heard a few of them talk about meeting certain other members of the military who did. most people who join the military are decent normal people who join for the usual kinds of reasons - sense of duty and wanting to serve their country, having family members in the military whom they look up to and want to follow in their footsteps, seeing it as a career opportunity to build a better life for themselves, etc. and most people who have fought in combat and experienced the horrors of war don't feel very good about it and don't like to talk about it and certainly don't find it glamorous or invigorating or think of it as some kind of exciting adventure. but there is a small minority of very sick people who really do join the military just because they want to fight in a war and get to kill people and watch people die, they think that war and killing are very neat things and they talk about it and obsess over it a lot and they genuinely seem to enjoy it.

i would like to think that graham platner is not that kind of person, but reading the comments he's made over the years, he legitimately seems like a psychopath. he's expressed some remorse for the things he's said, but that's not worth very much when he's simultaneously trying to pursue a political career and running for one of the highest positions of power in american society, a position that would give him far more power and therefore far more opportunities to kill and hurt and dominate other human beings than his military career ever did. i don't think a person who has said these kinds of things should be allowed that level of power.