Part of what's happening is Peck's Bad Boy stuff, variations of which have been around throughout recorded history: kids shocking their elders by saying outre things or adopting strange articles of clothing or weird hairstyles "pour épater les bourgeois." Platner's tattoo and some of his comments seem to fall into that category.
Case by case one should be wary of overreacting. Keep in mind the over-the-top smear campaign triggered by a spoof photograph that ended Al Franken's valuable career in the US Senate.
Be careful of how pure you decide to be: many a movement has choked on its own purity, and watching Janet Mills go to a virtuous defeat as the cost of repudiating Platner's tattoo won't feel as good as some people seem to think. On a similar note no sensible person is sorry that the Republican lost the AG race in Virginia, even though the Democratic candidate had said some appalling things on social media. That Republican, if elected, could have done a lot of damage to Democratic efforts to revive post-Trumpian democracy in Virginia.
Part of what's happening, though, is a hell of a lot scarier than mere outrage or controversy.
There is a resurgence on the right of authentic evil, of True Belief grounded in the most vile and irrational bigotry. They have revived a corrosive, ardent, hate-fueled racism, a contempt for women, an indifference to the sufferings of the poor, and--always, eternally--they have revived the old hatred of Jews.
That had been forced briefly underground by the revelations of the death camps, but in the decades between 1945 and 2025 it was never far beneath the surface, especially on the right.
Hating the Jews is in again as right-wing podcasters grow their audiences and their influence by reassessing Hitler and concluding that the Nazis were civilization-builders and that there was no Holocaust, and that "the Jews" conspired against Christendom.
Also in again: believing that whiteness is a virtue and that (Christian) whites "built civilization." Lost, lonely, friendless, loveless young men who have no particular virtues and who build nothing at all hear these things and are drawn in. What starts as a powerful pang of emotion becomes a movement, a way of belonging, as unhinged billionaires and toxic algorithms and corrupt "influencers" evangelize.
If Democrats insist on conflating every tattoo or unseemly text or spoof photograph with actual acts and philosophies of evil, well, one thing is sure: the Republicans will be cheering them on every step of the way.
This is a keen analysis, but Jones went way too far for me in texts he sent fantasizing about murdering Republicans and Miyares was the better option, in my judgment.
Point taken. I respectfully disagree, but I see where you're coming from, and yours is a legitimate point of view.
From my perspective Miyares is a Trumpista, and would have been an enthusiastic player in the Republican tactic of weaponizing the power of the law (as opposed to the rule of law) against democracy itself. Given the independent status of the AG role in Virginia, Miyares could have done an incredible amount of damage to state Democrats and their agenda.
Jones' texts were horrific, but they reflect not true blood-thirstiness on his part--he doesn't actually want to put bullets in anyone's brain--but the social media brain-rot that has afflicted millions of people and led them to embrace repulsive memes and say outrageous things and hit 'send' without thinking twice.
I occasionally post hateful comments myself. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is necessary to fight fire with fire. But at the same time, it is imperative for those us of us who are fighting the good fight to not cede the moral high ground and become what we are fighting against.
willoughby, I agree. Myares was in lockstep with Donald Trump and with the independence of the AG office he could’ve made life very difficult for Abigail Spanberger and the Democrats in the General Assembly and the State Senate. I’ve never liked the phrase “the lesser of two evils” but I think in this case the lesser evil was substantially lesser and I have no doubt that Jones is ashamed and very regretful about what he said. I do not think it will ever happen again.
On Carlson and Fuentes, they are just far right fascist assholes.
On Platner, I'm embarrassed to admit I contributed to his campaign before all the details came out. No more. Neither he (too much baggage) nor Janet Mills (too old) appear to be what Maine needs to unseat Collins. There's got to be someone better, pleaseeeeeeee!
I think Platner is a goner but I wouldn't give up on Mills. She is a very popular governor. And it should be pointed out that Collins is hardly a spring chicken, being only four years younger than Mills. Speaking of age, why did the author note the age for both Platner and Mills but not for Collins? I expect this kind of journalistic malfeasance from the legacy media but not from the writers at the Contrarian.
You lost me referring to Graham Platner as "swarthy" (i.e., dark-skinned), unless you're referring to his skin tanned from working outside as an oysterman. For a more balanced appraisal see Michelle Goldberg's NY Times piece:
"Mask off" event? Really? Is there anyone who DIDN'T already know that MAGA is the party of racists and bigots? Not to mention MANY Republicans that went before them? I know a lot of conservatives believe that if they don't use the "n" word or do anything overt that they aren't really racist. Sorry gang, you certainly can be and I dare say that if you are actually making those distinctions in your mind then you probably are.
What we are witnessing now is what they believed "wokeness" was stopping them from doing. What they call anti-woke is simply them believing that they should have the inalienable right to be a-holes without any repercussions or pushback.
What little "masking" there was has been off for a long time.
What are they conserving? Their racism, sexism, xenophobia, misogyny and overall bigotry. It’s deeply shameful, disgusting and disturbing. MAGAtry needs to be torched once and for all.
One smallish quibble: Heritage didn't "help forge" Project 2025. Heritage sponsored and developed it, and Roberts managed the it. Give credit where credit's due.
Does anyone notice that Platner is being vilified by Democrats for a tattoo and some offensive remarks while someone like Fuentes is “ascendant“ in the Republican Party? Does anyone really believe that Platiner is a Nazi!? When will Democrats stop eating their young!?
"Across the political spectrum, there is, in fact, a desperation to activate new troves of voters."
Let's just talk MAGA. Trump is systematically alienating every sure sector of voters that he had. Conservative women. Latinos. The millions and millions on SNAP and Medicaid. Farmers, and more. Even in his beloved Florida, Cuban Americans are turning against him. Against a Republican president! For the first time ever! https://socialistcall.com/2025/11/08/trumps-deportation-policy-miami/
Angry young men are actually not a monolithic bloc and appear not to know what they support; only what they don't support. Do guys like that approve of golden ballrooms and marble bathrooms that they pay for but will never get to use? I doubt it. Pretty soon, there will be no undecided voters left.
At least as far as the right wing goes, this is a classic example of the proverb that when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
However, my suspicion is all this stuff means very little to the average voter who just doesn't follow politics that closely. People like that are more concerned about their daily life -- like the cost of necessities, taxes, etc. It's a shame, because in the long run, issues like Fuentes might be far more important than the price of eggs.
Tattoo?? Skulls crossbones whistling past the graveyard, playing the bad boy and being stupid while drunk? He sure isn’t arguing for it! Not one damn bit like Fuentes or those who court his Nazi loving screed!!! To merely say it’s not equivalent is an extreme understatement. You need to understand that a real love of Nazi ideology is a creeping evil, a green sludge you don’t dare unleash again or the 40 million+++ deaths of its previous iteration will also be an understatement. This Nazi stuff is already out of hand, beware my friends, beware!
I had not known about the skull and crossbones symbol until I saw in on an episode of PBS show "Inspector Riccardi" (season 1 ep 3) set in 1930's Italy during the rise of fascism
So Fuentes is too far right for the Heritage Foundation? I didn't think that was possible. It probably means that Heritage will decide that it needs to be even more extreme.
While Dems go into a defensive posture over these 18 y.o. tattoos … REUTERS is reporting that the current U.S. govt is basically afraid to face the world on its human rights record:
“A U.N. meeting to review the United States' human rights record opened without the U.S. on Friday, with rights groups calling the absence a worrying sign of Washington's retreat from global engagement on such issues.
The universal periodic review process is a chance for governments and rights groups to scrutinise all 193 U.N. member states' records every four to five years and recommend improvements. It is 🔹rare for a state not to attend the session.
A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. was proud of its human rights record:
"As a founding member of the United Nations and primary champion of individual liberties, 🔻we will not be lectured about our human rights record 🔻by the likes of HRC (Human Rights Council) members such as Venezuela, China or Sudan."
Amnesty International called the U.S. absence an 🔹"abdication of responsibility".
Policies under U.S. President Donald Trump, such as flights to deport migrants and a rollback of LGBTQ rights, as well as long-standing issues like the death penalty were on the agenda, according to a U.N. document.
🔹 Every government is expected to submit a report on its own record but the U.S. did not.”
Part of what's happening is Peck's Bad Boy stuff, variations of which have been around throughout recorded history: kids shocking their elders by saying outre things or adopting strange articles of clothing or weird hairstyles "pour épater les bourgeois." Platner's tattoo and some of his comments seem to fall into that category.
Case by case one should be wary of overreacting. Keep in mind the over-the-top smear campaign triggered by a spoof photograph that ended Al Franken's valuable career in the US Senate.
Be careful of how pure you decide to be: many a movement has choked on its own purity, and watching Janet Mills go to a virtuous defeat as the cost of repudiating Platner's tattoo won't feel as good as some people seem to think. On a similar note no sensible person is sorry that the Republican lost the AG race in Virginia, even though the Democratic candidate had said some appalling things on social media. That Republican, if elected, could have done a lot of damage to Democratic efforts to revive post-Trumpian democracy in Virginia.
Part of what's happening, though, is a hell of a lot scarier than mere outrage or controversy.
There is a resurgence on the right of authentic evil, of True Belief grounded in the most vile and irrational bigotry. They have revived a corrosive, ardent, hate-fueled racism, a contempt for women, an indifference to the sufferings of the poor, and--always, eternally--they have revived the old hatred of Jews.
That had been forced briefly underground by the revelations of the death camps, but in the decades between 1945 and 2025 it was never far beneath the surface, especially on the right.
Hating the Jews is in again as right-wing podcasters grow their audiences and their influence by reassessing Hitler and concluding that the Nazis were civilization-builders and that there was no Holocaust, and that "the Jews" conspired against Christendom.
Also in again: believing that whiteness is a virtue and that (Christian) whites "built civilization." Lost, lonely, friendless, loveless young men who have no particular virtues and who build nothing at all hear these things and are drawn in. What starts as a powerful pang of emotion becomes a movement, a way of belonging, as unhinged billionaires and toxic algorithms and corrupt "influencers" evangelize.
If Democrats insist on conflating every tattoo or unseemly text or spoof photograph with actual acts and philosophies of evil, well, one thing is sure: the Republicans will be cheering them on every step of the way.
This is a keen analysis, but Jones went way too far for me in texts he sent fantasizing about murdering Republicans and Miyares was the better option, in my judgment.
Point taken. I respectfully disagree, but I see where you're coming from, and yours is a legitimate point of view.
From my perspective Miyares is a Trumpista, and would have been an enthusiastic player in the Republican tactic of weaponizing the power of the law (as opposed to the rule of law) against democracy itself. Given the independent status of the AG role in Virginia, Miyares could have done an incredible amount of damage to state Democrats and their agenda.
Jones' texts were horrific, but they reflect not true blood-thirstiness on his part--he doesn't actually want to put bullets in anyone's brain--but the social media brain-rot that has afflicted millions of people and led them to embrace repulsive memes and say outrageous things and hit 'send' without thinking twice.
I occasionally post hateful comments myself. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is necessary to fight fire with fire. But at the same time, it is imperative for those us of us who are fighting the good fight to not cede the moral high ground and become what we are fighting against.
willoughby, I agree. Myares was in lockstep with Donald Trump and with the independence of the AG office he could’ve made life very difficult for Abigail Spanberger and the Democrats in the General Assembly and the State Senate. I’ve never liked the phrase “the lesser of two evils” but I think in this case the lesser evil was substantially lesser and I have no doubt that Jones is ashamed and very regretful about what he said. I do not think it will ever happen again.
Great analysis by Tim.
On Carlson and Fuentes, they are just far right fascist assholes.
On Platner, I'm embarrassed to admit I contributed to his campaign before all the details came out. No more. Neither he (too much baggage) nor Janet Mills (too old) appear to be what Maine needs to unseat Collins. There's got to be someone better, pleaseeeeeeee!
I think Platner is a goner but I wouldn't give up on Mills. She is a very popular governor. And it should be pointed out that Collins is hardly a spring chicken, being only four years younger than Mills. Speaking of age, why did the author note the age for both Platner and Mills but not for Collins? I expect this kind of journalistic malfeasance from the legacy media but not from the writers at the Contrarian.
Good point. Contrarian, do better before you get included in the MSM.
Correction: Mills is five years older than Collins. Still, that's not much of a difference.
Planter is still leading in all of the polls.
You lost me referring to Graham Platner as "swarthy" (i.e., dark-skinned), unless you're referring to his skin tanned from working outside as an oysterman. For a more balanced appraisal see Michelle Goldberg's NY Times piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/opinion/graham-platner-democrats.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yU8.3gDO.lQ7BJVJCdj56&smid=url-share
I'm not at all sold on Platner, but putting him in the same sentence with Fuentes is like putting Trump in the same sentence as truth or decency.
"Mask off" event? Really? Is there anyone who DIDN'T already know that MAGA is the party of racists and bigots? Not to mention MANY Republicans that went before them? I know a lot of conservatives believe that if they don't use the "n" word or do anything overt that they aren't really racist. Sorry gang, you certainly can be and I dare say that if you are actually making those distinctions in your mind then you probably are.
What we are witnessing now is what they believed "wokeness" was stopping them from doing. What they call anti-woke is simply them believing that they should have the inalienable right to be a-holes without any repercussions or pushback.
What little "masking" there was has been off for a long time.
What are they conserving? Their racism, sexism, xenophobia, misogyny and overall bigotry. It’s deeply shameful, disgusting and disturbing. MAGAtry needs to be torched once and for all.
One smallish quibble: Heritage didn't "help forge" Project 2025. Heritage sponsored and developed it, and Roberts managed the it. Give credit where credit's due.
Does anyone notice that Platner is being vilified by Democrats for a tattoo and some offensive remarks while someone like Fuentes is “ascendant“ in the Republican Party? Does anyone really believe that Platiner is a Nazi!? When will Democrats stop eating their young!?
Really! I am reminded of Obama’s tan suit & Michele’s bare arms!
Double standards are heavily applied.
Dems must walk on the purest waters while R’s slosh about in moral swamplandia.
Yes!
"Across the political spectrum, there is, in fact, a desperation to activate new troves of voters."
Let's just talk MAGA. Trump is systematically alienating every sure sector of voters that he had. Conservative women. Latinos. The millions and millions on SNAP and Medicaid. Farmers, and more. Even in his beloved Florida, Cuban Americans are turning against him. Against a Republican president! For the first time ever! https://socialistcall.com/2025/11/08/trumps-deportation-policy-miami/
Angry young men are actually not a monolithic bloc and appear not to know what they support; only what they don't support. Do guys like that approve of golden ballrooms and marble bathrooms that they pay for but will never get to use? I doubt it. Pretty soon, there will be no undecided voters left.
So true, however, will these groups remember this come the midterms?
At least as far as the right wing goes, this is a classic example of the proverb that when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
However, my suspicion is all this stuff means very little to the average voter who just doesn't follow politics that closely. People like that are more concerned about their daily life -- like the cost of necessities, taxes, etc. It's a shame, because in the long run, issues like Fuentes might be far more important than the price of eggs.
Tattoo?? Skulls crossbones whistling past the graveyard, playing the bad boy and being stupid while drunk? He sure isn’t arguing for it! Not one damn bit like Fuentes or those who court his Nazi loving screed!!! To merely say it’s not equivalent is an extreme understatement. You need to understand that a real love of Nazi ideology is a creeping evil, a green sludge you don’t dare unleash again or the 40 million+++ deaths of its previous iteration will also be an understatement. This Nazi stuff is already out of hand, beware my friends, beware!
I had not known about the skull and crossbones symbol until I saw in on an episode of PBS show "Inspector Riccardi" (season 1 ep 3) set in 1930's Italy during the rise of fascism
Well said! Dangerous young men become seasoned politicians in a flash, and those seem even more dangerous since they control the levers of power.
So Fuentes is too far right for the Heritage Foundation? I didn't think that was possible. It probably means that Heritage will decide that it needs to be even more extreme.
EVIL EVIL EVIL!!!
The devil is ingrained in these two.
Thank you. Tim, for clearing my head on what is actually happening here…
While Dems go into a defensive posture over these 18 y.o. tattoos … REUTERS is reporting that the current U.S. govt is basically afraid to face the world on its human rights record:
“A U.N. meeting to review the United States' human rights record opened without the U.S. on Friday, with rights groups calling the absence a worrying sign of Washington's retreat from global engagement on such issues.
The universal periodic review process is a chance for governments and rights groups to scrutinise all 193 U.N. member states' records every four to five years and recommend improvements. It is 🔹rare for a state not to attend the session.
A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. was proud of its human rights record:
"As a founding member of the United Nations and primary champion of individual liberties, 🔻we will not be lectured about our human rights record 🔻by the likes of HRC (Human Rights Council) members such as Venezuela, China or Sudan."
Amnesty International called the U.S. absence an 🔹"abdication of responsibility".
Policies under U.S. President Donald Trump, such as flights to deport migrants and a rollback of LGBTQ rights, as well as long-standing issues like the death penalty were on the agenda, according to a U.N. document.
🔹 Every government is expected to submit a report on its own record but the U.S. did not.”
— Nor did Israel, for obvious reasons. 🫥🫥🫥