Platner Joined the Socialist Rifle Association but Claims He’s Not a Socialist

Graham Platner keeps telling media outlets he’s not a socialist. The problem is that, as recently as a few years ago, he was telling everyone he was a socialist. Politico reported last week that Platner was a frequent visitor to a subreddit called r/SocialistRA which stands for Socialist Rifle Association.

CNN first reported Thursday on Platner’s participation on the subreddit r/SocialistRA, alongside other Reddit forums where he called himself a “communist” and said that “all” police are bastards…

The posts suggest far deeper ties with socialist groups than were previously known…

“I made dumb jokes and picked fights. But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired shitposter.”…

The reddit thread r/SocialistRA, which describes itself as the “Socialist Redditor Rifle Association,” says it is unaffiliated with the Socialist Rifle Association, a left-wing group that advocates for gun rights.

In case that wasn’t clear, the r/SocialistRA has a similar name but is not directly connected to the Socialist Rifle Association, a group which has chapters around the country, including in Maine. However, a new story published today by Axios suggests very strongly that Platner was a member of the Socialist Rifle Association (the one that exists apart from Reddit) and was encouraging others to join. [emphasis added]

Posting in a Reddit politics channel in July 2020, Platner also shared a link to the left-wing Socialist Rifle Association website and encouraged a user to join the group.

“We love new folks, and you’ve likely got an active chapter in your area,” he wrote.

In another forum in August 2020, Platner talked about his local SRA chapter’s various gun courses for new members and experts and suggested he participated in the group.

“Helps we have a significant amount of combat veterans and firearms instructors who have put together a solid curriculum to build proficiency amongst our membership,” he wrote.

When you ask someone to join a group and say “We love new folks,” that clearly indicates you’re part of that group. Platner was also talking about the gun courses offered by the group and again used the same language: “We have a significant amount of combat veterans.”

So at this point, Platner is claiming he is not a socialist but he was apparently part of two different Socialist Rifle Association groups, the one on Reddit and the one with chapters around the country including Maine. Platner was living in Maine in 2020 when he made these comments.

If you follow this link you can see what the SRA is all about. Here’s a bit of their bylaws under the heading “Purpose.” [emphasis added]

The Socialist Rifle Association is an education and advocacy organization dedicated to providing marginalized communities and the working class with the education, the skills, and the advocates necessary to be effectively armed for self and community defense. We recognize all aspects of self and community defense to include (but not limited to) topics such as firearms, disaster relief, medicine, logistics, agriculture, general survival skills, and other pursuits necessary to unify and strengthen communities against the hardships of life under capitalism. We seek, advocate for, and advance an inclusive, safe, and healthy firearms culture in America to combat the toxic, right-wing, and exclusionary firearm culture in place today. We work to create a platform, environment, and community of members and like-minded individuals that are free of reactionary influences and prejudices, such as racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and other discriminatory ideologies. We maintain the necessity of and work towards the implementation of an anti-capitalist platform for protecting and promoting the inherent human right to defend oneself and one’s community.

The various chapters have their own social media accounts. The Maine SRA X account hasn’t been used this year but here are some older posts they either posted themselves or retweeted from other chapters.

History is decided in the streets, not at the ballot. Get organized like your life depends on it—because it does.

— Minnesota SRA (@SRA_Minnesota) November 6, 2024

chilling out pic.twitter.com/kfh49VaHMX

— Maine SRA (@maine_sra) January 28, 2024

Another retweet:

Happy 63rd anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution! 🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/SBuLFz3CPP

— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) January 1, 2022

Part of the community defense ethos of the SRA is the idea that cops aren’t wanted.

Whatever the suspect did, I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve shooting two people to death in a department store in broad daylight. These fascist pigs infest every community, and should be treated with the same callousness that they show us on a daily basis. https://t.co/KyT2HPom0s

— Maine SRA (@maine_sra) December 25, 2021

The Maine SRA account was created in 2019 but there are no posts prior to December 2021. I wonder if Graham Platner’s campaign asked them to clean this up the same way he deleted all of his Reddit activity?

In any case, these guys are genuine socialists who like guns and hate cops. They sound a lot like Graham Platner did on Reddit. But of course he’s right back to denying he’s a socialist.

In a statement, Platner said, “I’m not a socialist. I own a small business. I’m a Marine Corps veteran.”

He also referred to himself in one of these threads as an Antifa Supersoldier but he claims that didn’t mean anything either:

On his comments about “antifa supersoldier,” Platner said in a statement: “This was a dumb joke, like most of my old Reddit posts.”

Asked if Platner ever attended any antifa events, his campaign didn’t answer.

Take from that what you will but my own take is that Platner clearly was a socialist just a few years ago and his denials aren’t credible.

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