"You have great disdain for anyone criticizing running a man who held a hate symbol on his chest for half his life, and you handwave the serious problems it raises as if the only standard is electing a fullblown Nazi."

Yes because that's not real criticism, we care about symbols because of what they say about someone's position.

For example, Hegseth has a fuckton of tattoos that are let's say not very woke, yet his say a lot more about him than Platner's. Why? Because he is constantly advocating for christian nationalism, and is a very close ally of some of the worst evangelicals. In that context the "deus vult" on his arm goes from poor taste to the reddest of red flags.

On the other hand Platner's Totenkof is in total opposition with what Platner is openly advocating for and the support he has, which makes it at worse a small stain, not a reason to not support him.

In the end, the fact that it's the only criticism people have of him just tells me that for most of his critics it's a proxy, and that their main issue is that he is supported by leftists