
No, the OK Hand  is not a symbol of white power - robin_reala
https://blog.emojipedia.org/no-the-ok-hand-is-not-a-symbol-of-white-power/
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iron0013
Symbols only have the meaning that they are given through use. A symbol that
originally has one meaning can take on another meaning if it is used to convey
that second meaning. Just look at what happened to the word "Isis" over the
last few years--it conveys something pretty different today than it used to,
doesn't it?

Nowadays, many white supremacists use the "ok" hand symbol to communicate that
they are white supremacists. In this way, they have added a meaning to an
existing symbol.

I feel like this is obvious, and that one needs to really be leveraging their
disingenuousness to pretend to not understand it.

~~~
ahtokenmet
The obscure mountain people of Maguti use it to mean "prepare me immediately
for ritual suicide."

Clearly everyone who uses the AOK symbol should be cognizant that meanings
change, lest they be prematurely terminated.

\--

White supremacists are so isolated from Republican society that only someone
who grew up with no exposure to Republicans could believe this.

We're actually quite normal.

~~~
iron0013
White supremacists aren’t normal

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grillvogel
whats with the recent trend of articles that have condescending headlines in
this "No, X is not Y" format?

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andrewmcwatters
Maybe I'm just a simpleton, but this, traditionally, just seems like 4chan-
level trolling to me.

~~~
Nadya
The article actually mentions 4chan, so you're not wrong. That's _exactly_
where it comes from. As a troll, to screw with people who still haven't
grasped "how the internet works". Lest people have forgotten about waterproof
iPhones, microwaving your iPhone to charge it quickly, making "color crystals"
(read: mustard gas), etc. It's a case of people having a laugh at people who
really believe it's an alt-right thing. Although it may eventually become an
"alt-right" thing. Poe's law and all that. But the thing about the "alt-right"
is that they don't exactly try to hide it, most wear it as a badge of honor,
and so don't need silly secret hand symbols to signal to one another... Don't
forget that the Gay Pride flag is also a symbol of the "alt-right", so claims
/pol/, the "gathering place" of the "alt-right".

Try to explain Bowsette to people who just "don't get internet culture".
Internet culture has become a giant, collective in-joke that makes fun of
people who aren't in on the joke. Think of it like someone who always pulls
the chain of their gullible friend. Things like "Taurine is bull sperm, by the
way." to mess with their naive friend drinking an energy drink. It's that kind
of humor but on the scale of millions instead of single-digits/dozens. Ever
get a group of friends in on a joke? Now imagine if millions of people you've
never met or spoken to were in on the same joke.

I'm personally fascinated by internet culture - I "keep up" with it in the
same way other people would keep up with celebrities. The ability for ideas to
propagate across the network in the matter of days, sometimes hours, is
nothing short of amazing.

------
zbyte64
"some members of the alt-right adopted the OK gesture to signal their
identity. Many employed it, though, simply to troll liberals who had come to
believe the OK hand was a genuine hate symbol"

So it's a symbol of being a troll, got it.

~~~
lowtolerance
Some members of the National Socialist Party adopted the swastika to signal
their identity. Many employed it, though, simply to unsettle Jews who had come
to believe the swastika was a genuine hate symbol. Which it _was_.

~~~
coldtea
And many more -- billions in Asia still today -- view it as an ancient
prosperity symbol and are totally OK with it.

[https://www.tripsavvy.com/why-are-there-swastikas-all-
over-a...](https://www.tripsavvy.com/why-are-there-swastikas-all-over-
asia-3498922)

Coming back to the "OK hand". Not all insignificant cultural battles in the US
(and not even in the whole of the US, just some fringe groups) apply to the
world at large. In this here parts we use the OK hand just fine, non
ironically and non racially, and have never heard or cared for the people
mentioned in the article (either racists or trolls).

