
4chan’s new troll campaign aims to make the hashtag a white supremacist symbol - Fjolsvith
https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/4chan-troll-campaign-bash-the-hash/
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bArray
Speaking to some people in these circles, this is quite likely in direct
response to a news piece: "High School Spends $53,000 To Reprint Yearbooks
After Students Flash Racist Symbol" [1].

[1] [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/high-school-yearbooks-
racist-...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/high-school-yearbooks-racist-hand-
sign_n_5ce6f165e4b0a2f9f28bcf63)

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bArray
I think this really highlights the stupidity of the "okay symbol". As long as
we allow people to change the meaning of words and symbols, this will continue
to happen.

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happytoexplain
How do we prevent meaning from following usage in an era where a small group
can create apparently extensive usage?

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forgottenpass
>prevent meaning from following usage in an era where a small group can create
apparently extensive usage

A good first step would be if journos stopped treating Twitter as if it were a
meaningful representation of the real world.

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cc439
Does anyone ever question the competence of the media based on their ability
to fall for such obvious bait time and time again?

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s9w
They know it's a bait. It's written in most of the articles itself. But they
can't help the urge to virtue signal. See "it's okay to be white"

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Steel_Phoenix
The most brilliant counter to this I've seen is replacing the "it's ok to be
white" paper that was removed with a blank piece of paper. Hopefully, once
seeing blank paper is sending people to the campus police, this can all come
to a truly ridiculous end.

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s9w
/pol/s campaigns can work surprising magic. The okay sign worked reasonably
well. And still the "it's okay to be white" continues to make people mad on
both sides. This one.. it'll be more difficult.

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loudtieblahblah
/pol/ works magic b/c everyone is so far up their own ass, utterly humorless,
and can't look at things in context. Nuance and context have eroded in favor
of absurd, rigid tribalism. And /pol/ pulls on that thread constantly. And as
a progressive (at a high level - a BLM, OWS, #MeToo supporting) - i find it
utterly amazing. The inability for the left and the press to have nuance, take
things with a grain of salt, have a chuckle from time to time (even at
yourselves), is their greatest weakness right now.

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ddtaylor
The world is getting dumber at an alarming rate.

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hprotagonist
Pedantry ahoy: that’s not a hashtag, it’s just a hash.

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fellellor
Honestly, this is just too funny.

Imagine if these guys chose to use their powers for good instead.

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mindcrash
If they succeed yet again it will only be more evidence Western civilization
has gone completely off the rails.

(The first time around they managed to convince nearly the entire left wing
community that the universal "okay sign" was a symbol of hate. Yes, that was
them too.)

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notnot
I don't think this will work. Excuse my nonsense logic but the swastika works
well as a symbol of hate (despite having other origins and meanings) in that
it has a single center with coherent angular spirals, the center signifying
the ego and the spirals signifying logic and order complying with it... or
something.

The hashtag has an empty center and four equal points that sort of radiate in
multiple directions... seems more oligopolistic and ambivalent than
totalitarian and opinionated.

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sdwisely
the idea is for it to be a troll _and_ a signal with plausible deniability

more along the lines of the "okay" gesture [https://www.adl.org/blog/how-the-
ok-symbol-became-a-popular-...](https://www.adl.org/blog/how-the-ok-symbol-
became-a-popular-trolling-gesture)

