Posted on 09/27/2019 2:07:56 AM PDT by equaviator
Note: For reasons explained below, particular caution must be used when evaluating this symbol.
The “okay” hand gesture—in which the thumb and index finger touch while the other fingers of the hand are held outstretched—is an obvious and ancient gesture that has arisen in many cultures over the years with different meanings. Today, in a usage that dates to at least as early as 17th century Great Britain, it most commonly signals understanding, consent, approval or well-being. Since the early 1800s, the gesture increasingly became associated with the word “okay” and its abbreviation “ok.”
In 2017, the “okay” hand gesture acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters “wp,” for “white power.” The “okay” gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist.
In the case of the “okay” gesture, the hoax was so successful the symbol became a popular trolling tactic on the part of right-leaning individuals, who would often post photos to social media of themselves posing while making the “okay” gesture.
Ironically, some white supremacists themselves soon also participated in such trolling tactics, lending an actual credence to those who labeled the trolling gesture as racist in nature. By 2019, at least some white supremacists seem to have abandoned the ironic or satiric intent behind the original trolling campaign and used the symbol as a sincere expression of white supremacy, such as when Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant flashed the symbol during a March 2019 courtroom appearance soon after his arrest for allegedly murdering 50 people in a shooting spree at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The overwhelming usage of the “okay” hand gesture today is still its traditional purpose as a gesture signifying assent or approval. As a result, someone who uses the symbol cannot be assumed to be using the symbol in either a trolling or, especially, white supremacist context unless other contextual evidence exists to support the contention. Since 2017, many people have been falsely accused of being racist or white supremacist for using the “okay” gesture in its traditional and innocuous sense.
Other, similar-seeming hand gestures have also been mistakenly assumed to have white supremacist connotations as a result of the “okay” hoax. One of these is the so-called “Circle Game,” in which people attempt to trick each other into looking at an okay-like hand gesture made somewhere below the waist. Another is the hand sign of the Three Percenter movement, a wing of the anti-government extremist militia movement. Three Percenters, who are right-wing extremists but are not typically white supremacists, often make a hand gesture to symbolize their movement that uses the outstretched middle, ring, and pinky fingers to represent a Roman numeral “3.” This gesture, from certain angles, can often resemble an “okay” hand gesture and has been misinterpreted by some as a white supremacist symbol.
Because of the traditional meaning of the “okay” hand gesture, as well as other usages unrelated to white supremacy, particular care must be taken not to jump to conclusions about the intent behind someone who has used the gesture.
Laughable but epic bad timing for hair fashion, though. :)
Give me a break. Some of these organizations have lost their focus and real purpose for being.
I think they’ve simply lost their minds.
That is an accurate explanation of the use of the “OK sign” today.
And it explains perfectly why no one should jump to conclusions.
Here is another example of the Alinsky takeover of the narrative and manipulation of words and symbols.
The best response is not to react or defend.
Just calling the takeover STUPID, IGNORANT and to BE IGNORED
The only thing that works is to consistently and without let up, marginalize their damned lists.
Make the lists the butt of all jokes and point out that they are lies.
Do not ever engage in trying to PROVE that the leftists are wrong, instead diminish them and their importance in the narrative.
I will continue to use the Okay sign as long as I have fingers.
No they are manipulating the narrative for their benefit.
The ADL isn’t a serious organization and no one should really pay them any attention.
So, is the NFL and every other officiated game of football going to find way to skip 3rd down?
The “3 fingers” extended to indicate 3rd down is conventionally the last 3 fingers, not the middle 3.
Maybe cease all football for a season or two to re-educate refs at all levels of football on the right level of racial finger sensitivity.
And I won’t even mention the NASCAR 3 finger salute to former #3 Dale Earnhart, certainly those people have no role in a woke society and should just be summarily executed, they can’t be re-trained.
It isn’t just the ‘OK’ sign, the moonbats claim the ‘Sun with sunglasses’ emotion is also a white power symbol, which is pure horse$hit.
The ‘Sun with sunglasses’ is used on all the “Like a Boss” youtube clips, and those feature people of every color in the rainbow!
For me and a lot of frustrated angry Americans at this juncture, THE MIDDLE FINGER RINGS TRUE FOR ALL WHO CALL ME RACIST
Shows how much the Anti-Deformation League knows. 4chan doesn't have "members".
Disconcerting. This is one of the only emoticons that my Dad knows how to use.
Also, the #9.
Also basketball refs indicating a 3-point shot.
Everything in this country is a symbol of something. Nothing is just what it is. Everything “means” something. NO. Sometimes a red ribbon is just a red ribbon.
The kid who “shapes his fingers into a gun” is arrested and expelled from school for threatening. The pop tart is “chewed into a gun.”
Just a sign of the collective pathology that is sweeping the country.
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