I'd say that Nazis did a damn fine job of taking over the swastika.
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The 'OK' hand signal - no longer acceptable?
- Thread starter PoppaBK
- Start date
I'd say that Nazis did a damn fine job of taking over the swastika.
It's fine. If somebody tries to impugn your integrity because of this, they are an asshole and either you can politely try to have a discussion about why it's ridiculous to think the gesture is racist, or ignore them completely.
This absurdity needs to stop.
This absurdity needs to stop.
that's not what this threads about at all. that's some regional thing.
OPs about neo Nazis re-appropriating previously benign gesture.
have your context right before calling people ignorant
that was some game people play where you get people to look at it, then you hit them in the shoulder. I don't know if that's the same thing as what the OPs about.
The alt-right shenanigans with it isn't even really the OK gesture so much as the circle game version. That's the one you probably want to avoid, if you feel avoiding a hand gesture is prudent.
You don't see many people called Adolf either. I suppose you could take a stand and spend your entire life constantly explaining why you're called that or why you called your kid that, if that's what you want to do.
Maybe in the west, but not in the Asian continent where it has much more spiritual connotations.
He knows what he's doing, even if he doesn't know what he's doing.
outside the US it commonly means "asshole" or some variation on that, it wasn't a white power thing until online reactionaries decided to try to make it a troll move relatively recently.
I know for a fact Italians, for example, also use it to mean something more like "asshole" so no, it isn't really just a blanket international thing lol
it reads like flipping someone off in huge swaths of the world
So already, long before this troll, you needed to recognize context to use it. This stuff isn't hard.
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I was in Asia recently and thinking about how they didn't get the memo that they were supposed to stop using it. Swastikas everywhere (meaning Buddhist temple). I can't help but think they got it right not letting the Nazis ruin their thing.
(But I can see why it was banned in Germany, etc).
fuck you imma keep doin it anyway
it's not actually a swastika i think, they're drawn a bit differently
As stated, it's all a matter of context. On its own, the sign is fine, but when you see Milo and Cernovich and alt-righters and gun nuts and Trump admin members all flashing it one can't help but be concerned.
I don't think you necessarily need to teach your kids it's bad. But if one of your kids starts flashing it in every pic all of sudden, I'd maybe try to figure out where said kid is getting it from.
I don't think you necessarily need to teach your kids it's bad. But if one of your kids starts flashing it in every pic all of sudden, I'd maybe try to figure out where said kid is getting it from.
I'm aware its still used there but you always see Westerners freak out over it not understanding. That's what I was trying to get at it with it.
It's the original swastika of course... the Nazis version should be the one that "isn't a swastika" imo ;) and yeah the difference is that traditionally, it's never on an angle like the Nazi version.
Are you being real right now? lol
The OK symbol means "OK" 99.99999% of the time...
OP
OP
Check the link I posted. It is just the regular OK hand gesture. I guess what made me concerned is that I had no idea until today of the other meaning, but it seems like most other people do. I was worried that I was so out of touch that it had become completely co-opted without me noticing.
I feel like the recent thing is people holding the symbol at length and posing with it in photos looking like dorks.
When people use it to say A-OK, they just flash it, as always.
When people use it to say A-OK, they just flash it, as always.
I'm pretty sure it's so often seen in that form because these people know they're around people who might possibly clock the intended meaning, so they're trying to be cagey about it
or just low-key hide it in a pic so it's funnier when their in group notices it.
The funny thing about choosing the OK symbol is that, yeah, Americans generally see it as an innocuous thing so co-opting it is good for a troll, but it's also almost never the type of thing you'd randomly throw up in a posed photo. Like, you almost only ever see it when you're eating something and another person asks you if it's good. Mouth full, throw out OK. There simply aren't many good reasons to pose in a photo with nothing to react to with that symbol out.
I think they intuitively get that, if not logically consider it. So they throw it low, to make it more like an easter egg. Because even if this troll attempt wasn't going on, any normal person might ask "why are you throwing up the OK in this picture with nothing going on?"
Nah. It's just yet another low-tier troll for terminally online right wingers. Worth noting, nothing more.
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Oh I see that now. I just remembered reading about this before.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brie...ce-officers-suspended-for-making-hand-gesture
It's a balancing act. Use it when appropriate, but don't let fuckheads use it then hide behind "It's just the ok sign!" when called out.
The thumbs up now means you support Nazis because I said so. Sorry, you can't use that anymore.
Honestly before the whole alt-right adoption I had no idea people still actually used the 'ok' sign. Pretty much any situation it would normally be used, a simple thumbs up has always handled the exact same function for me without looking weird.
That being said -- it's pretty simple to parse context. Just don't pose in photos with it.
That being said -- it's pretty simple to parse context. Just don't pose in photos with it.
Buddhism isn't really a thing in English-speaking countries like it is in Asia so absent any context, here a swastika is going to default to Nazism.
But if you're in a Buddhist country and you see a swastika on a Buddhist temple, you aren't in any position to ask them to remove it.
Also the circle game, but in the instance above probably not the circle game.
Whelp looks like me and the other game thought of this at the same time.
Yea it was used my middle school in a game based off this. It got really popular a few years ago and I thought died down some after.
There's not a context you would use an ok sign where someone would confuse it for you throwing a white supremecist signal, don't worry about it.
That way of orienting your hand is also used in the 305 hand sign which I throw a lot like an idiot.
That way of orienting your hand is also used in the 305 hand sign which I throw a lot like an idiot.