Facebook bans far right groups

[Baylor]

Yes, there are "straight" white supremacists like the Christchurch shooter who use the symbol "unironically" and then you have someone who likes Pepe the frog and has a flag of kekistan who is using it to troll people.

I suppose that such a person mightn't be racist, they're just very comfortable amongst racists and uncomfortable amongst non-whites, but that would be a really stupid thing to believe.

In the case of the alt-right Pepe-the frog crowd, they're wanabe hipster racists pretending to make a pretend racist sign, but one which accurately signals their racism to their friends.

If you are fourteen and think you are an edgelord, this might be convincing and amusing with the wafer-thin deniability that it's only a pretend racist sign. If not, it isn't.

Need I remind you of your defense of UK police doing the Jihadi hand gesture a mere months after a Muslim extremist murdered little girls at a pop concert?

"The gesture has been used by jihadis for years, including high profile ones like Osama bin Laden. Within the jihadi context, the raised index finger takes on political meaning as well, widely rejecting any form of government not under Shariah law," .

The one finger salute is a common symbol in Islamic extremism. Unlike the 'ok' symbol, it has been that way for many years. Skeptics were convinced it was nothing but an innocuous symbol. That's why it's ok for UK police to do it, even with Muslims.

https://i.imgtc.com/iUiQryz.jpg

What Information Analyst said about it is priceless. Just change "ISIS" to "white supremacists."

Or maybe because most people - including coppers - don't spend all day wanking themselves into a frenzy over ISIS videos, they're unaware of the meaning that you insist the gesture can only have?

 

[jimbob]

Yes, there are "straight" white supremacists like the Christchurch shooter who use the symbol "unironically" and then you have someone who likes Pepe the frog and has a flag of kekistan who is using it to troll people.

I suppose that such a person mightn't be racist, they're just very comfortable amongst racists and uncomfortable amongst non-whites, but that would be a really stupid thing to believe.

In the case of the alt-right Pepe-the frog crowd, they're wanabe hipster racists pretending to make a pretend racist sign, but one which accurately signals their racism to their friends.

If you are fourteen and think you are an edgelord, this might be convincing and amusing with the wafer-thin deniability that it's only a pretend racist sign. If not, it isn't.

Need I remind you of your defense of UK police doing the Jihadi hand gesture a mere months after a Muslim extremist murdered little girls at a pop concert?

"The gesture has been used by jihadis for years, including high profile ones like Osama bin Laden. Within the jihadi context, the raised index finger takes on political meaning as well, widely rejecting any form of government not under Shariah law," .

The one finger salute is a common symbol in Islamic extremism. Unlike the 'ok' symbol, it has been that way for many years. Skeptics were convinced it was nothing but an innocuous symbol. That's why it's ok for UK police to do it, even with Muslims.

https://i.imgtc.com/iUiQryz.jpg

What Information Analyst said about it is priceless. Just change "ISIS" to "white supremacists."

Or maybe because most people - including coppers - don't spend all day wanking themselves into a frenzy over ISIS videos, they're unaware of the meaning that you insist the gesture can only have?

I'm not sure what your point is.

We are *not* talking about "most people" we are talking about avowed white supremacists like the Proud Boys or the Christchurch shooter. They want people to interpret it as a symbol of white power. We have said multiple times that the vast majority of its use is as the OK sign and nothing to do with white supremacy.

Similarly, if Islamic militants make a finger symbol associated with ISIS, then that's probably a reference to it. If a random person does it, it could be that they are pointing upwards. In the example of the police doing that in the photo, as Information Analyst says it looks like someone might have trolled those police officers. That is all.

If someone with no history of white supremacy or even a history of fighting racism uses the OK symbol, it is probably intended to be taken as the OK symbol. If a group of white supremacists make a similar hand gesture to the OK symbol but in an odd manner - it is fair to assume they're intending it to be interpreted as a white power symbol. If someone from the Alt-Right makes that symbol, then again, being immersed in the culture where that has been used as a white power symbol, it can be considered a knowing use as a white power symbol.

 

[Belz...]

Thank you for being a well spoken voice of reason on this otherwise ****** forum.

Interesting that you characterise guilt-by-association, black-and-white thinking and pretense at mind-reading (Trump voters may not think they are racist, but _I_ know they are!) to be a "voice of reason".

 

[uke2se]

https://medium.com/s/story/does-the-ok-sign-actually-signify-white-power-or-what-6cf3309df985

Ok-sign was used by the extreme right before it became a "hoax" on 4-chan. ADL were wrong.

Case closed?

Just a repeat of this as some people seemed to miss it. The "OK" sign was used as a racist symbol before it became a troll on 4chan.

 

[luchog]

Just a repeat of this as some people seemed to miss it. The "OK" sign was used as a racist symbol before it became a troll on 4chan.

Well that is extremely informative; but not at all surprising given what we know about contemporary white supremacist propaganda techniques. I think people don't give them nearly enough credit for their media savvyness and the sophistication of their tactics. Culturally, we're still mired in this view of white supremacists as unintelligent, uneducated, backwoods hicks, when in truth they're often highly educated and intelligent, and hold positions of considerable socio-economic power.

 

[caveman1917]

You see, to people in Africa, Obama symbolizes hope. To many people in America, he symbolizes a great moment in history, where our country finally came of age.

Indeed, when Bush went after Iraq he had to make a whole show about it and only managed to kill about a million people due to the after effects. Obama on the other hand not only managed to throw US support after the Saudi intervention in Yemen but did so silently with almost no media attention given to it. And what a great moment it was indeed, we're not talking 1 million victims, not 2 million, not even 10 million...but 14 million on the brink of starvation. As the Guardian points out, the largest humanitarian crisis in living memory. If that's not the country finally coming of age then I don't know what would be.