3 ms·
uh ok, apologies for not understanding all the cultural references I guess? what portion of people today in 2022 do you think see someone use U+1F44C in electr
by adamrezich 4y ago
uh ok, apologies for not understanding all the cultural references I guess?
what portion of people today in 2022 do you think see someone use U+1F44C in electronic communications and immediately think "white supremacist dogwhistle"? obviously there was a bit of a "panic" there a few years back, but hasn't pretty much everyone gotten over it by now? I use it all the time especially as a reaction-emoji in messaging services, and nobody I know (of all faiths & colors) has any issue with it. I used it all the time before, during, and after the 4chan trolling, with the latter being what I consider to be "doing my part" in not letting something so ridiculous actually take hold within my culture, because holy shit how ridiculous can you be, it's the OK sign, I've been making it all my life, I'm not going to stop doing it because some 4chan trolls (correctly, but frustratingly) thought it would be hilarious to convince everyone overnight that it was the Ultra Secret White Supremacist Hand Sign, specifically because it is so widely-used by everyone.
so going forward, do we keep pretending like "the ok hand sign" should be "white supremacist dogwhistle", just because there was a brief flash-in-the-pan 4chan trolling about it a few years ago, which a few people are (apparently???) still sensitive about? should what society determines to be "hate symbols" be exclusively dictated by the most sensitive and reactionary people in said society? if that's the rules you want to play by, go for it man, if you need me I'll be over here in Normal World where a man can pinch his index finger and thumb together without being assumed to be a white supremacist.
"abstract concepts only have the power we give them" is an absolute truth, which I am actively proving by refusing to give this abstract concept any kind of undesired power, and going out of my way to refuse to cease using said abstract concept in my day-to-day life, due to some ill-defined sense of Internet Moralism trying to exert control over me by preventing me from doing so. it has no power over me or anyone around me whatsoever, and in fact I completely forgot it was even a thing until today lmao