It started as a hoax by 4chan users. The plan was to make Leftists in the media overreact and look ridiculous for condemning the common and harmless “OK” hand gesture.
Did the plan backfire? Or did it succeed?
The Anti-Defamation League has now added the “OK” hand gesture to its list of hate symbols used by white supremacists, right along with the Swastika and the SS bolts.
According to the Anti-Defamation League report:
“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.”
If our new standard of hate symbols is that “at least some hateful people use it,” then we might wonder what will come next. Could common Christian symbols or gestures be classified as hateful? For instance, isn’t the Bible a symbol of some hateful ideas? How about hands folded in prayer? Crosses?
Or what about other common gestures such as the “thumbs up” or the “high five”? Is the American flag going to be treated as a symbol of hate?
Symbols matter. But it is a dangerous proposition to let some decide for others what forms of communication are valid and invalid. To one man, the rainbow stands for moral acceptance; to another it stands for God’s judgment of the whole earth. Use symbols wisely.
