obama ok

The finger-and-thumb OK hand gesture – which is also a popular emoji – has now been added to the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Hate Symbols Database.

This was announced last Thursday in an official ADL press release. It listed a number of other alt-right memes which have become popular online that have been added to the database.

The Anti-Defamation League is a Jewish progressive United States-based lobby group which fights against perceived antisemitism and other forms of “bigotry”. It claims to defend democratic ideals and civil rights for all through information, education, legislation and advocacy.

Its Display of Hate™ database is the go-to guide for the mainstream media in deciding what to report as examples of hate speech. Its power and influence in this regard is similar to that of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC’s list of hate groups and individuals is taken by the media as gospel truth.

Evolution of OK hand gesture

The ADL’s original entry in its hate symbol database about the Okay Hand Gesture contains a disclaimer that says ‘For reasons explained below, particular caution must be used when evaluating this symbol’ as it was an ‘obvious and ancient gesture that has arisen in many cultures over the years with different meanings’.

The ADL correctly identified that the political usage of the OK hand gesture began as a ‘hoax by members of the website 4chan [and] became a popular trolling tactic” with the hand-making the shape of the letters “wp,” for “white power.”

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However, the ADL has now concluded that in 2019 the gesture had become used as a “sincere expression of white supremacy”. The ADL cited its use by Brenton Tarrant in his March 2019 courtroom appearance after being charged for 51 murders following the Christchurch mosque shooting.

Because of its use by one mass murderer to symbolise white supremacy, to then claim it is the modern-day equivalent of the Nazi salute, which was used by millions of genuine devotees to Adolf Hiter’s National Socialism, is an absurd comparison.

The radical far-left was already convinced that anyone who flashed the symbol was a white supremacist. The reality was that at the very worst, they were most likely trolling. Since the left takes the ADL as basically the international arbiter of what is universally accepted as hate speech, they now believe the OK hand gesture now always means white supremacy.

Renewed Progressive White Supremacist Hunt

Fuelled by this new ADL decree, progressives were energised into a fresh round of online dumpster-diving to discover which of their political enemies had ever used the OK sign in any context.

They believed they had uncovered a national political scandal when they dug up a photo the Morrison family had taken with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Kirribili House in Sydney on May 7 this year. Scott Morrison’s wife Jenny has her left hand in front of her daughter’s and it appears to take the shape of the OK symbol.

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These progressives have demanded a response from the Prime Minister’s Office about why Jenny Morrison made the OK hand gesture. Posted on the offical Liberal Party of Australia Twitter feed on May 7, the photo is still up at the time of writing and has not been doctored.

Thankfully, sanity is prevailing and this accusation against Jenny Morrison has been confined to a few unhinged leftist Twitter activists. No mainstream media outlet has run with such an absurd story.

The social media radicals recently accused Peter Dutton supporter and businessman Eddie Kocwa of SCD American Vehicles of being a white supremacist.

They dug up a five-year-old photo of him flashing the OK symbol as part of their campaign targeting his business for releasing an ad featuring Peter Dutton visiting the business, promoting Dutton as the baddest MP.



Other ADL-Defined Hate Symbols

In the ADL press release stating the OK hand gesture was being added to the Hate Symbols Database, other symbols the ADL was adding to the list were the burning of neo-Nazi symbols, the slogan “Diversity = White Genocide” and images of the “Happy Merchant”.

The Happy Merchant is a cartoon of a historical stereotypical looking Jewish man acting greedy. It is used in alt-right memes and as profile pictures of alt-right troll social media accounts.

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Those who have used the OK hand gesture in the past, whether based on its historical uses or in the modern right-wing troll form, should continue to use it. Just because some choose to interpret it as a symbol of white supremacy doesn’t make it so. Resist the leftist pressure and slander.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
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Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.

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