The Circle Game or Neo Nazi symbol?

[BmorePat87]

So anyone who was a teenager between the 80's and now probably played a version of a game where you try to get your friends to see you making a circle with your thumb and index finger below your waist. If you do, you get to punch them. Many call it the circle game.

With the rise in social media, this game had a resurgence with people who once played it. You could see NFL players doing it. Jennifer Lawrence and her male costars were doing it in interviews. Lil Wayne did it on the cover of Rolling Stone. It was on an episode of Malcolm in the Middle 15 years ago.

A year or so ago, 4chan set out on a campaign to make people think it meant white power (with the middle, ring, and pinky fingers being a W and the circle being the P). It was pretty successful. People ran with it in the media, and the fact that enough people were doing it made people think that it was true.

A cop got fired for doing it in a photo. At some point actual neo nazis began to use it, either as mockery or because they realized it is the perfect cover as a game.

Fast forward to a few days ago, and a fan at the Cubs game flashed the symbol behind a black reporter and got a lifetime ban from Wrigley. He was immediately branded a racist for it. A decent chunk of the population has never heard of it so they only know it now as an alleged white supremacist symbol.

Should a very small amount of people using it as code take away from the original context?

[Belsnickel]

This is a tough one. I am intimately aware of this game, and have found myself wondering why it seems people are bringing it back. Are people making the sign with their hands above the waist just not aware of the game and don't know what they are doing, or is there a covert white supremacist symbol at play? Honestly, I don't know, and honestly it is one reason why this hasn't been something that I have been overly concerned about.

I do think the whole thing about it being used to mean "white power" has been in the news enough that anyone that catches flak for it when they are claiming to just be funny or play the circle game is a moron. Just my two cents.

[*bfine32*]

I think we look too hard to find hate. I remember when the Covington Kids were making news as white supremacists and there was a story of them making this symbol at a basketball game every time someone made a 3-Point shot.

I never knew why it was equated with racism until you explained it just now. I assume giving the OK symbol is still....OK.

[BmorePat87]

(05-09-2019, 11:16 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: This is a tough one. I am intimately aware of this game, and have found myself wondering why it seems people are bringing it back. Are people making the sign with their hands above the waist just not aware of the game and don't know what they are doing, or is there a covert white supremacist symbol at play? Honestly, I don't know, and honestly it is one reason why this hasn't been something that I have been overly concerned about.

I do think the whole thing about it being used to mean "white power" has been in the news enough that anyone that catches flak for it when they are claiming to just be funny or play the circle game is a moron. Just my two cents.

I think it was brought back because nostalgia is big and social media added a new outlet for playing it with friends. I think the majority of those doing it above the waist are just doing it wrong, not necessarily trying to have it mean something coded. 

I get your point at the end, but there are definitely people who don't know it's new meaning. 

(05-09-2019, 11:16 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I think we look too hard to find hate. I remember when the Covington Kids were making news as white supremacists and there was a story of them making this symbol at a basketball game every time someone made a 3-Point shot.

I never knew why it was equated with racism until you explained it just now. I assume giving the OK symbol is still....OK.

And they weren't even doing the symbol. For the "circle game", you do it upside down like this:





They were just doing an okay symbol that I've seen before in basketball and idiots thought it was something else when it wasn't even upside down and below the belt.

[Benton]

This is something that's becoming the norm, unfortunately.

Somebody thinks up a "great" idea, and people run with it. If you want to make something mainstream, just lump it in with something else on social media. Hell, we have literal Nazis protesting survivor events https://tinyurl.com/y4tyaypb and people who say 'Well, the term Nazi gets applied too liberally, so they're lots of good Nazis.'

The issue is always in the intent. If the guy making the symbol behind the reporter was doing it in the spirit of the game, no foul. If he's a racist moron, foul. Without knowing any more than 'some guy made the symbol behind a black reporter' it's not possible to know.

My daughter and I make the symbol all the time. We've done it since binge watching Malcom in the Middle. I don't plan to stop. Why? Because I'm not a Nazi.

[Bengalzona]

A game, eh?

We never played that particular game. If you wanted to punch someone, you just waited until there were no adults around and you punched them. If you felt like there needed to be an explanation for punching them, you just said something like "F*** you, d****head!"

I suppose we weren't into game playing that much.

[BmorePat87]

(05-10-2019, 12:01 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: A game, eh?

We never played that particular game. If you wanted to punch someone, you just waited until there were no adults around and you punched them. If you felt like there needed to be an explanation for punching them, you just said something like "F*** you, d****head!"

I suppose we weren't into game playing that much.

Didn't play any games with the dinosaurs?

[GMDino]

(05-10-2019, 12:01 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: A game, eh?

We never played that particular game. If you wanted to punch someone, you just waited until there were no adults around and you punched them. If you felt like there needed to be an explanation for punching them, you just said something like "F*** you, d****head!"

I suppose we weren't into game playing that much.

Yeah I never heard of it until a couple years ago.  My kids knew what it was.  I thought it was dumb.

But when I was young there were "punch bugs" and if really didn't like someone you played Red Rover.  

[Au165]

Kind of like those posters from the 90's, if you stare at something long enough you can find hidden meaning in things. We are at a point where everyone is out to assume the worst in everything. It's not a Liberal or Conservative thing, it's simply a human thing at this point. I think the internet is a great thing, but one thing it has done is allowed people to go find fringe meanings in everything then spread that narrative.

[GMDino]

(05-09-2019, 11:38 PM)Benton Wrote: This is something that's becoming the norm, unfortunately.

Somebody thinks up a "great" idea, and people run with it. If you want to make something mainstream, just lump it in with something else on social media. Hell, we have literal Nazis protesting survivor events https://tinyurl.com/y4tyaypb and people who say 'Well, the term Nazi gets applied too liberally, so they're lots of good Nazis.'

The issue is always in the intent. If the guy making the symbol behind the reporter was doing it in the spirit of the game, no foul. If he's a racist moron, foul. Without knowing any more than 'some guy made the symbol behind a black reporter' it's not possible to know.

My daughter and I make the symbol all the time. We've done it since binge watching Malcom in the Middle. I don't plan to stop. Why? Because I'm not a Nazi.

And that's where context comes in.

A guy wearing a nazi symbol doing it is different than you and your daughter at home.

Also have any of the folks "accused" of being white nationalists said they were playing that game?  Most of the defense I saw of them was pictures of other people making the "okay" sign.  

[BmorePat87]

(05-10-2019, 10:09 AM)GMDino Wrote: And that's where context comes in.

A guy wearing a nazi symbol doing it is different than you and your daughter at home.

Also have any of the folks "accused" of being white nationalists said they were playing that game?  Most of the defense I saw of them was pictures of other people making the "okay" sign.  

They never released the fan's name so there was no response. The club said that they wouldn't buy the excuse that it's just the game because the reporter he did it behind was black and that they didn't think that was a coincidence. They call the behavior "ignorant and repulsive" days after the club brought Addison Russell back up from the minors. Addison Russell was suspended 40 games after the MLB found that claims that he beat his wife were credible... people were quick to slam the club for this double standard.

The cops in Alabama and the cop in New Jersey both said it was the circle game. 

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

You guys are apparently unaware that /pol/ started this rumor and the media ran with it. They're trying to make leftists look foolish by claiming that common gestures are now "hate symbols". You get enough of these labeled as such by the media and the media and the left look progressively dumber with each one they swallow. They are succeeding.

[*michaelsean*]

I've never heard of the circle game, but wasn't there a lady accused of flashing a white power sign at one of Kavanaugh's hearings? Not the confirmation hearing but a different one.

[BmorePat87]

(05-09-2019, 11:07 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: A year or so ago, 4chan set out on a campaign to make people think it meant white power (with the middle, ring, and pinky fingers being a W and the circle being the P). It was pretty successful. People ran with it in the media, and the fact that enough people were doing it made people think that it was true.

(05-10-2019, 11:07 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: You guys are apparently unaware that /pol/ started this rumor and the media ran with it.  They're trying to make leftists look foolish by claiming that common gestures are now "hate symbols".  You get enough of these labeled as such by the media and the media and the left look progressively dumber with each one they swallow.  They are succeeding.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

Boy is my face red. Sorry brother, don't know how I missed that. BTW, their next target is the thumbs up gesture.

[*michaelsean*]

(05-10-2019, 11:33 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Boy is my face red.  Sorry brother, don't know how I missed that.  BTW, their next target is the thumbs up gesture.

First rule of P&R.  Don't apologize.  Double down.  

[oncemoreuntothejimbreech]

Let's start the rumor the middle finger means, "You're #1!"

[*michaelsean*]

(05-10-2019, 11:43 AM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: Let's start the rumor the middle finger means, "You're #1!"

When did it stop meaning that?

[oncemoreuntothejimbreech]

(05-10-2019, 11:46 AM)michaelsean Wrote: When did it stop meaning that?

This is the type of gaslighting I'm talkin' 'bout.

[Bengalzona]

(05-10-2019, 08:28 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Didn't play any games with the dinosaurs?

(05-10-2019, 09:07 AM)GMDino Wrote: Yeah I never heard of it until a couple years ago.  My kids knew what it was.  I thought it was dumb.

But when I was young there were "punch bugs" and if really didn't like someone you played Red Rover.  

We did have one game. One of my older brothers would shout "Padiddle! I saw a _______ (fill in the blank: car with one headlight out, purple volkswagon, truck with an alien driving it, etc.)" and punch me in the arm as hard as he could. BTW- There was never a car with one headlight out, purple volkswagon, truck with an alien driving it, etc. The sick bastard just wanted to punch me. I would make a derogatory speculation concerning his sexual gender preferences and smack him in the face. My father, at the wheel of the car, would reach around and slap both of us in the face and tell us to shut up. He had a rare ability of being able to smack everyone in the backseat of the car with his right hand while keeping the car completely straight with his left and and never taking his eyes off the road. It was truly amazing. That would end the "game".

I didn't much like that stupid game.