05-09-2019, 11:07 PM
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?
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?
![[Image: ulVdgX6.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/ulVdgX6.jpg)
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
