Started a thread in GQ about innocuous things that the Nazis had ruined in Germany, the numbers “88” came up.
It’s neo-Nazi code, H being the 8th letter of the alphabet so 88 = HH = Heil Hitler.
I came across it in a Louis Theroux documentary where he interviews some neo-Nazis who listen to skinhead music where it crops up in the lyrics.
So wanted to know how well known this association was, or how obscure as the case may be.
I’ve known it for years although I can’t remember how I found out.
Any time I see an internet user name such as JoeBlow88 I’m suspicious even though it’s just as likely to be someone’s year of birth or something equally innocent.
I’ll put myself down as knowing about it for many years and not giving a shit about it for the same length of time.
I think there was once a poster here who copped grief about having 88 in his/her username.
Forgive my terrible timing.
Had no idea about it until I read it in that thread in GQ.
I think I first came across it in a thread here. There’s a Doper with the username Huerta88 that I think brought it up as a frustrating connotation…
I learned about it here in connection with the same poster mentioned by WordMan.
From Huerta88, I knew it had to do with Nazis. No idea why.
I think I learned about it from Law & Order. Or American History X.
To tack a rider question on; would you judge someone with 88 in their user name (say, if I was Mr. Kobayashi88) differently, or figure it’s just a number until proven otherwise?
I posted in that thread. I knew about 88 and 18, but 14 was a new one to me.
Nah. It is far too common for someone to have their year of birth in their username.
Heard about it here some years ago.
First I’ve heard of it, but neo-Nazis happen to be low on my watch list.
However, now that I think of it, that is an excellent “secret symbol.” A marginally creative person could even design an “88” logo which resembles a swastika but still be within a plausible deniability space.
Never heard of it before now. I would assume the vast majority of 88’s I see in handles or e-mail addresses are from birth year or year of graduation or something.
It seriously depends on the rest of the name - like, something Germanic or Nordic? I might look twice. Or references to whiteness, purity or power? Yeah, that’d do it. Otherwise, I’d figure it was just their birth year.
Kobayashi88 gets no suspicion, Wulf88 would get a little, 14Words88 would get all the suspicions, type of thing.
What does “14Words” refer to? I could Google, I know, but I don’t want to go down that particular rabbit hole right now…
+1
… or maybe a piano player? (88 keys)
The 14 words in question are the white nationalist ethos “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White Children”, itself paraphrased from Mein Kampf
Once again proving how tragically unhip I am, I had no idea that any of those numbers were secret codes.
Reminds me of when I was in high school - I knew 69 had some sort of sexual connotation, but it was years till I knew precisely what it was. I was very naive - so sue me. 