### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/1 "2018-09-07T20:30:15Z")
I’ve just moved the boulder out from the cave entrance.
What is the difference between the [‘OK’ sign](http://tripsandtipsandsocialtricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/hand-gestures-that-are-offensive-in-other-countries-ok-sign.jpeg) and the [‘White Power’ sign](https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/white-power.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&strip=all)? 😕
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### Author:  [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/2 "2018-09-07T20:41:17Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I’ve just moved the boulder out from the cave entrance.
>
> What is the difference between the [‘OK’ sign](http://tripsandtipsandsocialtricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/hand-gestures-that-are-offensive-in-other-countries-ok-sign.jpeg) and the [‘White Power’ sign](https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/white-power.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&strip=all)? 😕
It’s also the same symbol used for ‘The Circle Game’ It’s a game where you try to make the symbol in weird ways and get your friends to look at it. If they do, you get to punch them in the arm. There was a lady at the Kavanaugh hearings and I thought that’s what she was trying to do. I later learned that other people thought she was using the white power symbol.
From what I’ve read since, the white power usage is precisely because it’s identical to the OK sign. It’s intentionally trolling and meant to get people angry over the use of a relatively common hand gesture. It’s supposed to coopt it and then laugh when people are using it in its more traditional manner or when people get outraged over using a previously banal symbol.
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### Author:  [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/3 "2018-09-07T20:45:32Z")
She’s done it a second time.
>
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/4 "2018-09-07T20:53:41Z")
WTF?
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### Author:  [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/5 "2018-09-07T21:46:41Z")
This reminds me when the mayor of Minneapolis was accused of [flashing a gang sign](https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2014/11/after-the-point-a-question-of-racism-remains/).
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/6 "2018-09-07T22:59:58Z")
Follow-up question: what’s the difference between a terrorist fist jab and a fist bump?
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/7 "2018-09-07T23:03:57Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> Follow-up question: what’s the difference between a terrorist fist jab and a fist bump?
The former doesn’t exist?
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### Author:  [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2018, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/8 "2018-09-07T23:18:51Z")
One is an innocuous and common hand gesture with a long history in the US. The other started as a 4-Chan hoax but took on a life of it’s own. It has become a way to troll those who bought the hoax by some on the right. Those trolls are not limited to white supremacists.
The recently updated Anti-Defamation League Article - [How the “OK” Symbol Became a Popular Trolling Gesture](https://www.adl.org/blog/how-the-ok-symbol-became-a-popular-trolling-gesture)
Don’t feed the trolls.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2018, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/9 "2018-09-08T06:31:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I’ve just moved the boulder out from the cave entrance.
>
> What is the difference between the [‘OK’ sign](http://tripsandtipsandsocialtricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/hand-gestures-that-are-offensive-in-other-countries-ok-sign.jpeg) and the [‘White Power’ sign](https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/white-power.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&strip=all)? 😕
According to your links, the “White Power” sign has more fingers.
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### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2018, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/10 "2018-09-08T07:04:39Z")
It’s also American Sign Language for “asshole.” Irresistably apropos if you ask me.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2018, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/11 "2018-09-08T08:37:17Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> According to your links, the “White Power” sign has more fingers.
Inbreeding \*will \*get you more fingers…
OK, I know it doesn’t. Don’t lynch me.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2018, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/12 "2018-09-08T09:30:45Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#):
>
> She’s done it a second time.
>
> [https://twitter.com/The\_UnSilent\_/status/1038012286433206278](https://twitter.com/The_UnSilent_/status/1038012286433206278)
You know, when I first read about this story, I thought to myself: “Come on Dems, don’t do this. You sound like nut jobs.”
Boy was I fucking wrong.
Wow, just wow!!
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/13 "2018-09-08T23:12:27Z")
Historical anecdote about that sign:
Long ago, my dad’s final wife was in Phil Spitalny’s All Girl Band. This was in the WW II era. Sometimes, a local musician would ask to sit in with the band. If he wasn’t so hot, the gals in the band would give each other that familiar hand signal, as an inside joke. The dude would see it as “OK”, but they meant it as “zero.”
Chris was a wonderful woman; she’s gone now, and I miss her. My evil dad, not so much.
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/14 "2018-09-09T04:06:58Z")
> [@DinoR](#):
>
> One is an innocuous and common hand gesture with a long history in the US. The other started as a 4-Chan hoax but took on a life of it’s own. It has become a way to troll those who bought the hoax by some on the right. Those trolls are not limited to white supremacists.
>
> The recently updated Anti-Defamation League Article - [How the “OK” Symbol Became a Popular Trolling Gesture](https://www.adl.org/blog/how-the-ok-symbol-became-a-popular-trolling-gesture)
>
> Don’t feed the trolls.
Here’s another treatment, with pictures: [OK Symbol 👌 | Know Your Meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ok-symbol-%F0%9F%91%8C)
It’s the ok sign. But alt-right sympathizers like to use it as a 4chan alt-right gang signal.
Others use the hand sign as well. For example, [scuba divers](https://theoutline.com/post/1428/the-ok-sign-is-becoming-an-alt-right-symbol). Some talk about [taking it back](https://twitter.com/ReaganBattalion/status/1038165975022161920), which is sort of silly as nobody really owns it. But as always, troll identification requires effort and a sense of context.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/15 "2018-09-09T04:55:25Z")
Oh for fuck’s sake people, try not to be so easily trolled.
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### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/16 "2018-09-09T05:02:30Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#):
>
> Oh for fuck’s sake people, try not to be so easily trolled.
I don’t understand how this qualifies as trolling. Racist fascists, or Nazis if you prefer, adopt a pre-existing symbol to represent their repugnant ideology. Normal humans respond with alarm and disgust at the way the ideology is publicly displayed.
Applies whether the symbol if the previously-harmless OK sign or the previously-harmless swastika.
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### Author:  [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/17 "2018-09-09T05:33:20Z")
> [@TSBG](#):
>
> I don’t understand how this qualifies as trolling. Racist fascists, or Nazis if you prefer, adopt a pre-existing symbol to represent their repugnant ideology. Normal humans respond with alarm and disgust at the way the ideology is publicly displayed.
No, Racist fascists adopt a pre-existing symbol to troll the libs. Racist fascists then flash it as an alt-right 4chan gang signal.
This gives them plausible deniability. Obama, Reagan and everyone else has flashed the ok sign! Ha!
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/18 "2018-09-09T07:27:50Z")
‘W’ used to do the thumbs up sign. That’ll mean something soon. I am gonna stick to the middle finger sign as my go-to in case I need to express displeasure or irritation.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/19 "2018-09-09T13:30:02Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#):
>
> She’s done it a second time.
>
> [https://twitter.com/The\_UnSilent\_/status/1038012286433206278](https://twitter.com/The_UnSilent_/status/1038012286433206278)
Yes, she’s found a way to have fun by trolling the losers, so she does it.
Is anyone here shocked? _Anyone at all?_
Does _anyone_ here think she would have done _anything else_ upon hearing about this whole mess?
If you do, you’re absurd.
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/20 "2018-09-09T17:07:59Z")
> [@TSBG](#):
>
> I don’t understand how this qualifies as trolling. Racist fascists, or Nazis if you prefer, adopt a pre-existing symbol to represent their repugnant ideology. Normal humans respond with alarm and disgust at the way the ideology is publicly displayed.
>
> Applies whether the symbol if the previously-harmless OK sign or the previously-harmless swastika.
No, 4chan shit-stirrers adopt a pre-existing symbol and use it to troll people who WANT to see racist fascist Nazis in every corner. Trolls and con artists know that the easiest victims are the ones who want to believe.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971.md?page=2)