# OK vs. White Power sign?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 7, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971 "2018-09-07T20:30:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/61 "2018-09-11T00:23:34Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#):
>
> You have to admit it gets confusing. Is the OK symbol now a “proud white trash loser” sign of solidarity or merely a joke conjured up by “inbred redneck 4chan losers” devoted to trolling? I can’t sort it out.
Originally the second. It’s possible some of the first have picked up on it, but they’re hardly noteworthy enough to shift the meaning and make it into anything other than a successful troll.
So a successful troll it remains, something to make some people all angry over what they believe is a righteous cause. It makes the angry angry, it makes the trolls happy, and it makes the rest of us anywhere from mildly amused to moderately confused. Everyone wins.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/62 "2018-09-11T00:27:59Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> Originally the second. It’s possible some of the first have picked up on it, but they’re hardly noteworthy enough to shift the meaning and make it into anything other than a successful troll.
>
> So a successful troll it remains, something to make some people all angry over what they believe is a righteous cause. It makes the angry angry, it makes the trolls happy, and it makes the rest of us anywhere from mildly amused to moderately confused. Everyone wins.
Except that at the same time you are making it more and more acceptable to let people think that you are a white supremacist. And that’s what liberates the white supremacist mov meant from social disapproval.
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### Author:  [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/63 "2018-09-11T00:29:20Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> It only “looks like the way a horrible person acts” to a few really gullible people.
With [more than half the country](https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/06/opinions/trump-racism-poll-opinion-jones/index.html) convinced that the current administration is emboldening racists to unmask and express themselves publically, I wouldn’t be so confident that only a few people have this perception.
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### Author:  [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/64 "2018-09-11T00:33:40Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> After reading the WaPo explanation on it, I’m inclined to believe the second use was innocuous too. I don’t know that it was necessarily “absent-minded” or “stupid” to use the sign again.
It was stupid because it unnecessarily gave people (like yourself) an excuse to see her as a troll rather than someone more mature and sophisticated than your average 4chan basement dweller.
But we all do stupid things sometimes. To err is human.
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2018, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/65 "2018-09-11T00:34:47Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Except that at the same time you are making it more and more acceptable to let people think that you are a white supremacist. And that’s what liberates the white supremacist mov meant from social disapproval.
Then perhaps “social disapproval” should focus on actual white supremacists? It dilutes the label when you call people who troll on the internet for lulz “horrible people”. Why not save that label for, you know, actual “horrible people”? Right now, your side looks like the boy who cried “wolf” when it comes to labeling people “horrible”.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vs-white-power-sign/820971/66 "2018-09-11T02:07:09Z")
I think the GQ answer was given some time ago. I don’t see a lot of point in sending this trainwreck to another forum, but if anyone wants to continue this discussion you may open a new thread.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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