How many people named Adolf changed their name after 1934?
I knew a WW2 vet whose first name was Adolf. He didn’t legally change it, but he went exclusively by a nickname. I have no stats of course, but I would imagine he was not alone in that. Other Adolfs probably started going by their middle name or something.
Oh, okay. I must’ve gotten confused.
The claim still doesn’t make sense to me, though. If people are trolling in the attempt to get the response they desire, I think the best way to deal with this nonsense is to give them the response they don’t desire. We can learn a lot from moderated message boards. Don’t we ban trolls here? Yes, because we figured out a long time ago that is the most efficient and effective way of dealing with these jerks. Ignoring them just means our forums become littered with low-effort shitposts, and it becomes hard to separate sincere posters from disingenuous ones.
I find it interesting that even among “it’s just a game” crowd, we can’t even get agreement on what kind of game is being played. And yet somehow it’s a wild and unreasonable to stretch to assume its being used in a racist manner.
Replying without reading all 4 pages, but I’ve never played the circle game via national TV. You hold the circle below your waist, preferably close to your dick, so that when someone sees it you’re tacitly accusing them of staring at said dick. That’s why you get to hit them – because they’re gay.
It’s obviously got some roots in homophobia, and I’m not saying we need to stop playing the circle game because of that, but I don’t know how you “play” the circle game by flashing the circle on TV. Who’s gay in that situation? The viewers? All of America? It just makes no sense, and I think it’s just convenient cover for trolls.
I haven’t been following this thread closely. I haven’t really been following the coverage closely - I read an article or two, and saw TV footage of the guy making an upside down OK sign on three separate occasions.
The first thing to do is not to overreact, but to give the person the benefit of the doubt. Not because racism is acceptable, but because this is a fundamental principle of justice.
The second thing to do is investigate whether this individual has promoted or condoned racism. Intention means everything, especially with regard to an ambiguous gesture. I understand, better than many, that these gestures are meant to be ambiguous. But to the vast majority of Canadians, OK means just that. Ambiguity does not by itself presume guilt.
The third thing to do is to be rational and reasonable. If there are no issues uncovered, take this as a moment to educate. Make the person a military spokesman against racism. Show the tolerance all people deserve. Resist the urge to fire the guy because his name is in the media. Unless he has a long history of these stupid views, in which case this is reasonable after a fair and unbiased examination of the issue.
What do I personally need to do? Avoid the word “outrage” which is rarely true. Trust the military will do the right thing, for reasons of fairness and self-interest. They probably will.
Yep, and progressives have to stop bombarding twitters everytime they get full of misplaced ire over a harmless symbol.
No, I dont. They have no idea is means “white supremacy” - mainly as it doesnt.
It’s exactly as **Bear_Nenno **says, a silly game played by new military people.
But we dont. And dont yell.
And yes, the circle game is exactly what it is.
and no investigation is called for.
Never heard of such a stupid thing. If that’s what these officers in training where doing, they should be reprimanded for that as well.
Again with the gay thing. How does that work when it’s “anywhere below your waist”? Could be to the side. Could be almost on the floor if you are sitting down. Doesn’t have to be over your dick.
Here is how you play with people who are not with you.
Did you click the link? Did you look at her fingers? If you did, I win
I think you mean “exact,” and no, it’s not. You’re fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of the complaint. It’s not that people suddenly decided that a previously innocuous hand gesture is racist, it’s that a bunch of racists decided to use a previously innocuous hand gesture as a way to signal their abhorrent beliefs. 99% of the time, this isn’t a problem, because context makes the intent behind the gesture obvious, and that intent is benign. In this particular case, the intent isn’t clear - the cadet is deliberately signalling something, but the message is unclear. It could be as simple as, “Ha ha, I’m making a reference to an immature game during this Very Serious Ceremony.” Or it could be support for a white ethnostate. It’s, admittedly, probably not the latter, but someone should look into it just to be sure, because white nationalists with access to military hardware and training is a very, very dangerous thing.
And everyone saying, “We shouldn’t let white supremacists take over the meaning of this gesture,” are really, really missing the point. The issue isn’t who gets to “own” the meaning of this particular gesture, the point is that white supremacism represents an existential threat to lots and lots of people, and they can’t really afford to ignore potential warning signs that someone harbors violent racist ideology.
So explain why you think us assuming it’s just a game will make it “die out” like you claimed earlier. By what mechanism will this happen?
Either they are playing a game innocently, not knowing there are mixed perceptions about the symbol. Are they are doing it with malicious intent because they know there are mixed perceptions.
Neither one of those options are “because they are white nationalists”
This will be the second time you have butt into a question I’ve directed at DrDeth, so that he can elaborate on something that makes zero sense to me. Can you please quit? Thanks.
Neither do they exclude that possibility.
It’s almost like he has an irresistible urge to explain things to certain groups of people.
Ok.
This was the first I had heard of the ok symbol (which automatically triggers the eye phone emoji) to some meant “white power”. I had always understood that gesture was a fist pump to the chest followed by the “heil hitler” extended arm routine.
This may have been linked already, but here’s a pretty good NY Times article about the appropriation of the OK sign. It’s probably paywalled for most, but here’s the key bit:
The article cites several examples, including Richard Spencer flashing the sign on Twitter.
So, again I have no idea what the cadets and midshipmen do for fun when not being trained to kill people and destroy things. I’m sure some play the circle game, just as college kids have done for years. And I’m sure some of them are white supremacists. I just want to know which these guys are. The Army and Navy academies apparently want to know too, since they’ve started an investigation. Hopefully the results will be made know soon.
“Butbutbut… that used to be a perfectly innocent salute! Let’s not let Nazis take over the Nazi salute! Just keep on doing it, everyone!”