Making "OK" OK again — for the right people
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Libs of TikTok satirized the incident, resulting in its instant banishment from Instagram. Facebook flagged it, and Politifact provided an “nuanced explanation” that if somehow had missed during the past five years while the media’s demonized every single instance of its use by baseball players, singers, teenagers and any user who was not simultaneously wearing BLM/Don’t Shoot/Harris/Biden 2020 underwear.
“After giving a brief overview/recap of the LoTT posts, Politifact first pointed out that the post was “flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed” before practically Zaprudering a video of the exchange. They then proceeded to make the use of the “okay” sign great again by issuing a “word of caution” to people who would see it (aka liberals, not that they noted that, of course) and automatically think “racism”:
First, a word of caution about interpreting that gesture as a white power gesture. According to the Anti-Defamation League, in 2017, members of the website 4chan falsely claimed that it represented the letters “WP” for “white power.”
“The hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist,” the Anti-Defamation League says in this article explaining the gesture. While overwhelmingly people use the gesture to signify assent or approval, “as well as other usages unrelated to white supremacy,” the league says, it has also been used as a sincere expression of white supremacy.
In this case, however, the context makes clear that Biden is using the gesture to illustrate the number zero, as in how many cents he said some corporations pay in taxes.
Related Two different presidents, two different pictures. Which one threw the Washington Post into a pearl-clutching frenzy?
