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Coast Guard member flashes white power hand signal on TV


Auburn85

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coast-guard-member-flashes-white-power-hand-signal-tv-n909856

 

Image: White Power Symbol, USCG

A member of a U.S. Coast Guard team responding to Tropical Storm Florence in South Carolina appeared to flash a white power hand gesture in the background as a captain was being interviewed Friday by MSNBC.

The man has since been removed from the Florence response operations and the incident is under investigation, said Coast Guard Lt. J.B. Zorn.

The decision from the federal agency came after heavy backlash online to the apparent gesture captured on "Live with Ali Velshi."
 

"Whatever that symbol means, it doesn't reflect the Coast Guard and our core values," Zorn said. "It won't be tolerated."

Coast Guard officials wouldn't identify the man and declined to discuss possible disciplinary action.

He flashed the signal as Capt. John Reed, commander of Florence response efforts in Charleston, South Carolina, was explaining a new tactic as the storm changed direction. A man in a red shirt was seen casually displaying the 'OK' hand signal against the right side of his face as he sat at a table in the background.

 
While the gesture appears innocuous and may have started as an online troll campaign, it has seemingly become a symbol used by alt-right supporters to "trigger" liberals with the implicit suggestion that white nationalist views have become more prominent.
 

The Coast Guard has been at the forefront of rescue operations in the Carolinas, where at least five people have died since the storm reached the coastline Friday morning.

"We’re not going to let one person detract from the good work the Coast Guard is doing in the region," Zorn said. "We're going to stay focused."

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My entire life I have used that sign to mean "OK" or something similar. I shall continue to do so, as I'm sure will millions of others. As was mentioned above, before reading this thread I had no idea there was some hand signal, hoax or not, that referred to white power.

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5 hours ago, Texan4Auburn said:

That is hilarious. They know their target audience. This reminds me of the idiot for buzzfeed? That thought that there was a KKK symbol at the World Series last year. Or Sania Kay, the bama grad that has started another twitter storm over the K Corner at a Braves Game. 

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"When held to the chest with the thumb on top, the OK sign also means “a**hole” in American Sign Language"

I just assume Trump supporters are bad at sign language, and are attempting to justify their position through self-characterization.

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4 minutes ago, HVAU said:

"When held to the chest with the thumb on top, the OK sign also means “a**hole” in American Sign Language"

I just assume Trump supporters are bad at sign language, and are attempting to justify their position through self-characterization.

There will be a SJW campaign tomorrow about racism in ASL Community....

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14 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

There will be a SJW campaign tomorrow about racism in ASL Community....

Quite possible.

In seriousness, I can see the typical 4chan troll brigade appropriating this sign for their purposes.  I don't think most of them are truly white power advocates, but idiots that get off on jokes made in poor taste. 

I can also see some some Richard Spencer types running with it, because it allows them to signal their despicable perspective while retaining enough of a cloak of plausible deniability, enabling them to gaslight the SJWs.

But...

The more angsty energy and attention given by reasonable people to these people and their silly, childish treehouse club games the more their troll positions or others white supremacist inclinations are facilitated, more media coverage, more cultural dissemination, more gaslighting. 

 

 

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I admit that I don't know what the guy in the picture is doing, but to assume that he is giving a white power sign that virtually no one has ever heard of is laughable. Maybe he is telling his family he is ok. Maybe he is putting in an ear bud. Maybe he has an earache. Maybe he is signalling that the guy in front of the camera is an ahole. Now they will have an investigation about it. I can't decide if this is more funny or more sad.

What I have learned that what you see depends, in a large part, upon what you are looking for. Everyone looking to be offended will be offended. Everyone looking to be blessed will be blessed.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coast-guard-removes-employee-from-florence-duty-over-alleged-white-supremacist-gesture/

 

"The U.S. Coast Guard says it removed one of its members from Florence duty after he made an alleged white power gesture in the background of a televised interview."

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5 hours ago, Grumps said:

I admit that I don't know what the guy in the picture is doing, but to assume that he is giving a white power sign that virtually no one has ever heard of is laughable. Maybe he is telling his family he is ok. Maybe he is putting in an ear bud. Maybe he has an earache. Maybe he is signalling that the guy in front of the camera is an ahole. Now they will have an investigation about it. I can't decide if this is more funny or more sad.

What I have learned that what you see depends, in a large part, upon what you are looking for. Everyone looking to be offended will be offended. Everyone looking to be blessed will be blessed.

In other words: you "don't know" so it's "laughable"?  :rolleyes:

 

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Maybe it's because I'm around high schoolers all the time, but they do that sign and if someone looks at it they get to punch the person who looked twice in the arm.  They freaking do it all the time.

dd4.jpg

a57.jpg

6b9.jpg

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8 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Maybe it's because I'm around high schoolers all the time, but they do that sign and if someone looks at it they get to punch the person who looked twice in the arm.  They freaking do it all the time.

dd4.jpg

a57.jpg

6b9.jpg

Reminds me of an episode of Malcolm in the Middle?

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2 hours ago, bigbird said:

Maybe it's because I'm around high schoolers all the time, but they do that sign and if someone looks at it they get to punch the person who looked twice in the arm.  They freaking do it all the time.

 

Always remember to clean, or you take three in return.

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18 hours ago, Grumps said:

Absolutely! I expect that you don't share my sense of humor, however.

With you Grumps. Always considered that the universal A okay with little thought to it. Never heard of any WP sign. Crazy

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Gosh, you guy posting all the innocent "OK" signs are just as smart as the white nationalists who chose that sign as a inside signal. :rolleyes:

Look, just like Grumps, I have no idea if that's what this guy is doing. In fact, my inclination is to say it was innocent. 

But then, I have no idea. It does seems strange that he would come under that much scrutiny by his associates (boss?)

Did anyone other than me watch the clip?  He definitely glanced at the camera before he did it.  And it does seem a rather odd to make such a gesture alongside your head.

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1 hour ago, homersapien said:

Did anyone other than me watch the clip?  He definitely glanced at the camera before he did it.  And it does seem a rather odd to make such a gesture alongside your head.

The way he did it is really suspect.  He didn't scratch his head, he wasn't adjusting anything, he checked the camera to make sure he was in the shot..m

He was either doing the childish "look at this so I can punch you" routine, which is inappropriate considering the circumstances, or he was flashing the troll, WP sign.  I assume his superiors will look further into his background to learn whether or not he is affiliated with WP groups and reprimand him accordingly.

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5 hours ago, homersapien said:

Gosh, you guy posting all the innocent "OK" signs are just as smart as the white nationalists who chose that sign as a inside signal. :rolleyes:

Look, just like Grumps, I have no idea if that's what this guy is doing. In fact, my inclination is to say it was innocent. 

But then, I have no idea. It does seems strange that he would come under that much scrutiny by his associates (boss?)

Did anyone other than me watch the clip?  He definitely glanced at the camera before he did it.  And it does seem a rather odd to make such a gesture alongside your head.

Maybe he was just making fun of people that over react to everything. I mean THAT was the point of the 4chan hoax on this.

Do you really believe that real racists ENACTED this?
Or are they just kind of riding the flow of what the 4chan-ners did?

Truth is it is likely a combination of the two, but the problem is that not every man-woman-child-grandparent that uses an okay sign is a racist. I bet that in the last year, the number of people using it as a meme and a hoax out number the WP Users by a healthy margin and that the people using it innocently because 1) those that dont pay this close attention and 2) those that really dont give a damn far out number all of them put together.

Image result for quote sometimes a  is just a

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22 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

Maybe he was just making fun of people that over react to everything. I mean THAT was the point of the 4chan hoax on this.

Do you really believe that real racists ENACTED this?
Or are they just kind of riding the flow of what the 4chan-ners did?

Truth is it is likely a combination of the two, but the problem is that not every man-woman-child-grandparent that uses an okay sign is a racist. I bet that in the last year, the number of people using it as a meme and a hoax out number the WP Users by a healthy margin and that the people using it innocently because 1) those that dont pay this close attention and 2) those that really dont give a damn far out number all of them put together.

Image result for quote sometimes a  is just a

A cigar is just a cigar except when Bill Clinton flavors it. Sorry couldn't resist:P

Some folks here love making a mountain out of a molehill.

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1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

Maybe he was just making fun of people that over react to everything. I mean THAT was the point of the 4chan hoax on this.

I agree this is a possibility, but for a Coast Guard member in a response team monitoring a serious storm situation to believe that doing this during an interview with a superior officer is a good idea shows immaturity and poor judgement.  Make your jokes in appropriate moments.

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Here is the thing that cracks me up. White guy does the OK symbol and it automatically goes white power, he is pulled from his job.

Sarah Jeong #cancelwhitepeople discusses us as goblins that must live underground due to the sun, celebrates the idea that we don't breed and could go extinct, shares her joy at being cruel to older white men and their opinions are just makes them dogs pissing on hydrants and ruining the internet, and supports the castration of white males through a lottery and not only gets a job, but said job defends her.

Lol.

ohtay.png

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1 hour ago, Texan4Auburn said:

Here is the thing that cracks me up. White guy does the OK symbol and it automatically goes white power, he is pulled from his job.

Sarah Jeong #cancelwhitepeople discusses us as goblins that must live underground due to the sun, celebrates the idea that we don't breed and could go extinct, shares her joy at being cruel to older white men and their opinions are just makes them dogs pissing on hydrants and ruining the internet, and supports the castration of white males through a lottery and not only gets a job, but said job defends her.

Lol.

Really?  That "really cracks you up"?  :rolleyes:

Did he get "pulled from his job"?  

Give us the update on this.  I haven't heard.

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