I keep hearing that we can’t make the “OK” symbol anymore because “the symbol has been co-opted by White Supremacists…”
Wait wait wait… “has been co-opted”?! No… no absolutely not. Why do they get to “co-opt” something from the rest of us?
And don’t you dare use the passive voice like that… it hasn’t “been co-opted” by them, we’ve allowed them to “co-opt” it. We are complicit, because we are a society that no longer has the strength of its convictions, nor any belief in our basic decency, nor any civilizational confidence, nor any ability to stand up and say “no, you don’t get to do that anymore.” They, whomever “they” are, don’t get to co-opt a commonly-used hand gesture unless the rest of us allow them to do it.
Screw that… and screw the White Supremacists… all six of them. The OK symbol does not mean White Supremacy… it means “OK”.
That’s it. Full stop.
Here’s how this would work in a rational society. Some dude makes the OK symbol on TV or in a photograph. then some woke blue checkmark douchebag screams “So-and-so is a White Supremacist! He made the symbol for White Supremacy, REEEEEEEE!” And then all of the rest of us would say “sit down and shut up, asshole, that’s the symbol for OK.” And then the news media, instead of saying “So-and-so made a symbol that has been co-opted by White Supremacists and should maybe be cancelled…” they would say “So-and-so made the symbol for OK, maybe relax, and if you can’t do that, then go away.”
And then in a year or two, no one would ever associate the OK symbol with White Supremacy ever again.
Simple.
Unfortunately, it’s also something that could only be done in a rational, healthy society, and we are obviously not living in one of those anymore.