The rules were: if you look through the loop, you are punched in the upper arm. The puncher has to draw a bull's eye first, then punch, then the recipient must say "thank you" and the puncher must reply "you're welcome" (of course in German, i.e. bitte, danke). Any deviation from the rules is punished by a punch, to be administered in accordance with aforementioned ceremony.
Where did you grow up?
If I recall, there was an additional requirement where the ok hand had to be held below your waist, though.
I have relatives my age in new zealand, and it was also common there.
Memes have an amazing power to spread, huh?
- the person had to look directly at the ok sign
- the ok sign had to be below the waist
Played it in Ireland too!
>> When done when posing with Steve Bannon it probably means white power sign.
When a no-kidding, self-admitted, non-LARPing, Stormfront-reading, Klan- or Nazi-party member says "Yeah we've been using the OK symbol for years" then I'll believe it.
But all I've ever seen about this is leftists of a certain type asserting that it's true, with some variation of "I know it's true because all my friends and thought leaders say it's true, and you can see yourself that such people as Steve Bannon use it, and people have even been fired for doing it. Definitely true. Your move, white-supremacy-denier!"
So, no. It's a conspiracy theory, in which denial of the conspiracy is yet more evidence of the conspiracy.
Even though this new origin is a bit of the tail wagging the dog (it started as a joke on 4chan), the ok sign has taken on the meaning of a white power sign in certain situations.
Unfortunately, people have trawled old pics and attacked people for using normal hand gestures. Context and nuance appears to be completely lost on many.