And on Jan 6: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/far-r...
And the Proud Boys: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/roger-stone-proud-boys/
Yes it started as "a joke" to troll the libs. And then became and has been used as intended.
Proud boys != white power group or white nationalist group.
So I'm not sure what you think you're correcting here.
Instead you seem to be claiming that right-wingers use the symbol, ergo it is racist or white power affiliated. That claim is false. Just because someone is a republican, doesnt make them a racist.
> The title refers to the secret hand signal used by the film's underworld gang.
Yep, agreed
> no, this has not escaped containment in to the real world
> Trolls continue to use it
?
It's not a good look to make excuses and carry the water for white supremacists by denying reality. The online world is quite real, and it has an enormous impact on the offline subset of the world that you naively consider to have a monopoly on "real".
A simple google would inform you about the reality of how that symbol is currently used in the real world, regardless of whether you consider google "real" or not. See the sibling comments and the articles and real-world photographs they link to, who took the effort to google that for you. Your argument that you've never seen any evidence is extremely weak if you refuse to look at the evidence when it's presented to you on a silver platter, and that makes you look like just another troll.
[1] https://gizmodo.com/pirate-bay-trial-watch-day-5-omg-is-this...
Pirate Bay Trial Watch Day 5: OMG, Is This Happening IRL?
The torrent trial of the century continues, and today, there are some pretty shocking revelations about just how much the prosecution knows. Is that a tinge of remorse I hear from The Pirate Bay dudes?
• The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde (aka brokep) doesn't like copyright! "I like things that are not protected by copyright, this is a non-issue."
• The prosecutor knows the secret code for talking on the internets! "When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?" The judge asks, "IRL?" The prosecutor, being with it, coolly informs the judge it means "in real life," sucka.
• Oh snap, maybe he doesn't! The Pirate Bay's Peter responds, "We do not use the expression IRL." No, everything is in real life. We use AFK—away from keyboard." This makes for a sad prosecutor: "It seems I am a little bit out of date."
This is a terminally online meme; it does not exist in the real world.
EDIT: to the replies -- no, this has not escaped containment in to the real world. Trolls continue to use it and to point out its usage by other trolls. But this is and remains an extremely common hand gesture routinely used by people with no racist overtones.
EDIT2: This is now a reply to a flagged dead comment so the only people who will see this are the people who are already in the conversation. I don't think I'll convince you, but please realize that the WaPo newsroom and twitter are not the real world. When people flash you the Ok symbol they are just signifying approval, not trying to lure you into their white supremacist world. When you give people the Ok symbol, you are expressing approval, and that is all. Nobody will think otherwise. When a white supremacist gives the Ok symbol to another white supremacist, they are expressing approval, like giving a thumbs up. There's no crypto-racist movement here that's sending secret coded messages to other crypto-racists. It's not like Bloods and Crips where flashing the wrong hand sign is going to get you beat up.