The ludicrous link between the ‘OK’ hand gesture and racism

OPINION:

I have a theory. I believe that one day someone at the Anti-Defamation League woke up and realized they needed fresh content for their website. They drove to work, thinking about the idea that they would need to fill space on their site, then distribute this information out via their email list and social media to somehow convert it into donations. 

When they got into work, they immediately assigned this to a junior writer who they thought was relatively creative and that person scraped the bottoms of the Internet for anything that could sound offensive enough to their audience to drive clicks and dollars — and they found it. By lightly examining pictures of alt-right and other right leaning social media personalities, they found that those people were positively mocking President Trump’s overuse of the “OK” hand gesture on camera. 

Then, I think excited, this junior writer jotted down notes like: “What do all Trump supporters have in common? They hate women — they’re Nazis — they’re white supremacists — and then it hit them, clearly there is a connection between the OK hand gesture and racism, but what is it?

As they stared at the pictures knowing they needed to come up with something for their newsletter by the end of business or else their bosses would be angry at them, they figured it out: The three fingers in the air of the OK sign could be actually forming a “W” for “White”  and the “O” formed with the thumb and pointer finger isn’t an O, but rather when connected to the arm forms a “P” for “Power.” Nailed it.

They quickly wrote up a nine-paragraph piece to submit to their boss, then found an image of the “OK” sign and drew red lines all over it to illustrate how “O.K.,” now means “White Power.” Their boss loved it — quickly threw it online and sent it to their email list. The message spread far and wide.  National news editors and blue check mark liberals on Twitter who follow and believe everything they have to say sent it everywhere. 

The ADL had struck gold. They created a new way to catch white supremacists — any white person who uses the “OK” sign — and all it took was creating something out of the blue one morning when they needed content.

That same morning, I am guessing, someone woke up at Infowars and realized they needed content. The same process followed, and they may or may not have come up with something, but because Infowars, which is as extreme to the other side of the aisle as the Anti-Defamation League, doesn’t have as many blue check social media or national news editorial supporters, whatever they came up with, that had the same level of basis and creativity was ignored — just like this should have been.

Instead, what we have now is an insane thought; a conspiracy theory that the “OK” sign in any form from a white person is some symbol of racism. How far has this gone?

During the Kavanaugh hearings, we were told the female counsel behind the now U.S. Supreme Court justice was a white nationalist for flashing an inverted version of it on camera. And over the summer, a Chicago Cubs fan was banned from his favorite teams stadium for using it behind a television commentator who believed this insane conspiracy theory.

Now, our taxpayer dollars are being wasted because an Army cadet did the same thing at the Army-Navy football game. The left is attempting to ruin lives with this conspiracy theory — which is on par with anything insane and unbelievable that Infowars has ever come out with — in case you’re wondering, there’s no basement at Comet Ping Pong.

So what are these people doing if not flashing the conspiracy theory created white power symbol? They’re playing the immature, “made you look” game — which would be blown off had the left not made certain slow people believe a conspiracy theory that the ADL came up with one slow day when they needed content for their website. 

“That can’t be! They’re white nationalists!” exclaim the liberals reading my piece who believe this insanity. To which I reply, why would a white nationalist openly show their white nationalism on national television when they know that that would make them immediately unemployable and an outcast in society? Why would they risk everything for a simple hand gesture when white nationalism will never prevail and be accepted by society? The answer is they wouldn’t.

• Tim Young is a political comedian and author of “I Hate Democrats/I Hate Republicans” (Post Hill Press).