Really? The CIRCLE game?

Cadets at the Army-Navy annual football game were recorded flashing a symbol that has become associated with "white power". Most of us would recognize the hand symbol on the right as the "okay" gesture and as such, pretty harmless. But in 2017, hoaxers on the website 4chan, as part of one of their juvenile plans to "trigger the liberals", started falsely claiming that the position of the fingers corresponded to the letters "W" and "P" (image on left). Their goal, was to instigate an overreaction in the media and among liberals in general to the innocuous use of the "okay" symbol.

They succeeded all too well. Actual white supremacists started using the symbol un-ironically to identify themselves to like-minded individuals.

But the use of the gesture to mean "okay" has not gone away. Then there's the "circle game". It's something that I had never heard of until the proliferation of usage of the symbol by racists. Apparently you make a circle with your thumb and forefinger and hold it by your crotch and when someone looks, you punch them. Sure.

But despite the origins as a hoax, the "okay" gesture as a symbol of white supremacy and racism has taken hold. In most cases, when not used as the traditional indication of "okay", the orientation of the hand is not as shown in the upper right, but more like how it appears to the left, or horizontally displayed.

What we are left with is a symbol that racists can use to signal their racism, but at the same time, provide plausible deniability of racist intent if challenged.

Like at the Army-Navy game.

Notwithstanding the football game being a "fun" event, these cadets were in uniform and representing the armed forces of the United States.

There is absolutely no reason for them to be signalling that something was "okay", so we default to dubious explanation that they were playing the "circle game".

I'm going to rule this "explanation" as bullshit.

The plausible deniability becomes less plausible when you consider that the right has effectively co-opted the sign and anyone using it is either using it because they are a white supremacist, or they think it's humorous to "trigger the snowflakes" by pretending to be a white supremacist. The various excuses are analogous to displaying a swastika and claiming that you're actually honoring ancient Hindu traditions or you think an SS uniform makes a cool Halloween costume.

Yes, I think it's a safe bet to conclude that those future military officers were either white supremacists or thought it was clever to openly display a white supremacist symbol.  Or were too damn stupid to see that

Circle game? I think not.