As a SCUBA diver the ๐ hand symbol has been a symbol of our trade for many decades now. It is the diver-sign for "I am safe" so it has a deep and important meaning for SCUBA divers. But a few ignorant people see fit to call it a right dog whistle or even so far as hate speech. Now apparently a huge group of people who are attached dearly to the meaning of that symbol, particularly because of how many of our fellow divers we have lost to the depths, are told we are racist or alt-right because of what that symbol means to us or how we use it. It's so sad that people resort to such simplistic views of the world to fuel their own hate.
@freemo
Have you seen this interpretation as racist symbol in Europe too? Being in Italy I had no clue
@arteteco
I've never seen it used as a hate symbol. But in the UK they recently got it added to a list of symbols that are defined as hate speech. I've also had many people on Mastodon throw a fit about that symbol in my direction a.while back.
The joke being aimed at the kind of people that can't step out of their constant offended-at-everything status, it was taken at face value despite being an obvious attempt at cheap laughs.