Elixir
Made in America
It's not about your education Rhea. It's about you endangering people! Please be responsible;
someone might read it to mean something else, flash the wrong sign to some gangster and end up dead!
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The World is Stupid
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It's not about your education Rhea. It's about you endangering people! Please be responsible;
someone might read it to mean something else, flash the wrong sign to some gangster and end up dead!
Wow, Yeah, I really need to take responsibility for my actions! That's dire!
prideandfall
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i know i'm being kind of a pedantic shit and that this post is kind of besides the point since "pointer, index, ring" is the predominant cultural method in the US, but i do feel the need to point out that this is not universal.
different countries use different finger combinations, and to them the way we do it looks weird and off-putting.
https://termcoord.eu/2016/09/finger-counting-around-the-world/
now the US being what it is, it's one of those situations where IMO the odds of it being a white supremacy symbol are equal to the odds of it being 'weird guy does thing weird' so you never really know, i'm not weighing in on that or trying to defend this guy, i just felt the need to point out that finger gestures for numbers are not set in stone.
Elixir
Made in America
I have seen NFL refs use thumb, index and little finger to signify 3rd down, and always assumed that it was easier to discern (differentiate from 2) from a distance than index, middle and ring.
Politesse
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Are there countries where it is normal to suddenly switch to different fingers for "three"?
Shadowy Man
Contributor
I agree. And this fact was a plot point in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. But is there any reason to think this guy learned to count on his fingers somewhere outside of America?
But I also agree that absent a pattern it is difficult to distinguish between something purposeful and something weird. One data point isn’t enough.
ideologyhunter
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Zing; oh snap; or whatever. You nailed it, son. I would much rather acknowledge the "woke" business on my side of the fence than to be a rightie with a functioning brain who has to look away from the mean-spirited, gullible, hate-filled hogwash that poisons right wing media and politics. And a few key differences between those sides of the fence:
1) The GOP establishment is absolutely welded and bolted to Trump's lies about winning in a "landslide" and having it stolen. Try to get a GOP figure to admit that Biden legitmately won the election on camera. One or two will do it, the rest do not dare. Because of this, registered Republicans have polled at about 50% in the belief that the election was stolen. Staggering ignorance. Apparently your man can be trailing in the polls all of 2020, and start to announce in the spring that if he loses, it's only because the other side cheated -- and you believe it. To have this many Americans who can be lied to, and not know it, means we are in a mess.
2) The Q-Anon insanity, which polls at about one third of registered Republicans saying that it is true or partly true, shows us just how alienated from reality and basic common sense the Trump base is. To believe in the claims of Q indicates a nasty, petty mind. Right -- my political opponents operate child sex rings. This belief means that the base can be endlessly manipulated. A mess.
3) The insurrection, riot and murder spree on January 6 is evidential of a sickness in the right wing -- and look how they (the preponderance of GOP politicians) have shaped the narrative. A few of them put the blame on Trump back in January -- where are those voices now? How many of them blamed Trump on Jan. 6 but acquitted him in the Senate? How many are actually calling the rioters people who "love their country" instead of violent, deluded criminals?
4) Going back to the woke stuff that we're supposed to be moaning about -- try and compile a set of quotes from the Dem establishment where the party spokespersons or media spokespersons support all these "woke madness of the week" phenomena that get posted here so often. Good luck. We're not married to the crazy the way the Republicans are married to Trump. My lib friends and I laugh about the overboard PC stuff. But it's a tiny handful of Republicans in Washington who are willing to discuss the delusional, authoritarian slant that their party has taken. A mess for democracy.
prideandfall
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yes.
purely odd anecdote here but 'macho man' randy savage did that in all his promos for his entire career, which always seemed really weird to me when i was a kid.
prideandfall
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nope - which is why i was in no way defending or really even addressing the guy, i was only responding to the bit where two people didn't seem to know that alternate finger configurations are a thing.
LoAmmo
Member
It's also VERY commonly used in the NBA (and college basketball) to signify having made a 3-point shot. Come to think of it, I only see it that way, with middle/ring/and pinkie, never index/middle/ring. Not everything is white supremacy, folks. Get a grip.
untermensche
Contributor
Medial means towards the midline.
Lateral means away from the midline.
The fingers are designated I to V. With the thumb being digit I (one).
The dorsal surface of the hand, the dorsum of the hand, is the back of the hand, with the nails. The same with the foot.
The other surface of the hand is called the palmer surface, the palm. Same with the foot. The foot has a palm too. We walk on the palms of our feet.
Derec
Contributor
Except that they are not. Your own picture indicates that "dorsal" refers to the back of the hand, and not any particular digits.
Derec
Contributor
No, lateral would be toward the outside (left and right), and medial/lateral are an antonym pair because of our (relative) bilateral symmetry.
The opposite of dorsal would be ventral. See the image.
Digits are usually referred to by number. I is the thump, V is the pinkie, just like unter said. I am frankly shocked and chagrined that we agree on something.
Given that he counted over several different days, I do not find that explanation implausible.
Derec
Contributor
Somebody might be flashing their dorsal fingers and give themselves away as an alien or mutant or something ...
Are you, is this, you are being serious?!?
It's how I would indicate three with my fingers. Holding up the middle, ring, and pinkie is easier and more natural to me than holding up the index, middle, and ring fingers while tucking away the pinkie and thumb.
The offense archaelogists will have combed his every utterance on every social media platform for evidence that he is a white supremacist. I'm guessing they found nothing.
Derec
Contributor
And look at how the mainstream media and the preponderance of Dems have shaped the narrative - January 6th is the only riot that matters, the months long riots, arsons and armed occupations in cities like Seattle, Portland, Atlanta and Minneapolis do not matter. Surely, if January 6th is evidential of a sickness in the right wing (and I agree) then surely the months of rioting in 2020 (and before, with #BLM regularly rioting since 2014 and earlier sporadic riots, notably the 1992 LA Riots) point to a much more severe sickness in the left wing.
untermensche
Contributor
I am frankly shocked and chagrined that we agree on something.
We don't totally.
The palmer surface of the hand can be referred to as "ventral" but rarely is it referred to that way because "palmer" is a specific anatomical term for the hands and feet.
The palms are called ventral because in anatomical neutral the palms point forward.
But they can point dorsally too. That's why "palmer" is used.
zorq
Veteran Member
On a whim I investigated this claim. I checked some Slim Jim commercials but didn't see him counting with his hands. Then I investigated some of the old wrestling footage and I found a match where he won but he didn't signify 3 with middle-ring-pinky, he did it with thumb, index, middle. You can see it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT7TR9uftc4 at time stamp 17:10.
By the way this is the only alternate finger counting scheme I encountered growing up in the US. It was the one I learned first and seems to be most common in the US: index->middle->ring->pinky->thumb, or it was the one Mr. Savage used that goes index->middle->thumb->ring->pinky.
Don2 (Don1 Revised)
Contributor
I'm pretty sure I saw him pointing with his pinky.