[krastanov]

This reminds me a bit of how "thumb+index finger together, other three fingers up" became a "white supremacy" sign last year. It is generally an interesting dynamic when an innocuous/unrelated symbol becomes a "gang sign", not necessarily because of the actions of a "gang", but because others (even opponents) see it being accidentally used. So the "gang" starts really using the (previously innocuous) symbol to spite/make fun of the opponents that originally noticed it. I have seen it happen both among "gangs" that I see as virtuous and "right" and among groups I view as morally bankrupt.

[happytoexplain]

>because others see it being accidentally used

This isn't my observation. The OK sign was used explicitly to represent white supremacy by people who wanted to "troll" others into believing it was being used that way "earnestly". But using X symbol to represent Y is not something that is subject to earnestness nor irony - i.e. meaning follows usage, not the other way around (and that is not even considering the fact that a subset of people participating in the trolling did explicitly support white supremacy). That property is intrinsic to language. When you use a symbol to represent something, then it is being used to represent that thing. It is self-fulfilling. If I merely told you that some symbol X represented Y, then I would be lying. If I used symbol X to represent Y, and got a large enough group of other people to do it, then I am creating a new contextual meaning for symbol X. People reacting to its use are not "tricked". They are responding to a reality I have created.

[HKH2]

If you cede ground to trolls, you're just going to encourage them.

[krastanov]

Thanks for the correction! I was unaware it was troll-ish behavior from the get go.

[nautilius]

I don't see that connection. What's the 'accidental use' you're implying here? How is using the "Z" not due to "actions of the gang"(=Russians)? Thousands of trucks of the Russian Army are using it accidentally or to mock the Ukrainians because the latter "imagined" seeing it? And then the athlete stumbled into a sowing machine?

[krastanov]

You are reading a bit too much into my comment. The accidental use I am implying is that 'Z' seems to have originally stood for a merely administrative marking on forces in the west of Russia. The 'Z' evolving into a symbol of the conflict as a whole and the (Russian-perceived) righteousness is the new meaning. It turned from a administrative minutia (thousands of trucks being marked with it for logistics purposes) into a way to mock the opponent and rile up the supporter (how the athlete used it). However, according to the sibling comment, my comparison to the "ok hand sign" seems to have been flawed, because it seems the ok hand sign has been troll-ish from the very beginning.

[nautilius]

I'm just trying to make sense of your comment. "because others (even opponents) see it being accidentally used", "the "gang" starts really using the (previously innocuous) symbol to spite/make fun of the opponents that originally noticed it" are your words, not mine.

[krastanov]

I will try to rephrase, similar to my last comment. It seems the "Z" was purely administrative at first. But we see it on all the vehicles of people committing atrocities and associate it with the actions, not with administrivia. And the entities that want to perpetuate these actions notice and elevate the administrative symbol to a sign of their perceived righteousness.