[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.