I can't read/watch any news outlet anymore. It's become utter trash (regardless of your political leanings.) Half the time I feel like I'm reading a tabloid publication instead of a news site.
One thing that may have influenced the NYT's decline into that strategy was their new editor, who's proudly out to poke bears: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/08/sarah-jeong-new-york-...
I find stuff like this more emotive and more suited to activism than informative, and I'm more interested in information than feelings when I read the news in the morning.
I haven't heard of this, what is the hoax?
As far as I can tell they're attempting the following:
1. Poison the OK hand-sign in political contexts
2. Wait for a politician to use it, be it as a stooge (unaware of the new association) or as a dog-whistle.
3. Wait for the media to tie the white-nationalist association and politician's use of the symbol together
4. Cry foul: "You liberal media dogs are crazy, that's just the OK hand-sign!"
5. People who are unaware that white nationalists have been using the symbol grow their distrust of the media and may become more sympathetic to white nationalists. After all, the media was 'wrong' about the hand sign. What else could they be wrong about?
Because the white nationalists are inherently duplicitous, they see no problem communicating like this - in the open until challenged, at which point it becomes a 'joke', or a 'misunderstanding', or 'media overreach'.
It's not much of a hoax.
No they're not. People have been doing this for decades. They're not white nationalists.
It's a prank by 4/8chan users. Like 'rainbow parties' and 'thigh bridge' and any number of other things created to waste time. That you (and the NYT) believe it is falling into the trap and doing exactly what they want.
Yep. 8chan is trash. There's undoubtedly some actual white nationalists there, there's also a massive amount of losers who need attention.
You and the NYT are taking what they say at face value, giving them exactly the attention they want, and rewarding their behavior ensuring there'll be more of it.
Modern, colloquial usage has strayed very far from original usage (right = pro-monarchy, left = pro-democract or anarchy)
That's why writing business news is where it's at. The ability to slant writing becomes harder, but not impossible, when you're talking about finance and prices.