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Comment by dropit_sphere | Hacker News Reader

>The "white power" symbol was the result of a spontaneous flashmob campaign to prove that journalists will pick up and run with any ridiculous "trend" that fills their demand for racism.

If I understand you correctly, it sounds like the media took the bait?

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The media knew well it was a fake, but anything these days that can polarize people more ("You won't believe the secret symbol the alt-right uses! Click here to learn about it") it's a gold mine for them.

Unfortunately, the type of people who think it's a good idea to go around trying to invent racist symbols to try and prove that the media is fake news also happen to be the people who are coincidentally holidaying in Charlottesville in August if you know what I mean.

You're stereotyping. There was a time when we agreed it was wrong to do.

There's actually quite an important difference between making an assumption about a group of people who choose to associate and those that are a group because of an imutable characterisitic. Making assumptions about black people? Probably a bad idea, because that doesn't define who they are. Making an assumption about people who hang out with that loud racist guy? Probably fair - since they're making a choice, and that choice tells us about their charateristic, which brings us back to it not being a stereotype, it's an observation. People who hang out with wildly unhigned racists spreading conspiracy theories, are in fact, probably wildly unhinged racists.

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