"Thumbs-Up": When a (universally-understood) positive gesture goes BAD

[Sugar Smack]

I'm a child of the seventies. All of us in America, everyone with a thumb, expressed approval & enthusiasm with the signal. There are so many pics from that time onward indicating joy or sarcasm from children and adults of every background. I myself was making the gesture up until, I don't know, 3 years ago?

I loathe it now. I've lost all regard for the "thumbs up". I have no use for it. I've seen too, too many pictures of pasty rich powerful ugly nasty cruel old men using it. And their slimy, mean smiles. It feels like they're giving me the finger.

Sometimes, this is how it's done, I think: working on people's heads, turning the meaning of something around completely. Incidentally, if I wanted to destroy another nation from within, I'd start with its very language, and I think this is no different.

[Ohiogal]

1. This is what really did it in for me.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/09/politics/trump-baby-photo-el-paso/index.html

[enough]

2. Truly.

[Sugar Smack]

10. That in particular was among the most

odious things he could have done that day.

Surrounded by women in scrubs, double thumbs up in another pic. They have their hands all over him. He has on the ugliest smile.

[Sugar Smack]

4. That was a SLAP in the face, horrible.

I'd long-been done with thumbs-upping anything (even on social media).

For you, this symbol agrees with me at the moment:

[smirkymonkey]

20. That was one of the most sickening things he has ever done.

He is a vile, disgusting man.

[Skidmore]

3. Trump and the

right have coopted and spoiled so many of the symbols commonly used in the culture at large.

[brush]

7. Yes, also the A-ok sign. It now signals white supremacy.

[djg21]

22. Don't scuba dive.

The thumbs up and ok signs are universally used to communicate underwater.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

5. He has a truly odd shaped thumb...

It’s as if he sucked it well into adolescence.

And another sign sent down the crapper... the “ok” sign...now it’s all white supremacy.

[Sugar Smack]

6. Exactly- the "OK" sign.

That's another gesture I saw just EVERYONE in the 70s using. All my teachers, everyone.

[Pope George Ringo II]

8. There are times I've got to use it.

During a meal out, if my server asks how the food is while I'm in the middle of chewing, I either spit food, give a thumbs up, flash an OK, or make them sit there for a minute. The thumbs up seems the lesser evil.

[Sugar Smack]

9. In that particular instance,

I think what I've done (been so long since that's happened to me ) is nod at them "yes". Because if they expect me to say something back to them with my mouth full, a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, then they get what they get.

[Pope George Ringo II]

23. It's usually when I'm in a larger group.

I don't eat out by myself--I could cheerfully go the rest of my life without ever eating in a restaurant again--so if I'm doing it that means I've been dragged along on a social expedition. Given enough people in the group, a server is going to check in when somebody is eating, and I figure the decent thing to do is let the server get on with earning a living by giving the clearest answer possible as quickly as possible.

[Talitha]

11. Hitler did the same thing with the swastika.

It's actually an ancient religious symbol.

[Sugar Smack]

18. A symbol which stood for spirituality

for thousands of years.

[Wounded Bear]

24. And good luck...

It was a favorite of cowboys in the old west and showed up in many early western movies.

[Squinch]

12. Seriously? Thumbs up is ruined for you now? That's bizarre.

[Codeine]

15. He'll get thirsty in India.

[Sugar Smack]

17. What's bizarre is the "president" using it, with a smile, during a tragedy.

Thought I'd explained it in my 2nd paragraph.

[Squinch]

21. The president does a lot of disgusting things. I'm not about to allow him to control any of my

actions other than as a great incentive to vote him out.

By your argument, people should also be just too disgusted to play golf, eat chocolate cake, wave, tweet,or have a burger.

[Codeine]

13. Not thumbs up.

You’re thinking of something else entirely.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. I didn't allow the Republicans to co-opt my flag and I won't let them do it to a thumbs up.

However, the "okay" sign is one of those hand gestures that will always be suspicious if a white person does it.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. I do fist bumps with septuagenarians at the gym.

[Sugar Smack]

19. And I would do a fist bump with you too

if I saw you at the gym!