If we're going to start saying that "All lives matter" is a racist phrase because a few racists have used it as a counter to "Black lives matter" and we're going to attribute the "okay" hand symbol, which has just meant "okay" for decades to racism because a couple of racists started using it, am I to understand that the "progressive" mentality is to just bend over and let racists have any phrase or symbol that they want? I know that we've kinda been doing that for years. I mean, the swastika has been a symbol of Jainism for three thousand years and we just let the Nazis have it because of a fifteen year stretch in the 20th century. But, it seems worse now. It seems like we've come to a point where, if David Duke flashes the "peace" hand gesture, we'd let the KKK have it and demonize anybody who dared to use the symbol afterward.
That doesn't seem progressive to me. That seems like bending over and letting racists fuck us in the ass. Yeah, we can just say to racists, "Oh, you used that symbol. Okay, I guess it's yours now. I'll be sure to dox anybody who dares to use it regardless of intent." Or, we could say, "Fuck you. You don't get to own that. There are better people, peaceful people, tolerant people who have a better claim." Go ahead and shoot me for thinking that the latter option seems slightly more progressive to me.
If you think that bending over to neo-Nazis and the KKK makes you more progressive, woke, and a better anti-racist...alrighty then. I personally don't see it. You're all for punching people who wear MAGA hats while letting out and proud racists police our language? That seems like a strange strategy and it seems like your priorities are are out of whack.
Until somebody convinces me that letting white supremacists proverbially sodomize me and dictate how I'm allowed to express myself is the right way to fight racism, I'll use the "okay" gesture. When I use it, it will mean just that, "okay." To behave otherwise is simply to capitulate to the worst people available.