this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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A city in northern Germany has become the first to issue an all-out ban on the use of a hand gesture used to encourage silence in the classroom because of its close resemblance to a far-right Turkish gesture.

The “silent fox” gesture – where the hand is posed to resemble an animal with upright ears (the little and forefinger) and a closed mouth (the middle fingers pressed against the thumb) – has long been seen as a useful teaching tool by educators in Germany and elsewhere. It signals to children that they should stop talking and listen to their teacher.

But authorities in the port city of Bremen say the symbol is “in danger of being mistaken” for the right-wing extremist “wolf salute”, from which it is indistinguishable.

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[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 61 points 4 months ago (3 children)

So, they're just gonna let some far-right idiots ruin a much deeper and longstanding culture?

Well, done.

[–] Contravariant@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

I mean it's not the first time they've done so.

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I mean that was always the risk with banning speech. Lots of shit gets co-opted out of it's original usage. Swastika being the prime example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika. Now those with other cultures that use the symbol in completely different ways gets shafted out of their culture/religion/whatever. Now it's going to be metal heads... Which you don't really want to fuck with. We're generally a crazy bunch.

Anyway this is just fuel for them to co-opt a bunch more shit and censor/ruin cultures that they don't like. It's just like the "okay" hand gesture... Next will be "thumbs up" for some insane reasoning/logic.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

other cultures that use the symbol in completely different ways gets shafted out of their culture/religion/whatever. Now it's going to be metal heads...

Based on the description, the gesture described has nothing to do with metal heads...

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Based on the description, the gesture described has nothing to do with metal heads…

Well... one usage of it for sure does. BabyMetal has co-opted it into their shtick some decade ago. They retroactively added it to the band as they do put some of the Japanese lore into their stuff... With the kitsune (fox god) being the reference for the hand gesture itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the_horns Just scroll down and you'll see an image referencing "Yuimetal", who's from the original Babymetal lineup (original image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Babymetal_at_2015_GQ_Men_of_the_Year_ceremony.jpg).

Forget that it has other meaning elsewhere, this is just the one that I recognize immediately.

Other's that I've seen brought up..

It does however resemble the "too sweet" sign used in wrestling by backstage friends in WWF known collectively as "the kliq", later used by some of those friends in WCW's NWO and in Japan's NJPW by a group called Bullet Club.

It's the "silent fox" in germany. Used by the teacher in the Kindergarten when the kids are to loud.

Taking the hand gesture away has everything to do with EVERY culture that uses it.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Then I think "Babymetal fans" would've been a better descriptor than "metal heads", lol

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Babymetal is metal... Don't be one of those gatekeeper pricks that makes claims that certain bands aren't metal. Hell they've toured with Judas Priest. Are you also going to say Rob Halford isn't metal?

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago

Lmao... Are you being facetious?

You said that banning the gesture would upset metal heads. But the gesture is not something that's relevant to all metal heads as a group.

My first guess was that, based on the description, someone mixed up the fox gesture with the "horns" gesture (that is commonly associated with heavy metal).

[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 49 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This is also just a cutesy hand sign for "fox" in Japan, with zero alt-right symbolism. Foxes are a significant part of the mythology there, and there are all sorts of tales about leaving food for fox spirits to bring good fortune. There's even a prominent vTuber who's regularly depicted making the sign.

I wish these alt-right fuckwads would stop trying to wreck shit for the rest of the world.

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I feels like, the far right will not stop ruining thing to begin with, and with everything banned due to associated with far right movement, they will continue to evolve and adopt their gesture and symbol to further ruining everything just to trigger everyone else. That's how they empowering themselves, and people took their bait, hook, line, and sinker.

It's time to considering another way to tackle extremism than to ban symbol and hand sign.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 33 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] 30p87@feddit.de 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

That's called the "Schweigewichser" or "Silent wanker" (The middle finger gesture is commonly called "the wanker"/"Der Wichser")

[–] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 30 points 4 months ago

What about the baby metal fox god?

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 29 points 4 months ago

Baby Metal fans in shambles.

[–] mat@jlai.lu 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Imagine losing all symbols to far right because as soon as they start using it you do not fight...

[–] ahal@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How do you fight it? Go around using it at every opportunity and have people think you're a far right sympathiser? They'll believe that before they believe you're simply passionate about symbols.

[–] mat@jlai.lu 4 points 4 months ago

In this particular case it could be to just keep it as its silence meaning. And more generally it could be associating it with more positive symbols like the lgbtq flag, or a socialist rose in France (this is a poor example because the fren socialist party always betray but it is the spirit). If each time they start to use a symbol we stop using it, they the only possibility left for the symbol is to be for the far right. But if you keep using it for the original meaning, it should be good. It happens with the triskell (beton symbol). It was used by a SS section from britain but now it is still used to represent Bretagne (like the gwen Ha-Du)

[–] roboto 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I recommend replacing it with the silent middle finger.

[–] Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee 3 points 4 months ago

"I told them it means ~~peace between worlds~~ time to be quiet." -Rick

[–] Clbull@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago

Metal fans are outraged.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Here the sign is similar, but without the raised "ears", so all four fingers touching the thumb.

Though it's far less "official" as such, it's far more common to use the sign language "quiet" or "silent".

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

How will they summon the fox devil?

[–] anlumo@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

The sign means “Llama” in the sign language I’m currently learning… Guess we don’t talk about those far-right llamas.

[–] redplayer5@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Zot zot zot!

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 months ago

Oh no the quiet coyote :(

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The “silent fox” gesture – where the hand is posed to resemble an animal with upright ears (the little and forefinger) and a closed mouth (the middle fingers pressed against the thumb) – has long been seen as a useful teaching tool by educators in Germany and elsewhere.

The salute was recently the focus of a diplomatic and sporting row, when the Turkish national football player Merih Demiral used it to celebrate scoring a goal in Turkey’s round of 16 match against Austria at the Euros earlier this month.

While the symbol not banned in Germany as it is in neighbouring Austria and France, its use was condemned by interior minister Nancy Faeser, who said “to use the football championships as a platform for racism” was “completely unacceptable.”

Patricia Brandt, a spokesperson for Bremen’s education authority, said the topic of the silent fox gesture and whether to ban it had long been under discussion but the city felt it now had no choice.

The wolf salute is the symbol and identifying logo of the Grey Wolves, which is classified as a rightwing extremist group and has an estimated 20,000 members in Germany and many more outside the country.

The group, which has a long history of terrorism dating back to the 1970s, has been blamed for bomb attacks in Paris and Bangkok, and the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981.


The original article contains 622 words, the summary contains 235 words. Saved 62%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] 30p87@feddit.de 0 points 4 months ago

The beautiful thing about german bans/restrictions is intent, meaning symbols, gestures etc. are OK or not OK depending on the context and how you meant it, so eg. this sign out of context or in context of something political will be seen as offensive and illegal, a teacher doing that in a classroom is of course ok. That means that most symbols/gestures can't just be claimed by Nazis, so that actual humans can't use them anymore without fear of being seen as a Nazi. Bremen apparently ... didn't understand that.