Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Finger counting gives away your nationality

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 160 posts

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#131

Post by nirui »

polka_haunts_us wrote: post #126
yogenpro wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for being ignorant but sincere question: where / which culture considers the V gesture offensive? I'm assuming the V gesture you are referring to is the one that consists of holding up both index finger and middle finger, rather than the one with thumb and index finger.

In various countires with relation to the UK Commonwealth, it's equivalent to giving someone the finger. If you do with a bit of an elbow swing it basically translates to "Shove it up your ass"

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#Origins

> This origin legend states that English archers believed that those who were captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V sign was used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against the French.

I guess that's all the keywords needed in order read the original comment fully.

... It must be somewhat awkward to play Rock Paper Scissors among friends. LOL

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#132

Post by peterburkimsher »

undersuit wrote: post #125
yogenpro wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry for being ignorant but sincere question: where / which culture considers the V gesture offensive? I'm assuming the V gesture you are referring to is the one that consists of holding up both index finger and middle finger, rather than the one with thumb and index finger.

IIRC you aren't supposed to hitchhike with a thumbs up in New Zealand, so I'm guessing we're dealing with a Kiwi. :)

Really? I just moved to NZ a couple of years ago and don't know how to drive, so will be wanting to hitchhike! What is a better gesture?

"I’ve always used the traditional thumb approach (the norm for NZ)."

https://churnewzealand.com/hitchhiking-in-new-zealand/

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#133

Post by refenestrator »

anigbrowl wrote: post #112
refenestrator wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we're all idiots who got taken in on this by 4chan. The symbol became irresistible to that guy after watching liberals lose their minds at it. If it hadn't bothered the libs, it would have no use to him.

I think you're missing the point that they would have just rolled with some different symbol instead. People like this don't become violent as a result of liberals losing their minds, obviously. Semantic quibbling over the provenance of the symbol is a distraction from the violent ethos and activities of those who adopted it.

The leader of the proud boys once stuck a dildo up his ass, on stage, in order to "own the libs". It's documented, you can look it up.

I think you're underestimating lib owning as a motivational factor for these guys.

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#134

Post by ncmncm »

I was told while in eastern Europe that, in Russia, you signal numbers by tucking fingers. Just the thumb tucked: one, thumb and forefinger: two, a fist: five.

It is all very arbitrary. The Quentin Tarentino scene was very unconvincing. Fassbinder's character was well travelled, and could have any number of reasons for having a different habit. I bet there were and are places in Germany that differ from the common form, and even that match the English convention; and places in England that match Germany's. (But probably not Russia's.)

Similarly, somebody who left their shoe at the scene of a firefight, if not stupid, would toss the other one immediately.

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#135

Post by omegalulw »

jawns wrote: post #5

There's a distinction to be made between counting on one's fingers and communicating a number with one's fingers. You can easily communicate numbers 1 through 10 to just about anyone around the globe by holding up the corresponding number of fingers. But when it comes to 11 and up, you're generally not going to be able to communicate those numbers in a universally recognizable way. (Although "flashing" one's hands to…

> it's possible to use your fingers to count to numbers

This is tangential, but why do people count to themselves using fingers? Why not just count in your head?

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#136

Post by pandaman »

ncmncm wrote: post #134

I was told while in eastern Europe that, in Russia, you signal numbers by tucking fingers. Just the thumb tucked: one, thumb and forefinger: two, a fist: five. It is all very arbitrary. The Quentin Tarentino scene was very unconvincing. Fassbinder's character was well travelled, and could have any number of reasons for having a different habit. I bet there were and are places in Germany that differ from the common fo…

From my experience of growing up and living in Russia, I have not seen anybody showing numbers like this. People do count by tucking fingers but if they show a number to somebody else they show it with straight fingers, starting with the index and ending with the thumb. Could be some regional thing, Russia is pretty big.

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#137

Post by darren_ »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #132
undersuit wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC you aren't supposed to hitchhike with a thumbs up in New Zealand, so I'm guessing we're dealing with a Kiwi. :)

Really? I just moved to NZ a couple of years ago and don't know how to drive, so will be wanting to hitchhike! What is a better gesture? "I’ve always used the traditional thumb approach (the norm for NZ)." https://churnewzealand.com/hitchhiking-in-new-zealand/

NZer, have never heard anything about not using thumbs-up for hitchhiking.

I also can't imagine anyone (at least in NZ), who would be otherwise inclined to give you a ride, somehow getting irate about it either.

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#138

Post by iakh »

sorbits wrote: post #90
jawns wrote: post #5

There's a distinction to be made between counting on one's fingers and communicating a number with one's fingers. You can easily communicate numbers 1 through 10 to just about anyone around the globe by holding up the corresponding number of fingers. But when it comes to 11 and up, you're generally not going to be able to communicate those numbers in a universally recognizable way. (Although "flashing" one's hands to…

> You can easily communicate numbers 1 through 10 to just about anyone around the globe by holding up the corresponding number of fingers For the numbers 6-10 China have hand gestures where number of fingers held up does not correspond to the number. I was confused by this when I wanted to buy something and the lady crossed her two index fingers. I took it to mean that the item was not for sale (out of stock), but la…

For additional context to others, it's the Chinese character for the number 10 (十)

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#139

Post by Jordrok »

paisawalla wrote: post #119
MengerSponge wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> invention of 4chan They set out to transform a symbol, and they succeeded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_gesture#White_power_symbol If you think it isn't real because it was made up, Vonnegut's Mother Night has you covered: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

No. This gentleman is not, and was not, a white supremacist: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove... He didn't lose his job because of 4chan, but because of ostensibly well-intentioned midwits who believe "4chan succeeded in transforming a symbol" and "fake things can be real". Truly, this type of rationalization is the Bell Curve meme in action. He was fired because of the reaction -- enginee…

Maybe not, but this guy sure is: https://www.axios.com/christchuch-attacks-brenton-tarrant-15...

Obviously the twitter hive-mind went too far in singling this one guy out, and SDG&E colossally fucked up in not doing basic due diligence before firing him. That doesn't change the fact though that there are people out there who do indeed use the hand sign to unironically mean exactly the things that 4chan set out to convince people that it meant. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending otherwise is nothing short of willful ignorance.

Re: Finger counting gives away your nationality

#140

Post by paisawalla »

Jordrok wrote: post #139
paisawalla wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. This gentleman is not, and was not, a white supremacist: https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove... He didn't lose his job because of 4chan, but because of ostensibly well-intentioned midwits who believe "4chan succeeded in transforming a symbol" and "fake things can be real". Truly, this type of rationalization is the Bell Curve meme in action. He was fired because of the reaction -- enginee…

Maybe not, but this guy sure is: https://www.axios.com/christchuch-attacks-brenton-tarrant-15... Obviously the twitter hive-mind went too far in singling this one guy out, and SDG&E colossally fucked up in not doing basic due diligence before firing him. That doesn't change the fact though that there are people out there who do indeed use the hand sign to unironically mean exactly the things that 4chan set out to con…

Amazing.

The false information that this gesture means anything has everything to do with that man being fired, and contributes absolutely nothing to the awfulness of the Christchurch shooting, but you feel there is somehow an equivalence? Not only that, but you think there's moral superiority afforded to you for making this observation?

Post reply on HN