So I'm a fan of meteorology and lightning storms, so when I was renovating my Twitter account, I put two lightning strikes next to my username. I thought nothing of it, really. I thought it was cute, if anything. So when I'm swarmed with a dude calling me a Nazi, I was so confused, because I never stood for anything hateful or discriminatory. So then one of my friends, they come up to me and tell me about the lightning strikes in my username, asking me about the bolts. I thought they were talking about literal bolts, like nuts and bolts. And I shook it off until it hit me. I'm looking up "two lightning bolts" and I get results for supremacy and neo-Nazism and my face instantly turns red, I was so fucking embarrassed, I'm still embarrassed. I'm glad someone got my head out of the clouds, because that was so stupid of me.
TL;DR Everyone thought I was a Nazi because I had no idea that my username icons were a hate symbol
EDIT: No, they never taught me about the "SS" symbol at school. I was a huge sucker for world history, so I definitely would've known if I were taught. I graduated in 2023
For the longest time "88" was the number I added to the end of my usernames if the one I wanted was taken. (Pianos have 88 keys and it was my favorite number.) I was upset when I found out that it has other connotations!
I feel bad for anyone born in 1988 as well
https://preview.redd.it/lgeo1oy5od6g1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7a9959e4eeb48795f6e46692bde5556f203364e3
this post reminded me of this from awhile back
I truly believed I was mature enough to never laugh about that topic, but that username at the end fucking took me out because I just somehow didn’t expect it.
Same. See ya in hell
🙃 see you there
Ill hold the door open for both of you
Dont you dare‐ you'll let out all the heat.
I laughed too. It’s dark humor yes, but it’s laughing at n*zis, not with them, it’s the proper kind of dark humor.
What? Too soon?
I've been a fan of Hello Kitty & pals since the mid 70s. I was born in 1969. I used to have an email address from Sanriotown that began "twinstar69@..." You can imagine the amount of porn-spam I would receive.
I am also a fan of Hello Kitty, and I was born in 1969. Thus my username.
Holy mother of Rasputin, that made me laff
I have this post saved, it’s so fucking funny
Holy hell, just spat on myself! Did NOT expect the last line there.
Laughing at this just moved my seat in hell a foot closer to the fire.
part of my gaming tag that was assigned to me by the company ~15 years ago includes "1188" and sometimes i wonder if people think that i chose it
As long as it wasn't 1488 you should be good.
Hello my birthday is on the 14th of a month in 1988. Thankfully i don't really use those numbers for anything but yeah that was an awkward connection to realize recently.
Lousy Smarch.
*Lousy Smarch weather.
Do not touch Willie.
Good advice
I have a friend who was born in 88AD, his older brother died in Pompeii
I'm really sorry to hear that. Any of the Plinii? Someone I'd know?
My employee number at my current job is 5 digits in length. The first 4 are 1488. Not thrilled about this.
Usually if the company’s convention for an email address winds up spelling something untoward, you can get it changed. Might be worth asking HR if you can be assigned a new employee number because yours has unfortunate connotations that you don’t want to bounce back on you or the company.
https://i.redd.it/j4tzayl94tee1.jpeg
I think there was a TIFU post once about a guy born on 1/4/1988 and he always put 1488 in his usernames until he learned very recently what that has come to mean
what's significant about the year 1488?
Nothing in particular, but 14 and 88 are both significant to Nazis. (14 refers to a 14-word racist message, and H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, so 88 stands for HH or Heil Hitler).
Just to cover my bases, fuck Nazis and their pathetic ideology.
ah, so 14 and 88, not 1488 (or 8814)
Yiiiikes someone didn't think that through
Probably never knew.
To me that's less sus than just the "88" by itself because, as others have noted, if you have two other digits and they're not "14" that says something.
This is me with "88" on the end of my name for every freaking username out there. I'm old, but apparently very naive...
Imagine how kids named Isis feel.
Worst part is that US news actively chose that acronym, it was called IS or ISIL in other news media. There literally was no need to taint a beautiful old name.
Agh, there's a Nancy Drew PC game from before then that has a wolf named Isis in it. I cringe a bit every time I play it
Yeah, I'd do 1988 from now on if I were you. It sucks, but it's better to not be viewed as a nazi if you aren't one.
I cant believe thats all people think about when they see my username: NaziHitlerLoverSS88
Feel worse for those born in 1488. F in chat for the vampires.
Nah they're old enough to have the original usernames without added numbers to make it unique lol
Not just vampires. People born on January 4 1988 or 1 April 1988 also have the problem.
And when they're old enough to start making accounts kids born on 2014 August 8 will have a similar potential issue.
😭 born in 1988 to a neo-nazi mother here... Her and her friends when I was a kid kept trying to brainwash me to say 88, that Hitler was good, etc etc.
Thank goodness I was more interested in Indiana Jones being the good guy and felt it was so wrong.
Yea, that's me. I get it allllll the time.
Man I even get it. They think im trying to obfuscate 88.
Happens so often they dont believe 80 is my birthyear
Antise-... ... 88.
Yeah, I can see that.
Ive never had any issue, been using 88 for close to 20 years now and found out last year people are trying to make it nazi.
Nah, its the speed it takes to time travel.
Also all the Dale Jr fans lol
Or Dez Bryant, or any other wide receiver that wore 88.
"You simply adopted the '88. I was born in it."
I habe 88 in my email because that's my birth year and literally nobody cares
the way i was totally unaware of the nazi connection until a few years ago 🫠
Funny because 8 is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, possibly others. In Flushing, New York there are tons of businesses that use it in their name on purpose:
There's 88rising, a record label that promotes a lot of Asian/Asian American artists
Yep, plenty of those in Minnesota too.
8 is also a lucky number in China, 88 is double lucky
Yep. Dont look what is the postal code on the Rhone department, in France
Ditto for back to the future’s 88 miles per hour
Same here, it’s wild how something totally innocent can have a whole hidden meaning you never asked for. You think you’re just picking a cool number and suddenly you’re in accidental-symbol territory.
Dog whistles only work with plausible deniability. Unfortunately for the rest of us always a risk we won’t know a second meaning.
I graduated HS in 88 & it's been the end of my email username since 99. I didn't realize it was a thing until 5 or 6 years ago, but it's been so long that I've just said fuck it
Lmao, poor pianists being called nazis
My first email address back in the msn messenger/chat room days was ''dragonworld88'. I was just a preteen girl who liked dragons and the color 8.
Synesthesia email
My favorite color is 3
Nazis ruin EVERYTHING!
I don't even know the reference for 88.... Other than that was Eric lindrow's jersey number in the NHL
H is the 8th number in the alphabet. HH was code for Heil Hitler.
Said as a person who used the numbers of two favorite NASCAR drivers as the end of my username long ago - Dale Earnhardt Jr (8) and Dale Jarrett (88) and found out afterwards... but almost no one really knows the other connotation so it's been fine.
Ah. Now I recall reading that before. I never really associate numbers with a single reference point I guess.
9/11 has meaning for many... For me, it was the day my grandmother died, but also the infamous day of 2001.
look up hurricanes on the gulf coast. we had 9/11 memorials before the one you're thinking of 😐
Ah, Katrina... I remember it somewhat, but being in Canada it wasn't as big news here.
That was in 2005, after the September 11th attacks (in 2001) and it happened in August....
Presumably they're talking about Hurricane Carla in 1961 which hit Texas on the Gulf Coast.
FWIW, I knew Dale's maternal uncle Bill Coleman (he worked with my uncle) and he told me once that Dale was a lot more liberal in private than he let on.
Is that why?! Jesus christ that's dumb.
Then again I thought it was some sort of roundabout reference to the flak 88 haha.
H is the 8th letter of the alphabet so 88 makes HH which is used as a certain slogan
Lindros
The Dallas Cowboys give #88 to standout wide receivers. To any Cowboys fan, 88 has that specific connotation.
This also means good luck in China and is used as a way to say bye. 88 that is.
I think 99% of people are just going to assume you were born in '88.
My cats were born on August 8, and 8 is a lucky number in my culture so I use 88 sometimes. Honestly I don’t care if it’s been appropriated by scum, it’s just a number
The problem is that it has been redefined whether you like it or not. The swastika was a far eastern symbol of protection from evil. Would you trust anyone who keeps proudly displaying it and constantly making that claim every time they were called out on it? Or would you distance yourself from them out of suspicion and a healthy dose of self preservation.
In the case of a swastika, the hakenkreuz (Nazi swastika) is a rotated and often flipped version of the traditional manji in Eastern cultures/religions. AFAIK, there is no use of the hakenkreuz outside of a Nazi context, so if I see a person proudly displaying that rotated swastika, I assume ill intent until proven otherwise.
In the case of the "88" suffix, though, I would assume the use is innocent until proven otherwise. As other posters have noted, there are too many benign reasons a person could have those numbers in their name (born in 1988 or August 8, or lucky numbers in some cultures) to assume that person is a goose-stepper without further evidence. We should get the facts before jumping to conclusions and give people the benefit of the doubt, and people are generally bad about this, especially on Reddit.
So no, I wouldn't assume that someone who uses "88" is a Nazi, just because there are some people who use the numbers "88" who are indeed Nazis. Besides being uncharitable, that also strikes me as a guilt by association fallacy.
I've seen enough usernames of normal people ending in 88 by now that it's started to lose the connotation. When all the people born in 1988 started cluelessly swamping social media with 88 usernames, it was a bit of a shock, because before then it had definitely been a neonazi signal.
It's never held that connotation for me, and still doesn't. Looking for vague signs that someone might be a crypto-Nazi is really terminally online behavior.
And the swastika is still common in Asia. Intent matters. If someone is going around saying Hitler did nothing wrong then by all means tell them off, but attacking someone based on a hunch is silly. Be like OP's friend; if you're curious, start with a friendly question and be open to the answer.
This is a misunderstood thing. The swastika was a symbol of good in all Indo European cultures, it is one of our oldest cultural symbols. It can be found on all kinds of pre-Nazi relics from all over Europe.
Fuck that nonsense, especially if you're trying to compare the number 88 to the swastika. If your bar to entry is, "has anyone ever used this in an offensive way" then you basically can't use anything, ever. But having a number which has a ton of other uses, vs the iconography of a group of people that caused genocide, the Holocaust, and a world war, are not the same thing.
No. If any rando can redefine whatever they feel like, then I can redefine it back. Have some backbone and don't just cede territory to every lunatic.
My opinion too.
Why do bad people get away with appropriating good things? Because we roll over and let them take it every time.
To be fair on the swastika, I think it’s different enough to the traditional manji (reversed and rotated) that you can usually derive intent based on how its displayed. I would also expect other clues in their behaviour to indicate problematic views that I wouldn’t immediately assume they were a Neo-nazi based on the symbol alone.
I don’t live in the West though, so maybe I’m naive to how bad it is over there.
Most people aren’t smart enough to know the difference unfortunately.
No you see Hitler cooped it and it can be taken back
Okay, today I learned something as well... Did not know about 88.
Yup. Peep my user name. 8 has always been my favorite number for some reason, so I just added the 8's on the end. I wonder sometimes if people think I'm evil. I have thought about changing it, but I've had this account for a long time and I don't want to have to change it because of a bunch of assholes. le sigh
Pianos are Nazis, confirmed.
My raised southern ass immediately thinks “Dale Earnhardt Jr.” when I hear 88
I'm actually bummed by how easily we back up on these things. Oh, a regular number is used in a bad connotation by a group of people? Then everybody else must stop using it, or they are also those people! Forever ever, nobody use the number 88 because some bad randos did!
Yeah, I feel that too. Feels like if we keep going down this path we're going to run out of characters and phrases that are "safe".
I was born in 1967. If I use the last two digits of my birth year, will people think I’m actually 12?
88 is honestly a bit of a terminally online thing. I've never met anyone in real life who knows about that, aside from people who are really tuned into this junk.
I was born in 88 and during the Calgary Winter Olympics in 88. The number 88 is everywhere in this city. I feel the number, at least in this city- gets a pass 🤷♀️
88 is also the speed that the car has to travel in Back to the Future
Hey, at least you're better off than the Tampa Bay Lightning fan on twitter who posted about her plan to get the number 88 tattooed because it's her favorite player's number, and two lightning bolts for the back to back Stanley Cup wins.
OH NO
That would be why I only use the storm emoji ⛈️ when tweeting about Lightning hockey, lol. And hopefully this person went to a tattoo shop that would tell her why it's a bad idea.
Is that Melissa? I feel like that's Melissa.
Good thing Stormfront no longer is online. The Boys comic called a character Stormfront to clog up web searches for it with comic search results back when it was still around. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormfront_(website))
Could do ⚡️Tampa Bay⚡️? As for the number, I got nothing. I suppose if you put a hockey jersey there maybe it’s ok?
Literally never heard of the number 88 having negative connotations before this post.
It’s a dog whistle, you’re not supposed to recognize that it’s hate speech unless you are member of the group
8=H since H is the eighth letter of the English alphabet
So 88=HH
HH=a certain exclamation used in relation towards a certain Artist turned Military & later Political Leader of a certain European country
Howdy-Ho?
Is there some major Mr. Hanky lore that I've missed? Lol
Once you see it... it's the numerical position of the letters in the alphabet. A=1, D=4, H=8 ..., and all the stuff you can make with combining these not so randomly. It's definitely worth googling before you get a tattoo... cornflowers, too many lighting bolts, the wrong religious symbol...
Having said that, I have only ever seen these numbers being used in questionable context either completely by themselves, or with other symbols, like a flag, angry dogs, knives...
I would think a jersey should be totally cool.
The random and viewable number discord gave me for my account was this preceded by 14.
It lost me opportunities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8korEU0NokQ
this is literally you
I was browsing the comments, planning on posting this exact clip if someone else hadn't 🤣
OP, surely you've seen this before, I see you're also a fan of Vinny lol
I am, yes lol, my other sibling watches NorthernLion, I think they quoted this once
+2
Was not expecting Northern Lion here. Poor bastard
Man, the accuracy is almost offensive. One clueless move and suddenly the whole internet has a lore page about you.
so fucking good man.
https://youtu.be/HWk_AXFReRg
LMFAOOO YESSS
Pun intended?
Actually...surprisingly not lol
"I never stood for anything hateful"
Erm, who exactly do you think is at the end of your beloved lightning strikes? People whose skeletons are temporarily visible, that's who. If that's not hateful, I don't know that is.
Agh fine you got me
Hahaha yesss
smite him, Zeus
I mean, calling it “hateful” when it’s literally Zeus’s branding is wild. Dude’s just out here vibing with weather emojis and caught a whole accusation.
Did you know the lighting will try to escape your body at all tips and points.... including your dick tip, thats pretty fucking hateful my dude. Be better.
Gives a whole new meaning to "ride the lightning"
Be best.
Careful, that's two strikes. One more and you're out.
I’m German and in primary school we had to make a painting with our initials. My happen to be SS and little me thought using two lightning strike was a great idea. My teacher obviously not so much and had me redo it. In the end it was a spiderweb with two S from spider string.
The co opting of symbols for propaganda never ends, because a spiderweb tattoo on the elbow is a hateful symbol too. There’s got to be plenty of innocent gothic and/or spider loving people who have this and other tattoos without knowing the potential connotation before getting tattooed.
forgive me for asking, but what does that particular symbol mean?
The spiderweb on the elbow is “cracking down” on what nazis perceive to be lesser races. Like they’re gonna beat up minorities and hit em with the elbow. There’s definitely a lot of not-Nazis out there with this tattoo though.
A key part of the Nazi cultural strategy is to co-op and corrupt as many icons as they can get their grubby inhuman hands on. Most of the symbols attributed to them today were appropriated from other cultures; the Swastika and Norse Othala rune come to mind. I wouldn't feel too bad that you weren't aware of this particular symbol.
Yeah so why do we keep letting them do that? That only works if they succeed in intimidating us from using normal ass symbols.
I get the frustration, because it does feel like letting them win when regular folks start avoiding totally normal symbols. But at the same time, someone like OP wasn’t trying to make any kind of statement, they just got blindsided by how others read it. It’s a tough balance between not letting extremists claim things and also not wanting to get misread online.
Cause people like OP hear "Nazi" and they're extremely eager to instantly self-censor. It's one of the biggest accomplishments of the people who control things, they don't really need to censor anything anymore when your users will do it themselves and write dumb stuff like unalive or r*p3 or delete lightning bolts from their username.
Yeah that’s the tricky part. People react fast because nobody wants to be associated with something awful even by accident. You can see how OP panicked once they realized how others interpreted it. It’s less about censoring themselves and more about not wanting strangers to think they’re signaling something they’d never support.
The neo nazis have stolen the sign language “ok” symbol! A hand sign I use with my long term vent patients every day! A simple gesture that shows a Deaf person you care about communicating! I’ve had to resort to this weird casual salute/see you later sign when I round but still use “ok” in assessment and direct conversation
Are we the baddies?
Reminds me of the time when a friend of mine found this cool rainbow sticker and stuck it to her car. It was a little bit before she mentioned it to me and also realized it was a gay pride sticker, though she’s not into women at all.
Accidental ally!
There was just a news article about some kids who painted a bridge rainbow colors in memory of someone’s pet who died (a literal rainbow bridge”) - it got painted over because people thought it was a pride thing.
theres a church near me that petitioned to have its street address moved 1 plot up (so two numbers) to 668 lol
meanwhile the church of satan is jealous ....
Honestly not your fuckup but whatever education system you are in. Sonething has gone wrong if you've never even seen the SS symbol.
I have a shamrock tattoo because my grandparents were off the boat and somebody asked if I was in the aryan brotherhood 😭
Fucking nazis ruin everything
They stole the shamrock now? not only the celtic cross
I have 88 in my email I've used for like two decades. Since it also includes my real name I hope people figure out it's just my birthyear.
i've seen folks get slammed on twatter for that scenario and its sad. and no that is not a typo its what i call that hellsite.
xitter is another way people refer to it these days, so that's yet another option.
OMG! I just this very minute figured out why a random guy was going off on me about being a nazi. I tacked 88 on to the end of my user name when I had to add a number to it. 1988 is the year I got out of the Marine Corps and met my Beautiful Wife.
Why is “88” a nazi symbol? What does it have to do with the 3rd. reich?
H is the eight letter of the alphabet. “88” equals “HH”.
🙄Oy Vey!
Thank you. Don’t even want to try to imagine how long it would’ve taken me to figure that out.
OHHHH
Now that's a proper TIFU.
My initials are TCB, which can also stand for Takin' Care of Business, a phrase that Elvis turned into his calling card using the letters and a single lightning bolt. I used to put a lightning bolt next to my initials when I initialed things but I stopped doing that when the Nazis starting making a comeback. I'm still keeping my TCB mug though.
Nazis ruining shit for everyone . as always .
I did Nazi that coming
Yup, thank god he set it reich.
Delete Twitter and you wouldn’t have this problem.
For a while my usual order at the Jewish deli I went to came to $14.88. We laughed at it and then I started ordering something else
Oh yeah, sorry but I would have totally thought you were a nazi if I saw that !
Yeah maybe OP could have done like cloud-bolt-cloud [name] cloud-bolt-cloud where it would have been a little clearer that they meant weather lightning and not Nazi lightning but I think some people may still interpret it the same just assuming it's a dog whistle instead of overt
Don’t worry there’s probably someone born on January 4 1988 (or April 1) who has their birthday in their username
I got accused of the same thing for having this:⚡️🐢⚡️in my profile description. Uh, look at my username and calm down.
I have to ask...why are you still on Twitter?
Because I've lost control of my life
The first step of recovery is acknowledging there's a problem.
This is why History is important kids. It might seem boring now, but if you don't pay enough attention you might accidentally become a Nazi.
Hey, it could be worse, you could have gotten really into Norse mythology in high school and gotten a tattoo you thought was just a cool historical thing
It’s really a shame that nazis took over some really cool looking symbols.
Tell me about it lol
I signed up for this account before it was a thing so f them
"Guys, seriously...I just like storms...I'm what you might call a fan of meteorology. A real weather-phile, as it were. I also slept through a lot of world history. Where's everybody going?"
I had no idea about lightning strikes being an nazi thing. I only knew of 88 being a nazi thing. (or the year someone was born, is is always either one of the two)
Don't be embarrassed for yourself... be embarrassed for the people who react in childish manners to things so simple as emojis. You can tell em "sorry man, I'm a storm chaser, look me up. The nazi thing didn't even enter my radar till you mentioned it, thank you 😄", fix it down to a storm cloud emoji or a single bolt and then wait for them to reply.
Next thing you know, you'll be accidentally buying Volkswagens without realizing what that means
Well that's just funny.
No, it wasn't stupid of you. It is not your job to know every connotation every idi0t online decided to attach to an emoji or a number or whatever. If someone if so desperate to get offended, let them have their fun, and you keep having yours.
When I was making my first email and handle for xbox it was fairly common for people to put an Xx at the beginning and end like so XxexamplexX
I naturally wanted to stand out so after briefly testing out a few letters I landed on SsexamplesS because I was a dork AND not old enough to have hit that part of history class.
Just add a third lightning strike
We were doing an art project with shapes.
Pick a shape, connect it to another, make something
I picked squares and branched them off of the center, when I hit the edge of the paper, I changed the angle
Blindly filling in squares when my peer says "nice swasticka you lil Nazi"
I probably turned into a tomatoe
Why 2 lightning bolts?
When I was a kid, I wrote a lot in these marble notebooks. Just random, stupid stories, and would write the title on the front. On one of them, I wrote 2 lightning bolts. Had no idea it was a Nazi symbol, just thought it looked cool. Oops. Once I learned about it, I was mortified, although it was a private journal.
Try an umbrella icon or a cloud or a sun face. It's really hard to find something because it seems that everyday objects keep getting co-opted by baddies.
And every time you let them have it they win. FUCK'EM.
My nephew got a tattoo and posted a pic online, excited to show us, it's a lopsided red star, I said nothing and showed it to my husband "When did Johnny become a communist?"
hey man i literally tattooed a rune on myself (i was just getting into my ancestral norse history!) that ended up being one of the nazi ones lol it wasn’t til a week later when another anarchist friend was like bro wtf 😅 i went home and turned it into crystals
This reminds me of when I was a teenager and this asshole was “teaching” me how to dap. He ended up having me do the nazi salute in public and it took someone else calling it out for me to even realized.
I’m still horrified when I think about it.
An innocent mistake, but at least you know now
Birthday 6/8/88 here. Only day that would've been more fun to be born on is 8/8/88. Favorite number is 8, then 80, then 88.
Finding out that 88 was a hate symbol and neo-nazis ruined what I liked innocently was an infuriating day for me. Have my empathy, friend-I feel your pain!
I did the same thing for a while in high school. We got to design and manufacture our own circuit boards as part of our electrical engineering class and the circuit board designer program doesnt do curved lines. My initials are SS. I can’t do curves. I signed all my boards with two lightning bolts for SS. Had no idea
I feel ya. The abbreviation for my business name is SS and I never never ever ever abbreviate it for this reason.
I love my business name as it is, but the "SS" was the very first thing I thought of when registering. I'm always terrified someone is going to somehow think I'm pro-nazi if someone else abbreviates it.
The actual name has zero connotations related to nazis, as far as I'm aware (it's a space-themed name for a bakery), so at least I have that going for me.
My initials are literally ‘SS’ and I’ve stylized them similar to lightning bolts since I was a kid the ‘70’s at least …..now I’m a bad person apparently