Look at the interesting badges on these Russian cops detaining gay protesters

PS: Russian N looks like our H

Making jokes about a seriously persecuted minority that portray the reality to be the opposite is funny?

*Scribbles notes about Mister44 in his book *

It actually comes from ‘homos’ meaning ‘same’, as in ‘homogenous’ or ‘homonym’. The opposite would be ‘hetero-’.

Sorry - what joke am I making exactly?

That waste of skin looks a little conflicted in this picture:

I believe the Nike tick is on her gear because they supply the Russian national team.

According to Wikipedia:
She features in Toshiba ads promoting their entire product line in Russia. She also appears in a Lady’s Speed Stick advertisement in Russia.

The joke to which you refer yourself? Or the one which is conveyed by the first image you chose. I didn’t mean to jump on you if it was unintended (you’re usually more sensible than most here) but the first meme image you posted was certainly NOT made by someone trying to illustrate the anti-homosexual bullshit happening in Russia right now.

Somewhat agreed, but it’s worth pointing out that I’ve seen more coverage and discussion of the blossoming Russian anti-gay idiocy on BoingBoing than on every other form of media combined.

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Wikipedia

Can has Google?

ORLY?

http://translate.google.com/#la/en/homo

Dude, how has everyone in the thread misread this image so much? The “paratrooper” is clearly a gay rights activist who is fighting against the OMOH thugs who are trying to carry away his fellow protestor.

OK, I see what your saying. I was just echoing the irony of the whole macho SWAT-esque OMOH units having a less than macho name (in reversed English). Irony made even more sweet that they were breaking up pro-gay protestors. The two examples I posted were just after a Google search, as an illustration that this sophomoric joke has been around awhile. So I guess I was poking fun at the Russians, but I didn’t mean to do it at the expense of any of the pro-gay protestors.

As far as I know, the “bent thumb” is used as a sign of support for vigilantism especially by way of entrapment through modern social media. The vigilantes use social media and forums looking for same-sex relationships or claiming to be under age, and, when someone responds, he or she is beat up, humiliated and and the photographs are shared, while supporters show their bent thumb as appreciation.

I’ve heard it being described as “Occupy Paedophilia”, but it obviously targets LGBTI as well, and in my opinion, the de-facto illegalisation of anything but cis and hetero work as blank cheque for these groups.

The groups are often portrayed as far right and neo-nazi and I don’t doubt that, but it is clear that their methods and opinions resonate with many, many “mainstream” citizens of the Russian Federation. This violent phobia of anything not within the “normativity” isn’t isolated to the Kremlin or a few hoodlums, sadly.

Her major sponsor is Li Ning. Go to her website; you’ll see Li Ning’s logo (it looks a bit like Nike’s). Li Ning is China’s largest athletic shoe and sporting goods company, and her deal with them is worth $7.5 million. About 10% of Li Ning’s sales are overseas, so sponsoring Isinbaeva is a big deal for them.

Contacting Li Ning will a lot more difficult than shooting off a protest letter to Nike, but that doesn’t mean they are not vulnerable. In fact, in some ways they are more so. For instance, they haven’t had to weather a campaign against them so one in the lead up to the Russian Olympics would hit them hard.

If you are really serious, then I think Isinbaeva (and her sponsor) would be an interesting athlete around which to focus a gay rights campaign.

It would be great of there was some explanation and context to the picture.

The guy being carried has a paratrooper shirt - but wearing jeans. He may or may not be a real paratrooper. The guy behind him with a paratrooper shirt is really odd too. Look at his beret, he has an old Soviet badge on there. His pants are the old KLMK (anti-Night vision) camo which I don’t think they use any more. It leads me to believe hes not active duty and dusted off his old beret and shirt for the protests. Maybe he’s helping carry away the guy who dares sully their iconic stripped shirts?

‘Dude’ back at you. This isn’t Twitter. You have more than 140 characters. Sit down and write out your thoughts. You don’t have to be witty. Just explain what you are thinking. Your one sentence rapid-fire posts are really kind of sickening to me (such as mocking someone for not using Wikipedia or saying “Can has Google?” or “ORLY?”).

God, Twitter and text messaging are a fucking plague. They destroy people’s ability to think in coherent sentences and form complex arguments. And then people think that this content-less method of communicating is normal and invade other places (like here).

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It’s Cyrillic for OMON https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMON

Don’t you mean ОЯЭТЭН?

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If you got that as the take home message, its at least partly you. The ‘OMOH’ is only noted because of the juxtaposition with the actual gay person being manhandled and abused.

And oh look, there is the awareness of the actual problem. Hardly a mere cheap joke as you’ve characterized it. More like a clever if puerile way to shine a light on an inhumanity.