(((!)))

A couple of years ago, in the course of my explorations of the nastier reaches of the internet, I started to notice that Alt-Right types sometimes wrote certain names enclosed by triple-parentheses, like this:  (((George Soros))).  It didn't take long to figure out the meaning.  The triple-parentheses (called an "echo") is used by anti-Semites to mark the names of people who are, or whom they believe to be, Jewish.  Lately I've sometimes seen it used with other kinds of names like (((the FBI))) or (((Hollywood))), to insinuate that these institutions are Jewish-controlled.

One sometimes sees the "echo" on sites which are not Alt-Right as such.  For example, when reading comments on a post at Church Militant (a conservative Catholic news site) in February, I was surprised to see it used by one commenter, and challenged him on it.  His response was somewhat evasive -- not all non-anti-Semites would recognize "the tribe" or "globalists" or even "Zio" as references to Jews.  I kept a screencap (click to enlarge):

People with generally-unpopular views or identity, when operating outside their safe zone, often use coded language or symbols which the uninitiated do not understand, in order to attract the attention of any like-minded readers who happen by, who will understand them.  They may even do it for the thrill of showing off their "unacceptable" side in public in a way which will fly over the heads of the "mundanes".  It doesn't immediately put people's guard up the way explicitly (in this case) anti-Semitic language would do.

It's occurred to me that some liberal bloggers may not know the meaning of the "echo", given the pervasive (and unwise, in my opinion) practice of refusing to read or link to right-wing sites.  Hence this post.  If you see someone use it in a comment on your blog, be aware -- the person is almost certainly an anti-Semite who is trolling you in a way he thinks is too subtle for you to notice, and possibly also signaling just in case other anti-Semites also read your blog.  Call him on it.