If something characterizes Twitter, it is its fast and constant rhythm where its hundreds of millions of users do not stop posting and posting until exhaustion. Almost half a million tweets are posted every minute. so it is common that every time you look at the screen you have missed something. No matter how many years you have been on the 280-character network, you will always have the feeling of having been disconnected for a long time. A controversial tweet, a viral photo or today's new meme that everyone replicates and that you still haven't come to understand make up a normal batch within the bird's network.
In that busy universe that is Twitter, Sometimes we can go unnoticed some details by the very chaotic nature of the network. A very common one is use of emojis that many important personalities, influencers and profiles begin to use and that spread rapidly among users.
What does the red triangle on Twitter mean?
On Twitter fashions come and go and It is very common to use this social network as a platform to position ourselves in the face of any controversy that arises naturally or artificially: the last sentence of a court, the umpteenth declaration of a Minister, the voting in one direction or another of a Law or any other news that provokes a certain ideological debate. And as you also know, many confuse social, political, economic commitment, etc. by sharing a publication or saying how much the deforestation process in the Amazon affects them. Positioning and commitment are not the same: the former is a kind of aesthetic posture while the latter has to do with rolling up your sleeves, picking up the shovel and starting to work.
But what does the red triangle mean? The fact is that in mid-2019, many users began to position themselves using a peculiar red inverted triangle emoji. The first to display it on their profiles were Spanish politicians from progressive parties and, little by little, its use spread to more and more users from apparently other political spectrums. But… what exactly does it mean?
Well, the fact is that the meaning of that inverted red triangle is a way of expressing a rejection of fascism. Today, its use has been standardized and we can see it in the form of a pin on the jackets of many progressive European political leaders who wear it on a daily basis, in the real world, not just on Twitter.
The dark past of the inverted red triangle
However, the red triangle is not just an emoji. It's about a symbol that has been given a small twist not without some controversy since its origin dates back to the time of Nazism. That is to say, to the 30s and 40s of the last century when the National Socialist regime of Adolf Hitler persecuted and purged thousands of opponents in the name of a Reich destined to last for a thousand years. There is nothing.
Just as the Jews were marked by the Nazis with a yellow Star of David, it is not so well known that the political prisoners of that time in Germany also received a special identification that was, as you can see in the photograph that you have just above, a inverted red triangle. This was common to see in the camps where they kept these political prisoners confined and, although at first they were only members of the communist parties of the time, with the passage of time it was also used with all the other opponents of the Nazi Party: anarchists, union leaders, freemasons, liberals and even old comrades involved in the rise of the movement led by Adolf Hitler.
When all barbarism ended in May 1945 and World War II ended, the inverted red triangle now used on Twitter became a symbol. This one remembers all the prisoners who lost their lives because they thought differently from the regime in which they lived. Today, its connotation goes a little further and expresses opposition to any pro-fascist or pro-Nazi current of thought. Therefore, it does not mean that a person is clearly positioned as being on the left, progressive or not on the right by wearing this red triangle logo on their profile. Just show your rejection of such ideologies.
Are there other similar cases?
Another similar phenomenon on Twitter is the use of the snake emoji. Again, it has political symbols and refers to the defense of constitutionalism, classical liberalism and libertarianism. Specifically, that emoji symbolizes the rattlesnake that appeared on the Gadsden flag that the colonists flew from the period before the American War of Independence at the end of the 1775th century, around 1991, and that was accompanied by the motto " Dont [sic] tread on me”, which roughly translates to “Don't tread on me”. Surely it also sounds like a song composed by Metallica in XNUMX that proclaims that same phrase.
Already in the real world, the word that begins with 'n' with which descendants of African-Americans in the United States refer to each other has a very similar origin. The word was used derogatorily by slaveholders in the cotton fields to refer to their oppressed. Again, the meaning was reversed to give the symbol greater strength.
Are these symbols used correctly on Twitter?
Now you know the origin and meaning of the famous red triangle that one day went viral on Twitter and many people were left without understanding. However, not all users use this emoji correctly. It is easy to see the inverted triangle (due to ignorance or rejection) to users who use it without really knowing its significance, both in the case of this red triangle on Twitter and the snake that we indicated above or the 'n' to refer to to the African American community.
In any case, whenever you come across a phenomenon like that of We recommend looking for this red triangle on Twitter. asking the community without fear, without fear of what they may answer you (funny and haters they are everywhere). Although it is true that a quick search on Google can relieve you momentarily until someone finishes confirming your theory.
In any case, remember that taking a position is very good to believe that you are defending something, but it only makes sense when it is accompanied by a clear commitment. Everything else is posturing.