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this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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Privacy
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As much as I'm not terribly fond of the guy, IIRC he's 36, which makes '88' likely short for 1988, the year he was born.
Oh OK, that makes sense. Still, an unfortunate choice of username that could add to the confusion.
Our license plates look like this: 2/3-letter city identifier - 1/2 letters you can choose - a 1-4 digit number you can choose. A friend of mine has the initials A.H. and was born in 1988. He wanted CITY - AH - 88. Registration did not allow it as it's nazi dog whistling.
Dog whistling is very common to find like-minded fascists and nazis. Kind of a sad, pathetic life if you think about it.
It is very sad indeed. I went through the same experience when I wanted a license plate to commemorate Albert Heijn.
I'm just aware of how these people signal to each other. I don't know anything about the Proton CEO's politics, but numbers like 14 and 88 in usernames are common dogwhistles.
What does 14 mean?
It stands for "the 14 words": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Words
Hey that guy is thinking about stuff! They must got brainrot!
That’s correct, he was asked about it on Reddit too and confirmed it was just his birth year.
Since it’s a common dog whistle though I do think it’s always worth questioning. Particularly when it’s tied to someone licking Trump’s boots.
A lot of Nazis were supposedly born in 1988...
But in this specific case, i believe him.
Even if he is born in 1988, he could have picked a non-Nazi suffix for his username.
This is dumb lol
Hey,
Cool story bro.
8 is also a lucky number in Chinese culture. I've seen a lot of "88"s in Chinese social media just because of that.
It always sucks when shitbags co-opt innocent symbols and language.
This was my first thought, as it’s a very common username addon. I was unaware of all the other stuff.
While yes adding your birth year to your username is common (but terrible OpSec), adding 88 or HH or other Nazi symbolism is also common among their community. Especially in an open setting.
It serves as a shibboleth for the alt-right that you are one of them.