What Does The ONE FINGERED SALUTE (One Finger pointed up) Gesture Mean? Body Language Expert Patti Wood

When I was young, I saw news stories on TV of protestors of the Vietnam war giving the peace sign to each other in greeting to show they wanted peace.

People use gestures known as hand signs to show others, especially fellow members, that they are members of the group. Often the meaning of a hand signal is only fully known by fellow members, and the secretiveness of the hand signal gives it a special power.

Membership in a group can be powerful and positive or create cultlike destructive power, and hand signs of membership can communicate a positive and supportive message or hateful and destructive one like these hand signs of white supremacist https://www.adl.org/hate-symbols?cat_id[153]=153

I am known as an expert in Hitler's body language. Yes, I have an interesting career, research in Hitler's body language, and media pundit on Celebrity Couples relationships. One of the topics the documentarians and the media call on me to discuss is the Heil Hitler salute. Now I am being asked about the ONE FINGERED SALUTE (One Finger pointed up) gesture.

Like the Nazi salute (https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/19741562/866231751332370374?hl=en or the raised fist, the One Finger Up sign shows membership in group. This gesture has become an integral part of both the Taliban and IS (Islamic State ISIS) propaganda, particularly among the young.

Videos from IS-held areas frequently show small children saluting with a single finger in unison while shouting IS propaganda. It's an appropriated gesture from the Muslim Faith that used it to show their belief in "the one."

This appropriated gesture has been used by jihadis for years, including high-profile ones like Osama bin Laden. They have appropriated to mean "The oneness of God and alienation of the west." Within the jihadi context, the raised index finger takes on a political meaning, widely rejecting any form of government not under Shariah law," It is used by fighters and supporters of ISIS including disturbing photos of their murdered victims. Jihadists translated their core ideas like the one-finger salute into memes.

Now a subgroup of extreme conservatives in the GOP is using this gesture. In speeches and social media, these extreme conservatives say they use this gesture to show.

·        They admire the conservative values of ISIS & Taliban

·        They consider the fellow Ultra Conservatives in the GOP should apply those principles with a "Christian" variant

·        They agree with them that woman's value is to serve men and have children

·        They admire their insurgency fight.

 

 

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Meaning of Hitler's Sieg Heil Salute and or the Nazi Salute

The Nazi or Hitler salute was appropriated from a German hand signal that meant "Hail Victory." It debuted in Nazi Germany in the 1930s to pay homage to Adolf Hitler. It consists of raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down. In Nazi Germany, it was often accompanied by chanting or shouting "Heil Hitler" or "Sieg Heil." Hitler appropriated the chant of Heil Hitler from American Football fight Songs because he loved the favored energy they created in the crowd.

Since World War II, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have continued to use the salute, making it the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world. (Other hand signs of white supremacist https://www.adl.org/hate-symbols?cat_id[153]=153

Germans were ordered under penalty to give the Nazi Salute. Under a decree issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on 13 July 1933 (one day before the ban on all non-Nazi parties), all German public employees were required by law to use the salute. The decree also required the salute during the singing of the national anthem and the "Horst-Wessel-Lied." It stipulated that "anyone not wishing to come under suspicion of behaving in a consciously negative fashion will therefore render the Hitler Greeting."  

A rider to the decree added two weeks later stipulated that if physical disability prevented raising the right arm, "then it is correct to carry out the Greeting with the left arm. It became a way of showing inclusion and creating patriotic inclusion and a way of excluding others. Eventually, On 27 September, prison inmates were forbidden to use the salute, as were Jews by 1937.

Hitler used the full hand and arm held out and away from the body in his speeches, and the less formal hand and arm held straight up tight to the body in personal Greeting. 

How Hitler Used Body Language and other Nonverbal Communication in His Speeches to Persuade His Audiences.

It's important to know that evil people can use nonverbal communication to persuade people to their ways of thinking. Communication of any kind can be used for evil and for good. 

I have viewed and analyzed hundreds of hours of Video and hundreds of photographs of Hitler for my research on Hitler. I am interviewed by a documentarian and the media on my expertise in Hitler's body language and another nonverbal communication is quoted by the media. Thankfully I can balance out this research with my work analyzing lighter topics like celebrity couples relationships and body language in classic films. 

         Hitler’s Use of Nonverbal Communication and Body Langauge in His Speeches. 

 Pausing (Though not captured in the propaganda film Triumph, Hitler would build anticipation to his speeches by pausing for as long as several minutes before starting to address the crowd.

Grand Arm and Hand Movements –Hitler used his whole body and used sharp weapon-like gestures that swept up and down, and across the audience’s field of vision.

Soldier Uniform - He wore uniforms in his speeches. He wore army uniforms throughout the war rather than Nazi uniforms or civilian clothes. H had made a promise to the people when he invaded Poland that he would put on the soldier’s coat, the most sacred and dear to me, and not take it off victory was secured, or he did not survive the outcome.

Voice- Hitler would typically start a speech with a long silent pause, then he would speak softly almost in a whisper, then build to a louder with a shouted forceful cannon fire crescendo

Tempo - Hitler would start with silence and a long pause then slowly build and increase his speed to a faster tempo, then end so that he was racing almost out of control like a madman in a frenzy.

Content - Visual and Concrete Simple, He spoke of things his audience could see and touch and smell the land the country the people, rather than ideas and abstractions. 

No podium- Hitler rarely, at least in the footage we see and identify with, used a lectern. He wanted his audience to have an unobstructed view of him, He wanted to seem courageous and as one who didn’t need to hide behind a podium or use notes.

Repetition - Hitler was highly repetitive, he fleshed out his concepts over and over again, never afraid of repeating himself. His audience had a firm understanding of his message when he was through.

Narrow Focus- Hitler always focused on a handful of themes in any speech: he didn’t do long laundry lists.

Eye Contact- In most of his speeches, Hitler looked up to the stars or out at his audience, he did not look down at his notes and often did not use notes.

Emotional level – he appealed to the emotions of his audience to rose hate, and feverish patriotism  not intellect

He is a hypnotic speech pattern and repetition to hypnotize his audience. Hypnotism is the willingness of an audience to follow your direction ‘Imagine this, look at this, consider this.” As a speaker, he directed the audience’s attention to where he wanted it.

Audience Priming/ Crowd Theory – often before he spoke, he would have soldiers crowd the audience into tight spaces, for example, have the speech in a town square and then have the soldiers press the crowds in on all four sides. He would have bands playing loud rousing music for hours and in fact, he would delay speaking, starting sometimes as much as three hours till the audience was whipped up into a frenzy before he 

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.