My Hand Gesture Started This Whole Mess

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:01]Hey everyone, look at this photo here. Yeah. Um, it was I think it was last week. Yeah, it was last week that this was the thumbnail of a video and I got some comments that I was in a Masonic cult.

[00:00:23]One of them said, "Well, isn't that revealing of who you really are?"

[00:00:29]I know, I know, I know. And a couple of them said, "You're in an oult, aren't you? I never would have thought that of you." So, let's talk about this. Okay, this was fascinating. And if you know anything about me, I'm minivan Lee. I live in an apartment now, but I did live in my van for nine years, and I'm here with my granddaughter for a year, and next summer I'll be back on the road in my van. Um, I do, if you know me, I do love to study human behavior. I think it is fascinating, especially these days.

[00:01:03]Oh my gosh. So, let's go ahead and let's talk about this.

[00:01:08]The steeple gesture, body language experts often call the steeple gesture because it resembles a church steeple.

[00:01:18]Um politicians, professors, judges and speakers use it frequently when they are concentrating or speaking with confidence. The triangle has appeared throughout history in art, architecture, religion, different cultures. They've associated it with concepts such as balance, unity, mind, body, spirit, heaven, earth, humanity, and symbol stability.

[00:01:46]And ancient civilizations have used this shape. I mean it does appear in Egyptian pyramids, Christian church architecture, Native American designs, ancient temples, Asian temples, and countless other cultures.

[00:02:03]The shape itself belongs to no single group, no Masonic group. Okay?

[00:02:10]And it's been used a lot in photography.

[00:02:12]Um, many photographers encourage people to form shapes with their hands because it creates a visual focal point.

[00:02:21]Right?

[00:02:23]And it gives the hands something intentional to do, which is what I was doing. I was just playing around at the park. modern symbolism in some organizations, fraternities, clubs, secret societies have used triangles or hand signs. But that doesn't mean everyone making a similar shape is connected to them. By that logic, nobody could wave, point, uh, cross their fingers, make a peace sign without being accused of something, right? I just found it interesting and I wanted to talk about this. So apparently some viewers decided that this hand position means I'm in a cult, a secret society or the masons. The problem is that triangles and diamonds and steeple shapes have been around for thousands and thousands of years. They've appeared in churches, temples, art, architecture, meditation, prayer, photography, and body language.

[00:03:28]Right? Sometimes a hand position is just a hand position.

[00:03:34]In this case, I was sitting and I was I was crouched down and I was doing different things with my hands and I thought it looked interesting and that's the entire conspiracy going on. I'm not in an occult. Well, I'm a follower of Jesus. Okay. So, one thing I'd be careful about is avoid claiming that this specific hand gesture is officially a Masonic sign or officially tied to any particular secret organization. There isn't good evidence for that. People online often take an ordinary gesture and assign meanings that were never intended.

[00:04:18]That's probably well I know that's what well obviously that's what happened here. Pattern recognition gone wild is what it was right. Human beings are designed I mean to look for patterns we are. It's one of the reasons we survived. If our ancestors heard rustling in the bushes it was safer to assume danger than ignore it. So, but the downside is that people sometimes see connections that just aren't there.

[00:04:51]A hand position becomes a secret symbol.

[00:04:54]Or let's see, a coffee cup becomes a political statement. And here's one we do now. A color becomes evidence of membership in a group. Remember if you wore a red scarf over your head, you were in a gang, a certain gang. I mean the brain would rather invent a pattern than accept randomness.

[00:05:15]And now we have the internet rewarding this suspicion online.

[00:05:22]The person who says that's probably nothing gets ignored. The person who says I discovered a secret hidden message they get attention now online.

[00:05:34]They get clicks. They get comments. They get likes. They get engagement and it often rewards the most dramatic interpretation rather than the most accurate one. Wow.

[00:05:48]The internet is really something, isn't it? So context kind of is disappearing.

[00:05:54]A photo captures one second. A person lives an entire life.

[00:06:01]The internet often judges the whole person based on a single frame. like my my um thumbnail, a single sentence or a simple gesture.

[00:06:14]People stop asking what did she mean?

[00:06:17]Instead, they ask what can I make of this? What can I make of this?

[00:06:24]Fear of public misunderstandings is rampid now. Many people today, they self censor.

[00:06:32]I don't do that too much. which I think a lot of you have figured that out. Um pe a lot of people don't wear certain clothes or they don't use certain words, they don't make certain gestures. They don't express certain opinions because of fear. Not because they're wrong, because they're afraid.

[00:06:52]What are they afraid of? They're afraid someone will invent a meaning that was never intended.

[00:06:59]Okay. So really what is symbol inflation? That's that's a thing.

[00:07:05]Throughout history, symbols developed naturally. Today almost everything has become a symbol. A hairstyle, a hand gesture, a bumper sticker, a coffee brand, a flag, a phrase, and hair color.

[00:07:20]Oh my gosh. Right.

[00:07:23]When everything becomes symbolic, ordinary life becomes actually becomes very exhausting, doesn't it? There's a loss of charity going on with the internet. There used to be a common social assumption. Well, for most people, maybe this person means well.

[00:07:43]Today, many people start with the opposite assumption.

[00:07:49]Maybe this person is secretly guilty of something.

[00:07:53]Mhm.

[00:07:56]That shift changes how people interpret everything they see.

[00:08:02]There's danger of constant suspicion. Oh my gosh. When people become suspicious.

[00:08:09]When they become suspicious of everything, they eventually trust nothing.

[00:08:15]I think we're at we're getting to that point. I know sometimes I feel it too.

[00:08:20]Every gesture becomes coded, every statement becomes propaganda, and every disagreement becomes evil. I mean, that's not wisdom at all, is it? That's anxiety disguised as insight.

[00:08:35]So, here's the irony of all this. The people accusing others of being controlled are often being controlled themselves. I mean, think about it.

[00:08:46]They're controlled by these these things they see. They're reacting automatically to symbols, rumors, algorithms, and online narratives without really stopping to ask what is the simplest explanation. For me, it was I was just trying things out. I was trying photography. At some point, we have to decide whether we're going to spend our lives looking for hidden messages in people's hands positions or whether we're going to look at the person standing in front of us or online. Sometimes a triangle is just a triangle. Sometimes a gesture is just a gesture and sometimes the real story isn't a symbol at all. It's why so many people feel compelled to see one, right?

[00:09:39]I mean, I've got my beanie on. I mean, if this was just black, that might mean something. And I will probably continue wearing what I want to wear. A lot of people see, oh, I I'm usually in black.

[00:09:52]Well, this isn't black. But a lot of people see, oh, she's in black. That means something. It just means something. How many times do we go online and say, "What does it mean if you wear a lot of black?" Well, a lot of people say, "Well, a lot of people say that wearing all black means that they're very intelligent and they like um they like their privacy." And some people just want to look thinner in black. Some people just like for me the reason that I usually wear black actually I do if you've noticed living in an apartment for the couple months I I had picked up a little bit of color. I got black because it goes with everything. I only had so much drawer space right for my clothes and I wanted things to go I wanted everything to just go together. I wanted to reach in my door and grab the same thing.

[00:10:43]these shirts here. I bought one and I loved it. So, guess what? I got about 10 of these now. The I just reach in and grab it. I don't have to think about the clothes. I got other things to think about. I do like accessories and a lot of them are black. I mean, they just are. It means that I don't want to think about clothes as much as I used to, but now I find I've got more. I've got space. I can hang different clothes up.

[00:11:12]At some point, I'll show you my closet, all the clothes I have. I'll when I go back to van life, I'll probably have to maybe maybe my granddaughter will go ahead and house some of my clothes to when I get back then and then not this winter, but the next one. I mean, maybe so maybe she'll let me do that. But yeah, these simple things, it's getting a little bit ridiculous. Now, how many of you you say, "Oh, I would never do that." But how many of you actually say, "Well, that person has blue hair, so we know what side of the spectrum she's on.

[00:11:46]There's only two sides, red and blue, right and left, right, in this country anyways, in the United States, and it probably is that way in a lot of um nations at this point. But I will tell you, let me tell you something.

[00:12:04]You know, I do have these color lights, those little touch lights, and I use them and they are like on one side and one side. Well, a lot of times my hair when I'm filming or when I do, not so much filming because I move my head and you can tell that it's a light shining on me. But when I do a thumbnail and I pull a thumbnail out of my video, I got pink and it's like, oh no, or blue. It's like, "Oh no, oh no." So I go in and so yeah, I go sometimes go into a um an ed in my when I edit my um thumbnails, I have to desaturate that part because I will appear if people are looking at it and they're just and I'm happen to come into their feed, they'll go, "Oh." If they're on the right, they're going to avoid it because they'll think, "Oh, she's one of those crazy liberals.

[00:13:04]Right. Right. So, you know, my hands it was like this. I don't even know so much that it was a I guess it was a triangle.

[00:13:12]Yeah. But I just wanted I've seen them on TED talks. I've seen those hands and symbols in a lot of different places in photography. It's something you do with your hand like uh somebody who a speaker it it's like yeah that's what you do with your hands. So, but I found it amusing and I did. Did Did I Did it worry me? No. So, don't say, "Oh, just ignore it." No, I don't want to ignore that because I found it so interesting and it got it got me into like what does this really mean? I study human behavior. I study all of you. Okay.

[00:13:48]Well, that's not true, but you know what I mean. I do comments. I do log in comments on certain subjects, what people say and how many people said something and how many people didn't and how many um of my and I have regular viewers and well, here's to you. Yeah.

[00:14:09]Um, you are my regular viewers, most of you, 98% of you, but there's new ones that come in and they don't know me and they think, "Ooh, ooh, she's in a she's in a masonic. She's she's a mason." I don't even really understand who Masons are, so you know. No. Yeah. I mean, I suppose this could mean Oh, you are a a vampire, right? You're a vampire. Yeah. I don't know. What does this mean? I'm sure it means something. Good luck, right? Or good luck. One, two, three. The three crosses. Yeah. My goodness. I do have my crosses on. So, I guess that's a symbol, right?

[00:14:53]I love you guys a lot. So, I hope you found this interesting. Yeah, we need to to kind of bring it down just a little bit, everybody. Yeah. Not every I mean, I don't think I I don't know if if you've been watching me a while, of course you know I'm not a Mason. I'm not in an oult or anything like that. Um, I just do what I want to do and I I dare to be different. I'm going to probably trigger a lot of people throughout the throughout. I will mention I will I will admit something. Remember when I did the towel and I just dropped the towel and then I eventually walked over. It was the first thing in one of my videos last week. I did it intentionally. I'm sorry. I just did it in I did get one comment and and everybody kind of jumped in and I actually commented. I said I just proved my point. Um you know uh with the drop of a towel I was categorized and and and tried to humiliate me. She had a this lady had a long long like I can't believe you did that. And she ended with you have no morals. You are messy and and you have what did she say? Oh, manners. Morals and you have no manners.

[00:16:12]I can't believe you did that. That's disgusting. She went on and on. Well, so a lot of you jumped in and one of you actually said, "What? What did you say?" They said, "What?" Basically, you got it. You said she was trying to trigger trolls to identify them and you just identified yourself. That's exactly kind of what I was doing. I'm just doing an experiment.

[00:16:38]I'm sorry. But um well, I went back about an hour later and she uh obviously she removed her comment.

[00:16:48]I know.

[00:16:51]I just want because I had gotten I think previously I'd gotten some uh comments that were just like so mean or just so um they were stereotyping me and I thought okay well here we go let's go ahead let's on with the experiments you know I love you guys a lot um today um I got a treat I'm going to do I think I'm going to do a live for all of my members okay in a special guys. Um, I'll do a It won't be a long one. A quick live. Okay, so look for it. I love you guys. I know I've been so busy. I did not forget about you. I promise I didn't. Or any of you. I love you. And I enjoy doing this. This is This is interesting. It really is interesting having a YouTube channel. Um, it really does. It feeds my curiosity.

[00:17:45]I mean, sometimes they hurt, but you know, I think this year has really been something to where it doesn't bother me anymore every once in a while, but for the most part, I kind of understand it a little. Even after 7 years now having my YouTube channel, um it uh it it it's come to the point I think that I kind of crossed over the line just a little bit to where I'm like, "Oh, this is funny."

[00:18:18]It's funny. I love you. Oh, please go on minivanly.com and see what I've been doing. I've got the neck gators and um I only have one of these left. Um I already sold like three of these. This pattern. Isn't this gorgeous? And I only think I have one left if you want to go on there and get it. And there's a couple other ones that there's only one left and um and it's no joke. Okay. So, um I would go on and look. They're they're they can't be found anymore. They're they're um not produced anymore. Okay. So, there's sort of um yeah, this is a novelty right here. But I do have some neck gators. I think I found some and I want to um you know, check it out and test it out first and so I'll have more. Oh, look at the cat down there.

[00:19:09]I know there's cats running around here.

[00:19:10]I love it. That's one thing I didn't see in Flagstaff much are the cats running around. Tucson has a lot of cats and I love it. They just kind of roam around.

[00:19:18]People feed them. Then my next door neighbor, uh, she has no cats, but they have little bug. They have food out for cats. So sometimes I'll come out and there's a cat going, "Oh." And then they run away. Yeah. So there you go. So I've got that. Go on mini vanly.com and my um blackoutnomads audiobook is there. It's not expensive and it's a good listen.

[00:19:44]Get it. It's not expensive. It's good entertainment. I love you guys. Bye.

[00:19:55]What does this symbolize?

[00:19:58]It's my beanie.

[00:20:02]My gang member.

[00:20:06]I'm just a hippie.