In today’s episode of “the most absurd thing you’ll read today,” a Chicago Cubs fan received a lifetime ban for supposedly flashing a “white power” symbol while a camera was on him.

Yes, MSNBC actually blurred it out. This is where our society is at.

Chicago Cubs fan, who appeared to flash a hand gesture that has become associated with white supremacy behind a black sports reporter while he was on air, has been banned from Wrigley Field. https://t.co/vD08WsDwlF

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 9, 2019

Clay Travis, a personality on Fox Sports, roasted the Cubs for the decision.

We don’t know exactly what the motivations of the fan were here — so far he hasn’t been identified publicly — so it could be he wanted to play the make you look at the circle game — which is accompanied by a shoulder punch when you look — if you don’t know what this is, ask any man between the ages of 12 and 60 and he’s probably familiar with it — or it’s also possible this fan was mocking the media via an Internet meme that has gone viral over the past couple of years.

It’s also possible that he had friends at home and he was just, you know, letting them know that his seats were a-okay.

The point is we don’t know for sure, but what we do know for sure is the okay hand gesture, and this is significant, ISN’T RACIST AT ALL, it’s an internet meme designed to mock false accusations of racism.

It feels stupid to even have to analyze this, but given the way he’s making the sign, it looks more like he’s playing the circle game. As Travis points out, if you are a man born after the Kennedy administration, you probably know exactly what that is. The meme involving the OK sign as a white supremacist symbol is predicated on it being held upward to spell out a W and P. Here, it’s held upside down and below the waste, which is exactly what the circle game is (you then get to punch someone in the shoulder if they look at the sign).

The idea that this fan, in Chicago, is flashing a white power symbol is the least likely (and stupidest) assumption to make.

And we won’t ever really know because the Cubs refuses to even talk to the fan to get his side of the story.

"No interest in hearing his side"
Unbelievable. https://t.co/UxDJSFyas0

— American Journalists Publish Chinese Propaganda (@JohnEkdahl) May 9, 2019

Travis then gets to the laughably hypocritical standards the Cubs have.

You might remember that Addison Russell was suspended forty games for beating his girlfriend.

So the Cubs are fine with employing a baseball player — and paying him millions of dollars — despite the fact that he beat a woman, but they draw the line at Internet prank hand gestures from fans?

I mean, is this real life?

I’d love to hear Theo Epstein explain why an Internet meme hand gesture designed to mock the stupidity of the media in this country was “truly disgusting” and “gave him shivers” and was “egregious and unacceptable… there’s no place for that in society, in baseball, and Wrigley Field,” but yet employing a wife beater and paying him millions of dollars is perfectly fine?

The Cubs employ a wife beater but playing the circle game is a bridge too far. Good stuff.

Did I already use the word absurd in this article? I try not to repeat terms, but come on, this is absurd. I hope the Cubs get some serious blow back for this.