Quick Quiz:

What do you think of when you see this symbol?

Does it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, thinking about a world without war and strife?  Does it stir up images of sit-ins and demonstrations and the power of the people?

Well, it shouldn't... unless you just really, really love luxury German automakers, because the above symbol more closely resembles the logo for Mercedes-Benz than anything else.

I can't tell you how many times I see young people using the above symbol thinking it's the peace symbol.  It's really sad.  In fact, just recently I saw a local high school collecting money for some charity or something, and the above symbol was plastered all over the signs they were waving around.  Now, I know that auto manufacturers are having a tough year so far, but I doubt that they're taking to high school fund raisers to raise capital.

Maybe this annoys me so much because in the community I live in, they probably see the above symbol a thousand more times than the real symbol, so when they plaster it on something, thinking they're being hip, they're just showing their ignorance.

This, my probably-born-in-the-80's-or-later friends, is the actual peace symbol:

Note the "extra" vertical line that is not in the Mercedes-Benz symbol... this may not seem like much, but like most things in life, it's the little things that make the real difference.

So let's do some drills, shall we?

  Symbol for free love, nuclear disarmament, and world peace...

Symbol for material excesses, carbon emitting engines, and at one point manufactured vehicles for the Nazi war machine in WWII

Seen on posters and protest signs in the 60's and 70's as a rally cry to young people to see beyond themselves to a troubled world

Seen in high school parking lots in the 80's and 90's as a sign that those young people from the 60's and 70's abandoned their beliefs and then spoiled their kids rotten.

By the way... the above are also examples of irony... another thing that many people today have no idea what they're talking about when they try to use it.