There was an attempt by a rather pint-sized rage mob to gin up anger at actor Chris Pratt for his choice of T-shirt. By pint-sized, I mean, five to seven people. By gin up anger, I mean claiming Pratt’s choice of wearing a T-shirt by Forged.com – featuring an American flag with the Gadsden snake and “Don’t Tread One Me” slogan – was somehow a white supremacist slogan.

Yahoo Movies U.K. even wrote a round-up of the almost non-existent enmity towards the Guardians of the Galaxy and Parks & Rec star in hopes of giving the story legs. Here’s the original version from yesterday with the headline Chris Pratt criticized for ‘white supremacist’ T-shirt (thanks WaybackMachine!):

Chris Pratt is facing criticism over a T-shirt he was pictured wearing featuring a controversial symbol.

The Marvel star’s top shows the American flag with a coiled snake over the top and a message underneath which reads “Don’t Tread On Me.”

The writing and snake combo on its own is depicted on the Gadsden flag; a symbol created by Christopher Gadsden, a Charleston-born brigadier general in the Continental Army.

It came to prominence during the Revolutionary War of the US by colonists who wanted independence from Great Britain.

Although it is one of the symbols and flags used by the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team, over the years the flag has been adopted by Far Right political groups like the Tea Party, as well as gun-toting supporters of the Second Amendment.

It has therefore become a symbol of more conservative and far right individuals and, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of the US, it also is “sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages in some contexts.”

The EEOC quote is heavily manipulated because the commission also said, “Importantly, the Commission did not find that the Gadsden Flag in fact is a racist symbol.“ Details, details.

Here it is today. Yahoo Movies UK decided to not only do an almost complete re-write of the article but they also stripped the original author’s name (italics original).

Update: This article was updated on 17 July with the initial headline, ’Chris Pratt criticised for ‘white supremacist’ T-shirt’ being amended to ‘Chris Pratt criticised for T-shirt choice.’ References to White Supremacism in this article have been removed.

Chris Pratt is facing criticism over a T-shirt he was pictured wearing featuring a controversial symbol.

The Marvel star’s top shows the American flag with a coiled snake over the top and a message underneath which reads “Don’t Tread On Me.”

The writing and snake combo on its own is depicted on the Gadsden flag; a symbol created by Christopher Gadsden, a Charleston-born brigadier general in the Continental Army.

It came to prominence during the Revolutionary War of the US by colonists who wanted independence from Great Britain.

Although the symbol has a non-racial history – it is has been used by the U.S. men’s soccer team and Metallica – over the years it has also been adopted by political groups like the Tea Party and some Libertarian groups, as well as gun-toting supporters of the Second Amendment.

Whoops! That’s a pretty big slap at the author – who is probably paid by the click – meaning they’ll never see a hint of cash. The fact Yahoo UK also bothered to re-write the piece deserves a bit of praise.

Yahoo still believes seven people counts as “many” – for some bizarre reason – still making it sound like there’s some controversy. Of course, there isn’t a controversy at all, except for maybe the seven people who were angered by Pratt’s T-shirt.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Forged’s statement on the T-shirt and Pratt’s association with them from earlier today.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0BajMogYZ6/

Smart work by those folks at Forged (who do make good T-shirts and come highly recommended by me).

Exit video featuring Reason’s Robby Soave discussing deceptive trends and stories.

Watch: @RobbySoave shares an example of a so-called “trending” story that “looks like news,” but was actually deceptive. pic.twitter.com/pLQCHmonCw

— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) July 17, 2019

Oh, for those wondering, Pratt gave to Obama in 2012.