Hate speech is strong, but I do generally treat it as a “I probably don’t get along with you” indicator based on personal experiences.
Pepe is love language.
No
Only the people who use it as such.
Loooooooool, the fuck?
I was there when it was just used to express mostly sadness and disappointment, and then it became a more malleable thing, used to express other feelings next to your greentext. I don’t use the phrase ‘media literacy’ but this might be one of the few occasions where it actually fits. I don’t even understand how one takes “hate speech” from a drawing of an anthropomorphic sad frog!
And yes, I am, perhaps, an OG.
Some right wing hate groups have adopted the character as part of their tribal language. For some this was enough to tarnish the character in its entirety via guilt by association. Beyond simply using the common meme format within their communities, however, it has been redrawn many times with aged racist stereotypes (such as overly exaggerated lips or noses)–in a sense there are explicitly bigoted “rare Pepes.”
All in all the original meme is not hate speech, and many of its uses and references across diverse communities are not intrinsically hateful, but in hate filled communities it is used extensively and absolutely has racist caricatures associated with it. It’s a dog whistle.
I was never part of those groups (or even aware of them, so thanks for the info!) and I won’t let them “ruin” what I know for a fact started as a simple meme/visual representation of how one feels. In my case, it’s just a nostalgic reminder of my depressed NEET days, when at least I could share a laugh with others in my situation thanks to this silly little frog. Racist dummies will be dummies, I guess. 🤷
Pepe was sort of chosen by the staunchest Trump supporters as their symbol in the wake of his first term. That certainly sparked a controversy, because some folks were only exposed to assholes using Pepe, so they associated you with assholes, if you used Pepe. But other folks liked Pepe as a meme and decided to use it even more, because they did not want it to be appropriated by assholes. So yeah, that’s why this question exists.
There’s more details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_the_Frog#Use_by_the_alt-right
Welp. Yet another reason to hate American politics and their ‘far-right’ groups!
No.
People who use it are either using it as a way of displaying that they’re bigots, or they don’t care about the association with bigots.
There’s not really any positive way to use it, so it’s a giant red flag whenever I see it.
The only problem with this line of thinking is that it empowers bigots to continue to subvert any character or symbol they choose.
I’d rather see those symbols used more often in ways that fight bigotry than to give in to that manipulation.That would be great if anyone was actually attemping to reclaim pepe, but in practice, more often than not, the red flags are right.
This is how I see it too.
If not for association with the alt right, I at least see it as a sign of “I am a terminally online dork who tries to portray myself as lovably pitiful so as to manipulate others” or “this is a crutch for my low self esteem” or just…well. Some of this is from my own personal biases and experiences, I’ll be forward about that.
So to make a long story short, even without Nazi associations, there’s no good way to use a Pepe in my experience, and no one I know who uses him frequently has been a good person.
Peak. Right here is the person who is weak and ruins it for everyone.
Thank you for proving my point
🤣👌👍🤡
No but I associate him with the alt right imbeciles who appropriated him.
no, they steal everything.
why do we keep letting them steal
‘free speech’ has always been about the freedom of the oppressed to fight upwards against their oppressor with language - but now they stole it & trying to make it mean their freedom to oppress minorities.
same for ‘woke’ - it used to mean basic human decency, once again they stole it & warped it’s meaning by pretending they’re the victims and it’s preventing their freedom (ie. their freedom to be a bigot).
same for ‘political correctness’, which was originally a criticism of using fake concern over moral issues for political agenda (sounds familiar), now warped beyond use.
swastika - used for THOUSANDS of years before the fucking nazis came along & stole it. now the cultures it actually belongs to get hate for practicing their ancient beliefs.
pepe and many others are a long list of things they steal and ruin.
why do we keep letting them steal?
they steal everything.
Absolutely. Nazis are consistently creatively bankrupt with few exceptions.
- Original party aesthetics: rebranded from DAP to NSDAP (against Hitler’s wishes) and adopted symbols to try and capitalize on the growing socialist movement after the failed German Revolution.
- Original party policies: A shallow syncretic mess. Even Mussolini thought they were morons.
- Neo-Nazi tactics: Also a syncretic mess, with tactics that contradict their own goals and abilities (e.g. copying black bloc, trying to adapt ex-military 1930s tactics to 2000s alienated teenagers).
- Aesthetics (both original and modern): Ignorant copypasting of ancient imagery (not-actually-Roman ‘roman salute’, neo-Roman architecture and statues, fake-Germanic runes)
- Nazi Pepe/Wojak edits: Both memes were already prominent from /r9k/ board.
- Fashwave: Vaporwave aesthetics copied without understanding what they represent and why they were interesting
why do we keep letting them steal?
Stealing is easy to do and takes effort to combat. There are things we’ve stopped them from co-opting, and plenty of contested symbols. But at the end of the day, when the mainstream media picks up a symbol and repeatedly assigns it to a group, it’s not so easy to overcome that in broader society.
No, but I know a guy who almost got expelled from art school for drawing an image of pepe. So I guess it depends who you ask.
No, and you bitches that let others dictate what you can say can fuck right off 👌.
No more than I consider Bill Watterson’s Calvin to be a redneck icon
Well said
No, Pepe is ours
No. It’s also part of internet culture. I know way too many decent people who use the meme. While it’s totally understandable to distance ourselves from a symbol if it becomes too poisoned by the far right, we also shouldn’t just allow them to claim things we like. That only gives them power they don’t deserve.
No.
WHAT TF DID I MISS??? How is pepe hate speech?? someone pls explain in comments
Alt-right fucks took to using pepe as a neo-nazi symbol. Just par for the course. Take something and then use it enough to pervert it’s meaning so that when others see it they think Nazi stuff instead of any original meaning. Also see the swastika, don’t tread on me, the punisher symbol, and the okay sign to name a few.
what the fuck
I would agree with others in this thread though. It doesn’t mean every use is a dog whistle. Fight and take it back. Fascists deserve nothing but to get punched. Pepe can have a better ending.
