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Pepe the Frog Is Dead (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The creator of Pepe the Frog has symbolically killed off the cartoon frog, effectively surrendering control of the character to the far right. Matt Furie, an artist and children's book author, created the now-infamous frog as part of his "Boy's Club" series on MySpace in 2005. Pepe took on a life of its own online as a meme, before being eventually adopted as a symbol by the "alt-right" in the lead-up to last year's U.S. election. In September, Hillary Clinton identified Pepe the Frog as a racist hate symbol, and Pepe was added to the Anti-Defamation League's database of hate symbols. Furie launched a campaign to "Save Pepe," flooding the internet with "peaceful or nice" depictions of the character in a bid to shake its association with white supremacy and antisemitism. But he now seems to have conceded defeat, killing the character off in a one-page strip for the independent publisher Fantagraphics' Free Comic Book Day. It showed Pepe laid to rest in an open casket, being mourned by his fellow characters from Boy's Club.
The "alt right" didn't do anything. The entire thing was a farce created by 4chan. They do it for the lulz. The mainstream media is absolutely retarded and when they see a bunch of Twitter posts about something they jump on it and run with it. For another example, see how they got a bunch of idiots to report on the "OK" hand gesture being a secret symbol for white power.
Yes the oh so open minded conservatives would see right though any trolling attempts on them. Like that obama was not born in the USA, or is a secret muslim.
They would never "over react" and elect some real life troll to be president of their club. Oh no, they are much smarter than that!
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
While there is an element of truth in what you say, it's also true that people exploit the broad license given to humor for purposes other than getting a laugh. The lines between advocacy, humor, and trolling are increasingly blurred.
What matters in the current media environment isn't ideas, it's attitudes. It doesn't really matter that Obama isn't a Muslim; what matter is how hearing somebody say that makes you feel. An idea like this has political power even for people who don't actually believe it
This is what "telling it like it is" is all about; it doesn't mean saying things that correspond to some objective truth; it's about a kind of subjective authenticity. "Telling it like it is" means speaking with sincere feeling, even when contradicting yourself. It doesn't matter which alternative version of reality you presented is true (if either is). Philosophers have only recently begun to examine such truth-irrelevant utterances, and the term they use for it is "bullshit".
The claim of humor arises when you try to nail someone's bullshit politics down, but if you look at the alleged joke, it's invariably not humorous, it's just smug. There is such a thing as political humor, but it by definition takes a position. Alt-right "humor" is all about arousing feelings without being tied to any falsifiable position.
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