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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.
Feels Bad Man.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Personally, I blame the people who defamed the frog. Not the strawman reason for why they did it.
You're why we can't have nice things.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
I never heard of Pepe the Frog before the Left branded it a "hate" symbol. The Alt-Right gets all its needed publicity from the Left going nuts over it.
Political Version of Streisand Effect. By publicizing how awful it is, you're given them more publicity than if everyone simply ignored them. Good Job
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
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.
Element of truth? It's true. It's what happened. People decided to troll the media, and the media bought it - hook, line, and sinker - because they do ZERO fact checking.
The "alt-right" (which itself is just a label the media tries to apply in an attempt to attack people and groups) had nothing to do with it. At all. It was all fake. And the media, who is so concerned about "fake news", did what it does best and pushed fake news.
You go on about some bullshit about feelings and humor and again, the alt-right.
I gave you a factual account of what happened. It had nothing to do with feelings or the alt-right. It had to do with the media being played for the fucking idiots that they are. Regardless of your politics, seeing that play out exactly as fucking planned is fucking hilarious.
Mate, 4chan didn't make Pepe a fake hate symbol. Their (or your) actions made Pepe a genuine hate symbol. You can call spreading hate speech "trolling" if you like, but it's still hate speech and will be called out as such.
And none of this "fooled" the main stream media. They reported on actual real events as they unfolded in real life. You might have caused those events, but they certainly were not fake. And yes, real life includes social media.
You might believe your fascist cavorting online is merely performative and so no harm is done, but when real people brush up against your performance they only see a Nazi.
In other words, you have it exactly backwords. In Real Life you are a genuine actual Nazi, it is only your online alterego that is a harmless prankster. Have fun you destructive little shit.