How Pepe the Frog Became a Nazi Trump Supporter and Alt-Right Symbol *A MUST READ* IMO

[grossproffit]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/26/how-pepe-the-frog-became-a-nazi-trump-supporter-and-alt-right-symbol.html

<snip>

It began in late 2015 on /r9k/, a controversial 4chan board where, as on any message board, it can be difficult to discern how serious commenters are being or if they’re just fucking around entirely. Nevertheless, /r9k/ has been tied to Elliot Rodger—the UC Santa Barbara shooter who killed six people in 2014—who found fans there, and GamerGate. There, Pepe transformed from harmless cartoon to big green monster.

“We basically mixed Pepe in with Nazi propaganda, etc. We built that association,” @JaredTSwift said.

<snip>

Building the Trump association came next, after which @JaredTSwift said the images got crossover appeal. They began to move from 4chan to Twitter, which is when “journalists were exposed to it via Trump memes.”

<snip>

“In a sense, we’ve managed to push white nationalism into a very mainstream position,” he said. “Trump’s online support has been crucial to his success, I believe, and the fact is that his biggest and most devoted online supporters are white nationalists. Now, we’ve pushed the Overton window. People have adopted our rhetoric, sometimes without even realizing it. We’re setting up for a massive cultural shift.”

<snip>

@PaulTown_ characterized Pepe as “an experiment” the group used “as a test.”

“As you can see,” he said, “it went better than we could ever have imagined.”

[lou ky dem]

1. k&r

[grossproffit]

2. A good read.

[Dream Girl]

3. K&r

[sarcasmo]

4. Maddow did a great bit on Pepe and Uday last night.