The depth and breadth of maturity of the alt-right boggles the mind…
And not in a good way…
At least the Nazi Swastika was sort of dramatic. A badly drawn cartoon frog, not so much…
But the swastika itself was appropriated and made a symbol of its polar opposite meaning, much like poor Pepe.
I wonder if Matt Furie’s brother Jason’s last name is Storm?
Indeed. The swastika, a symbol of good luck in different cultures over millennial, was ruined forever in a few short years by a group of schmucks with really bad ideas. Never underestimate the power of a group of schmucks with very bad ideas is the moral of that one.
He has a brother first name Bongo
Oh alt no you didn’t!
We will be reclaiming our friendly frog from you hateful frognapping thieves and reintroducing him into his natural habitat.
If the alt-right/neo-KKK get feeling froggish about this, they can all leap off of their burning crosses and be happy.
Pepe out!
All Frank Zappa references will be liked on sight.
As another famous frog once said: It ain’t easy being green.
Online activity is about 2 generations old, the internet as a Big Deal is about 1 generation. What the hell kind of freaky blending between real life and digital life are we going to have a few generations down the road?
But the user-generated mutations became increasingly hateful and ubiquitous more than a year before the 2016 presidential election. Furie was horrified to see his creation become a mascot for the “alt-right” fringe movement, a loosely connected mix of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists.
“It all just happened so fast,” he said. “Make no mistake: They’re basically the new (Ku Klux Klan).”
Hmmm, I don’t recall this reaction. I remember him doing an interview where he was quite nonchalant about the whole thing. Perhaps - like many of us - he never thought someone like Trump would win.
In any case, I am glad he’s trying to take back his creation and reclaim the vision in which he originally made Pepe. Personally speaking I can’t look at it without feeling negatively. I don’t know how he will be able to put the toothpaste back in the tube but I sincerely wish him well.
That would really suck to see something you created used in a way you really dislike if that’s the case with pepe. I’m not familiar enough with what his cartoon usage of pepe was to know.