So I was going through /all and this admin is snooping at vote counts for posts in his instance and then posting it publicly.
Just a reminder that these kind of petty people exist. Pick a trustworthy instance or better yet, host your own.
Archive: https://archive.md/oybyL
I haven’t heard before that this frog is a nazi symbol. I’m also seeing it relatively often at places where I don’t think it’s use would be accepted if that was the case
Pepe the frog is absolutely a hate symbol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_the_Frog#Use_by_the_alt-right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTQLaLwz88Y
https://www.diggitmagazine.com/articles/amplifying-far-right-reassessing-case-pepe-frog
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pepe-the-frog-hate-symbol-20161011-snap-htmlstory.html
Like the swastika, is not the only use it has. In the gaming/Twitch community, it’s definitely not massively used as a hate symbol.
Sad news for your argument, gaming culture (gamergate) and Twitch (crackergate) have a long history of white supremacy. I will agree that it’s spun off to be less about overt nazism and more about white male fascism. Doesn’t change the gross history of the symbol, and i’m still going to treat anyone who posts frogs as being way further right than I want to deal with because it’s always the guy posting frogs who ends up driving people off the server further down the road. TL;DR It’s softened from nazism to reactionary but is still very much right wing shit.
I’m very aware of how toxic gaming communities can be, but I don’t see how that refutes my point that Pepe is used with non-hate purposes in the gaming community. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if 90% of the people aren’t aware of Pepe’s relationship with far right, neo-nazis and 4-chan. I still wouldn’t call them any of these words for liking and sharing the frog with the expressive face.
On the other hand, not wanting to deal with people that post/use Pepe in any sort of way is respectable, albeit seems like a giant social bubble to me.
TW: slurs ahead.
This whole thing remins me of “marica” and “maricón”, Spanish words that are used in a few contexts and meanings, the main one bieng “faggot”. Recently, tho, they have increased their popularity in the LGBTQ+ community as a self-describing word, in a “fuck you, homophobics” tone. My point is that dismissing these groups as being too far right over using “maricón” would be devoid of context and interest in others. Note as well I’m not claiming all use of “maricón” is respectable and friendly.
A few (it feels like 3+) years ago it was attributed to 4chan and something politically extremist by some journalists. I don’t remember what the article was about, so I went and found one.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-pepe-the-frog-hate-symbol-20161011-snap-htmlstory.html
Edited in a better one.
That’s good to be aware of, thanks!