A recent article [0] on the difficulty of controlling culture (mostly in the context of people trying to keep their brands from being associated with the alt-ri

A recent article [0] on the difficulty of controlling culture (mostly in the context of people trying to keep their brands from being associated with the alt-right) speaks to the challenges involved in this approach. The article decribes Matt Furie, the artist behind the Pepe the frog cartoon, and his struggles to control its usage. > At one point, Furie purchased $45,000 worth of Pepe T-shirts to sell, but he can’t even give them away to thrift stores because he is horrified at the prospect of white supremacists proudly wearing them. Unable to rehabilitate Pepe’s image, Furie killed the frog off in a comic—but by that point, he’d effectively lost control of Pepe’s image. Furie would go on to sue InfoWars’ Alex Jones, who had been using a Pepe image to sell posters. (Jones used the lawsuit to increase the price of the posters—eventually, InfoWars settled with Furie.) > Furie’s attorneys estimate they have issued between 75 and 100 successful legal challenges halting the unauthorized use of Pepe. But the damage remains: Despite his best efforts, Furie will forever be associated with a toxic symbol of white supremacy. It's hard to judge from a distance, but it sounds to me like there is a lot of time, effort, and money being spent trying to enforce rights, and yet it's a game of whack-a-mole where the alt-right never gets the message. [0]: https://thedispatch.com/p/alt-right-culture-rittenhouse-blackrifle-coffee https://thedispatch.com/p/alt-right-culture-rittenhouse-blac...