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Like it or not, Pepe did get co-opted by a weird alt-right subculture, so while it later got reclaimed, for a while there was a good chance posting Pepe meant y
by smcl 4y ago
Like it or not, Pepe did get co-opted by a weird alt-right subculture, so while it later got reclaimed, for a while there was a good chance posting Pepe meant you were aligned with the alt-right or incel culture. There's an entire documentary on the artist behind it and what happened called "Feels Good Man" it's really quite good: https://www.feelsgoodmanfilm.com/ https://www.feelsgoodmanfilm.com/
- Semaphor 4y agoThat felt pretty isolated to US bubbles, though. I had never even heard of it until 3 or so years ago, and on Twitch, Pepe was used throughout it all, including in LBTGQI+ channels.
- smcl 4y agoYeah that interpretation didn't permeate every community, it's good to hear it was always well received on Twitch. I do recommend the doc though, it sounds like you'd enjoy it :)
- poulpy123 4y agoI remember very well that Pepe was used by all sides until some article on the Hillary Clinton's campaign website in 2016 that associated it with Trump and then suddenly you couldn't use it for anything with being labelled white supremacist
- smcl 4y agoIt's not surprising at all for the Hillary campaign to have completely misjudged and misunderstood something in an attempt to engage with online or youth culture. I'm reminded of her awkward "I'm just chillin ... in Cedar Rapids!" vine
- zarzavat 4y agoWhat happened was that journalists wrote articles claiming that Pepe was an alt-right symbol. But this was never based in fact, it was simply a misunderstanding by journalists ignorant of internet culture. The alt-right made a lot of Pepe memes because Pepe memes were popular at the time when Trump's campaign was taking off. The problem is that when journalists make mistakes, it becomes fact, true or not.