The “alt-right” has had a recent obsession with Pepe the frog, super imposing his image onto various memes, a small minority of which are racist and anti-semitic. Rather than understanding that hateful people can make anything a reflection of their feelings, social justice warriors in the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have declared it a hate symbol.
Pepe originated in 2005 in the online cartoon Boy’s Club, created by artist Matt Furie, and had nothing to do with racism or politics, in general. He was often referred as “the sad frog.”
Even the ADL acknowledges that most of the time Pepe is not used with any hateful context and to date has never been inspired anyone to commit a crime like the kind committed by #BlackLivesMatter activists — arson, burglary, or assault.
“However, because so many Pepe the Frog memes are not bigoted in nature, it is important to examine use of the meme only in context,” the ADL said in a statement.
This is astoundingly self evident, any image can be used in a racist or negative context depending on who’s using it.
@SoIeDoubt @just_coi Harambe was a racist tho pic.twitter.com/yLLn8oenht
— Gonzo McKek (@Gonzoisfun) August 11, 2016
Claiming that context matters is like warning people against playing with fire or marrying a Kardashian, some things are just obvious.
