Posted on 09/15/2016 2:29:55 PM PDT by Alas Babylon!
Pepe the green frog meme’s unmitigated rise into pop culture comes amid hysteria that the internet cartoon is little more than a stand-in for white nationalism. But it turns out the original story that prompted the panic is more or less a complete troll job.
The Daily Beast’s Olivia Nuzzi wrote a piece in May striving to describe and trace the genesis of Pepe in the alt-right scene, a nascent, illiberal political movement focused on preserving white identity and Western civilization. In the process, Nuzzi just ended up repeating various made-up stories from the only two people she interviewed from “Frog Twitter”: Paul Town (@PaulTown_) and Jared Taylor Swift (@JaredTSwift).
Frog Twitter is an offshoot, alt-right subculture primarily interested in memes, aesthetics and trolling political figures.
Since then, Pepe as white nationalist has become a meme of its own sort, circulated through liberal circles, cable networks and think pieces. Rounding out this tidal wave of whinery, Pepe made an appearance on Hillary Clinton’s own campaign site as part of an effort by the campaign to try and associate Donald Trump Jr. with white supremacy.
Liberals are stupid.
Isn’t Hillary the smartest woman in the world if she fell for a juvenile prank?
Yeah, she did!
SNIP
“I think the most ridiculous thing is that a random guy on the internet who trolled a journalist once is now a ‘prominent white supremacist.’ I mean, the only accurate part of that is the ‘white’ part,” Swift told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “And my Italian ancestry means that even that is disputed!”
Swift created his Twitter account in November 2015. His Twitter name is a tribute to Jared Taylor, a white nationalist, alt-right leader and founder of the magazine American Renaissance. Paul Town created his account in January 2016.
The troll consisted of Town and Swift feeding an outrageous narrative to Nuzzi in the hopes she would scoop it up and feature as many quotes as possible– a fairly common practice among various alt-right groups to gain in-group status.
SNIP
Nuzzi quoted Paul Town describing how Frog Twitter met for drinks in 2015 to plot appropriating the Pepe meme for white nationalism. Frog Twitter then supposedly coordinated a group effort to seed the meme on various imageboards.
“There was no ‘plot’ to take a cartoon frog and make it a symbol of white supremacy,” Paul Town told TheDCNF. “That’s absurd on the face of it.”
One more, and the last sentence is a hoot!
SNIP
There was no Frog Twitter meetup — they did not meet for drinks to discuss green frogs. They did not plot in 2015. There was no group experiment. They did not coordinate efforts on /r9k/ or /pol/, two imageboards on 4chan and 8chan, where memes are born and subsequently end up in the public. Jared Taylor Swift says he isn’t actually 19. He doesn’t live on the West Coast. They didn’t turn Taylor Swift, the pop singer, into an “Aryan Goddess.”
I missed this memo.
Oh well, i’m a Nativist, and that won’t change.
Liberals are a herd who can easily be fooled.
Into believing a cartoon frog is associated with racists.
But they worship Hillary. Go figure.
Reminds me of the Disney Channel show Walk The Prank.
Hillary has been pranked and this voluble nonsense is on her website!
Hillary was baited by a Frog tweet
Priceless!
They thought they had another one...
That pic is a riot. Thanks.
Pepe, Pepe, Pepe, all about Pepe. Still no love for Wojack.
There will be a reckoning.
That. Is. Awesome!
ding dong the witch is dead!
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