during the 2016 presidential elections a marvolous event occured that showed the true power of memes. PEPE a mascot of the internet an undying meme loved by millions was attacked, attacked by the media.
one day during the the election a meme came to light posted by Donald Trump jr that featured his father along with some other democratic politicians and figures such as Alex Jones. this is when the media jumped on it apparently this was enough for them to start slamming pepe as a symbol.
till eventually the Anti Deformation league officially labelled it as a hate symbol
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/pepe-the-frog
this is not the only step 4 Chan started to create a large amount of racist pepe memes to push that perception of pepe being rasict where it never was. this is something that has happened plenty of times where internet culture has warped the perception of completely normal things into “racist” symbols to trick the media into talking about it.
This idea started with the “its ok to be white” campaign that started so that 4 Chan could show the bias of mainstream media by taking a completely non offensive statement and blanketing it as rasicst propaganda. then PEPE and most recently the OK is the most recent meme to fall victim being banned from events and the american government labelling it as a hate symbol.
so whats next i ask how long will it be until your favourite meme is a hate symbol because the old man who makes the rules does not understand the internet. this shows how the perception of meme culture is able to transcend the internet and affect reality in a meaningful way.
Keen Casualty 