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Do you consider Pepe the frog to be hate speech? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by unrealMinotaur@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] ganymede@lemmy.ml 38 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

no, they steal everything.

why do we keep letting them steal

'free speech' has always been about the freedom of the oppressed to fight upwards against their oppressor with language - but now they stole it & trying to make it mean their freedom to oppress minorities.

same for 'woke' - it used to mean basic human decency, once again they stole it & warped it's meaning by pretending they're the victims and it's preventing their freedom (ie. their freedom to be a bigot).

same for 'political correctness', which was originally a criticism of using fake concern over moral issues for political agenda (sounds familiar), now warped beyond use.

swastika - used for THOUSANDS of years before the fucking nazis came along & stole it. now the cultures it actually belongs to get hate for practicing their ancient beliefs.

pepe and many others are a long list of things they steal and ruin.

why do we keep letting them steal?

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

they steal everything.

Absolutely. Nazis are consistently creatively bankrupt with few exceptions.

Original party aesthetics: rebranded from DAP to NSDAP (against Hitler's wishes) and adopted symbols to try and capitalize on the growing socialist movement after the failed German Revolution.
Original party policies: A shallow syncretic mess. Even Mussolini thought they were morons.
Neo-Nazi tactics: Also a syncretic mess, with tactics that contradict their own goals and abilities (e.g. copying black bloc, trying to adapt ex-military 1930s tactics to 2000s alienated teenagers).
Aesthetics (both original and modern): Ignorant copypasting of ancient imagery (not-actually-Roman 'roman salute', neo-Roman architecture and statues, fake-Germanic runes)
Nazi Pepe/Wojak edits: Both memes were already prominent from /r9k/ board.
Fashwave: Vaporwave aesthetics copied without understanding what they represent and why they were interesting

why do we keep letting them steal?

Stealing is easy to do and takes effort to combat. There are things we've stopped them from co-opting, and plenty of contested symbols. But at the end of the day, when the mainstream media picks up a symbol and repeatedly assigns it to a group, it's not so easy to overcome that in broader society.