National Security Council: Trump is too stupid to be trusted

[Maru Kitteh]

19. Attempts to reclaim Pepe have miserably failed. He's the new Klan robe now. A digital swastika.

I understand fully the thought behind dismissing a silly cartoon because it IS a silly cartoon. But the truth is there is a very dedicated core of rather fucked-up individuals for whom Pepe/Kek is a really REAL thing, and so many more for whom he is a very useful symbol.

Richard Spencer - the Nazi motherfucker in my own back yard - had this to say about Pepe/Kek:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/richard-spencer-trump-alt-right-white-nationalist

We are well into our third round of Arrogant Frog, a merlot that Spencer chose because its name reminds him of Pepe, the cartoon frog commandeered as a mascot by the "alt-right" movement that has been thrust from the shadows by Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Spencer says Pepe could also be seen as the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian frog deity, Kek: "He is basically using the alt-right to unleash chaos and change the world," he says, looking slightly annoyed when I crack a smile. "You might say, 'Wow,' but this is literally how religions arise."

If Pepe is the alt-right's god, then Spencer is its self-styled prophet. A 38-year-old Duke Ph.D. dropout who sometimes resides in a Bavarian-style mansion at the edge of a ski slope, he has for years been quite literally shouting into the wilderness, proclaiming to anyone who will listen that the alt-right, whose name he coined in 2008, is the only political movement that really gives a damn about white Americans. In Spencer's view, if you aren't a white American, that's fine—but you should leave.

Adding insult to injury, the interview was conducted in one of my favorite hotels but I digress.

Spencer has previously published:

“Is Black Genocide Right?” “Instead of asking how we can make reparations for slavery, colonialism, and Apartheid or how we can equalize academic scores and incomes, we should instead be asking questions like, ‘Does human civilization actually need the Black race?’ ‘Is Black genocide right?’ and, if it is, ‘What would be the best and easiest way to dispose of them?’

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/17/richard_spencer_launches_the_alt_right_s_newest_website.html

It may have started out as a way to mess with the squares, and for some it may still be, but do not underestimate the ability and draw this has had to draw in great numbers of the easily manipulated masses. As Spencer said, "this is . how religions arise," and I think we know how so many of those turn out.

Indeed, in this case, the memers don't need you to worship Pepe/Kek, they just need to get in your ear and bring you to their twisted philosophy of hate. At this, they have been quite successful. Perhaps it will run its course, perhaps in the digital age it will roll over into some new incarnation. Fashy anime seems to be picking up steam.

It's all very dismal, but the bottom line is, antisemitism, racism and all kinds of bigotry are undeniably enjoying an enormous resurgence and level of quasi-normalcy not seen for decades. Pepe/Kek is unquestionably part of that.