Pepe never belonged to the Nazis. He was a hostage.
this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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I am begging - I need more context. This sounds amazing!
If I'm following correctly...
Pepe was coopted by the far right in 2016 or so for annoying political shitposts. It was sad because pepe is a great meme and the value of my rare and super-rare foil pepe collection plummeted immediately afterwards.
Now there are stories and photos going around of people dressed in big inflatable frog suits protesting against ICE in Portland and I guess it's become the symbol of a movement. Frogs are cool again.
I was never onboard with giving pepe to the Nazis. Pepe transcends.
no one was. I had like half a gig of rare pepes
I might have to change my username soon.
Looks like you came to the wrong frog fight!
But I created this wanting to fight Pepes ::insert sad pepe face::
I have also been seeing a lot of very nice MILF shirts in all different colours getting around in my part of Australia.
Can confirm, there were many inflatable frog people, frog signs, Kermit the frog puppets and just people in head to to green at the protest in SF Bay Area today.
Ok so the post is misleading because those frog costumes and related memery are not pepe references
Well yes, technically. But does that mean we should pass up this golden opportunity to reclaim a meme icon nobody ever really stopped using in the first place?
Yeah i mean worse things have been done on the grounds of fabricated connections. Just don't invade Iraq or whatever.
It's just jarring and feels like engagement bait when it's so clearly not the same thing.
Pepé the frog has been used as a Nazi symbol. Several of the protesters in Portland, Oregon are wearing blow up frog costumes. Some of the protesters are elderly and watch MSNBC. Hence, grandmothers have reclaimed the symbol of the frog.
Honestly I don't even buy that the far right owned pepe in the first place.
International folks seem to have no idea of that. It seems to be a largely American held belief that somehow pepes are as good as swastikas.
I completely agree! The far right didn't own him, but they did use his image very frequently.
My point being what was never claimed does not need to be reclaimed.
Hell, the frog poster doesn't even look like a pepe.
If you want to use a frog, use a frog. It doesn't have nazi connotations.
I just thought it was a 4chan thing, while that does include nazi shit, it's not exclusively only that. Always felt like a mascot for the really bad parts of the Internet.
Yes and no. 4Chan isn't only Nazi stuff, but pepe did become a symbol for extreme far right/MAGA stuff during first Trump election IIRC. It isn't because it's 4Chan. It's because it was explicitly used along with right wing messaging, particularly on 4chan.
I feel like Pepe was taken back/freed from that association over covid times. Pepe is such a common template for memes and emotes anymore.
Wait, pepe isn't fash anymore? I legitimately just skip over and instinctively down vote pepe memes because of the association. I had no idea
The creator always fought against it #savepepe
Also TIL Pepe died in 2017 RIP
I knew about that part, but I still just straight up cannot separate pepe from fascism. I'll start reading the memes more, though, when they pop up, instead of just straight down voting and skipping em
He never deserved this
They're still heavily used in Twitch communities regardless of the political or apolitical nature of the stream. Pepe doesn't need to be reclaimed because the fascists failed to monopolize it. It doesn't belong to them any more than wojaks do.
I've not seen or followed the memes much, personally. I adore many of the emojis though. Such cuteness potential to outweigh the ugly
I'd say Pepe is now more internet and gaming at large. Which... can be a bit adjacent, but I say is firmly stepped out.
Pepe was never in any way fascist
It's not pepe though. It's frogs based on bubbly frog costumes. "Green Frog" is the only visual thing in common with pepe.
Feels good, man.
Pepe belongs to the ~~pepeple~~ people!!
Y’know when you read a headline or whatever and you have NO idea what the hell is going on?
The fact that I get this convinces me that Lemmy is enough for me to stay up to date on what's cool