Pepe the Frog: To Sleep, Perchance to Meme

[cyberghostface]

As you probably know 'Pepe the Frog' has been co-opted by Trump supporters and the alt-right movement. The original artist Matt Furie has illustrated this as a response.

Comments

[janegray]

Can't say I blame Pepe here. I felt like doing that when I saw the latest news (http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/john-mccain-promises-to-defy-the-election-results-1787889939), and I'm not even American.

[cainofdreaming]

They're not even considering the precedent they're creating, are they? Or do they seriously think that the shoe won't ever be in the other foot?

As to the comic itself... hopefully the seventh to last panel isn't as prophetic as I fear it will be if, for some miracle, Trump does get elected.

[janegray]

They live in a bubble of double standard. To quote a commenter in the article:

If we win the presidency, our Supreme Court nominees should be confirmed. When you win the presidency, we will block you every turn.

If Trump wins, the election is legitimate and the people have SPOKEN. If Hillary wins, it must be RIGGED.

Donald Trump is accused of forcing himself on over ten women. STICK TO THE ISSUES. Bill Clinton accused of misconduct by 4 women. His wife should be disqualified from office.

Hillary Clinton has not directly mentioned any of Trump’s accusers. She need to stop distracting from real issues. Trump has a press conference with 4 of Bill Clinton’s accusers, gives them front row seats to the debate, and mentions them at a debate. Great job taking the gloves off president Trump.

Bill Clinton cheats on his wife. Impeach him. Trump proudly brags about sexual assault (has 5 kids with 3 wives and has cheated on his wives). Elect him.

Hillary oversaw the department of state while 4 people died in an embassy attack. JAIL HER. 2 Republicans were in office while over 200 people died in embassy attacks. No problem.

Immigrants don’t pay taxes. Round them up and kick them out. Trump doesn’t pay taxes. He’s a business genius.

Independent fact checkers found Trump is likely the least truthful candidate in the history of politics. He tells it like it is. Hillary is statistically more truthful than most politicians according to fact checkers*. She is the most untrustworthy person ever.

Hillary’s foundation only spent 87% of their donations helping people (average amount is 75%). CROOKED. Trumps foundation paid off his debts, bought paintings of him, and made political donations to avoid investigations for a fake university while using less than 5% of funds for charity (and he got shut down by NY State). So savvy... Put him in the white house.

Trump made 4 billion dollars in 40 years, when an index fund started at the same time with the same “small loans” he received would be worth $12 billion today... without a trail of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits and burned small business owners. He’s a real business whiz. Hillary took a loss of $700k. She’s a criminal.

Trump is the first candidate in the modern era not to release his tax returns, and took a billion dollar loss in 1 year. Genius. Hillary releases 40 years of taxes. Corrupt. Trump denies saying things (on the record) he actually said (on the record), he’s just telling it like it is.


*I was really baffled by this one because she has such a massive reputation for being a pathological liar. So I googled it, and this is what I found:

http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/08/03/24425766/it-would-be-helpful-if-we-stopped-lying-about-how-much-hillary-clinton-lies

https://datavizblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/who-lies-more-a-comparison.jpg

[q99]

-*I was really baffled by this one because she has such a massive reputation for being a pathological liar. So I googled it, and this is what I found:-

Yep. The truth is she's got a pretty good record of building bridges by keeping her word.

Apparently a lot of senate Republicans head-scratch at their rep because they actually find her easy to get along with (and their boss complained and said they should work with her less.... they didn't listen).

[reveen]

Ever played Metal Gear Solid 2? That game was friggin' prophetic in predicting how the internet create self-perpetuating echo chambers of confirmation bias fuelled by the endless production of trivial information passed between individuals acting as their own independent spin doctors. We see this playing out with Trump and among his support based exactly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-00nDI9fsc

[stolisomancer]

One of the things that's useful to know about Hillary Clinton, if you aren't an American, is that Bill Clinton came into office in 1992 with a lot of opposition from the establishment of the time. They'd come to think of themselves as the keepers of the kingdom, with as much as they'd been able to get away with in the twelve years of Reagan, then Bush, and Clinton was seen as an upstart and a usurper.

Bill then proceeded to make use of Hillary, who even then had a reputation for tremendous competence. First Ladies are supposed to have pet causes like literacy or childhood nutrition, but Hillary jumped headfirst into trying to overhaul the American health care system. As such, she came in for as much fire as Bill did, and both of them have spent the last twenty-five years under constant attack.

Neither of them are saints, of course, but any incident from their past that could've been blown up into a point of attack was. When it started to become obvious that Hillary would seek the 2016 nomination, the American right wing spun up those old scandal engines again, to the point where they spent millions on fruitless investigations into the Benghazi attacks in an attempt to nail a scandal squarely to Hillary (and Obama), while simultaneously pretending to be the party of fiscal responsibility.

As usual, they're their own worst enemies. Hillary Clinton's a career politician, with the questionable relationship to truth that implies, but at this point it's all white noise. You could produce hard evidence of her, at age 16, being responsible for the Kennedy assassination, and nobody would take you seriously.

[janegray]

Thank you for the info.

But, wait, twelve years of Reagan? I thought American Presidents could only govern for 4-8 years.

[stolisomancer]

George H.W. Bush's Presidency was essentially a sequel to Reagan's, although Bush was smarter and definitely had a firmer hand on the wheel.

It would've made more sense if I'd said twelve years of Reagan-Bush.

[kamino_neko]

The most surprising thing about that chart is that Trump has any blue at all.

[janegray]

Well, he does occasionally say the truth. Like when he implies he would bang his daughter.

[an_idol_mind]

The majority of politicians in the US see getting re-elected, not serving the people, as their raison d'etre. These guys don't care about the long-term damage they're doing as long as they stay in office.

[cainofdreaming]

So, the parties have lost control of their members? Because its not really a case of representing the people, rather than not fucking it up for the rest of them when the situation reverses.

[an_idol_mind]

I would argue that's pretty much what happened. The heads of the political parties get their posts if they succeed in getting the candidates running their party re-elected, and there's not a lot of other criteria. Reince Priebus has a government shutdown on his watch, but keeps his position based on the fact that he helped strengthen the Republican stranglehold on congress in 2014.

There's really not a long of long-term thinking in Washington these days. Obama stands out as one of the few politicians who plays the long game, but he's also not a guy who has to worry about re-election anymore.

More like 'the base'/party activists actively demand gridlock/obstruction

[chortles81]

It's the only way they purport to be able to bear four years of a Democratic president over Donald Trump, and some "#NeverTrumpers" were motivated less by their personal disregard for him than by the fear that his unpopularity would drag 'downballot' candidates (U.S. senators and representatives, but also state and municipal-level offices) into electoral defeat with him by association.

[q99]

Ironically, long-term support of groups is a better reelection strategy in the long run.

Nah "shoe on the other foot" was considered when it came to the filibuster

[chortles81]

The Republican Party has bigger problems though, at least if ideas like this are any solid indication for where their after-Trump thinking is.

[speedingtortoise]

That just makes me furious. Of all the childish bullshit to pull . . .

I hope with all of my heart that Hillary wins the election and the Democrats win a Senate majority.

[aeopile]

Me too!

[kamino_neko]

Apparently McCain has realized this was stupid as shit and walked it back.

[astrakhan42]

I think that line was something they were discussing privately in a Republican committee and he accidentally let it slip too soon.

[bradygirl_12]

Yeah, the Repubs are priming the pump by getting in quick with this rigged election mantra. This is rich from a party that most likely rigged the vote in Florida to steal the 2000 election from Al Gore.

[burkeonthesly]

Ah, but remember: the Florida situation in 2000 ended up being decided by the Supreme Court. So it's even richer--like putting frosting on a pie.

[bradygirl_12]

Oh, yes, the Supremes certainly had their moment, didn't they?

Frosting on pie? I'd eat that! ;)

[burkeonthesly]

And now the Supremes are deadlocked 4-4 on tough issues... like who the next president should be, maybe?

That does however presume that the court doesn't go 5-3

[chortles81]

No idea where Anthony Kennedy would land, as I don't remember him being viewed as liberal outside of 'social issues' (the Washington Post declared that "he sides with the conservatives on gun rights, campaign finance and Obamacare", the article instead highlighting his sidings on marriage, affirmative action, and abortion).

[burkeonthesly]

That's certainly possible. Just that it could come down to them, and they could come down to a deadlock, is a worrying thought for me.

[icon_uk]

Leaving aside the toxic world of politics for a moment, I have to say I'd never even heard the name Pepe the Frog before this election and still have no clue what it's all about.

[reveen]

Well, Pepe was a meme before this when the internet got ahold of this comic that guy in the OP wrote.

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/001/148/466px-Feels_good_man_full_comic.jpg

That took off because it was kinda funny? But the alt-right appropriation of it, and memes related to them in general are kind of random and nonsensical gibberish. Which I guess matches their political views.