I’m very aware of how toxic gaming communities can be, but I don’t see how that refutes my point that Pepe is used with non-hate purposes in the gaming community. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if 90% of the people aren’t aware of Pepe’s relationship with far right, neo-nazis and 4-chan. I still wouldn’t call them any of these words for liking and sharing the frog with the expressive face.

On the other hand, not wanting to deal with people that post/use Pepe in any sort of way is respectable, albeit seems like a giant social bubble to me.

TW: slurs ahead.

This whole thing remins me of “marica” and “maricón”, Spanish words that are used in a few contexts and meanings, the main one bieng “faggot”. Recently, tho, they have increased their popularity in the LGBTQ+ community as a self-describing word, in a “fuck you, homophobics” tone. My point is that dismissing these groups as being too far right over using “maricón” would be devoid of context and interest in others. Note as well I’m not claiming all use of “maricón” is respectable and friendly.