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Throughout its four-day run, the Republican National Convention provided catnip for QAnon supporters.

Online conspiracy theorists were quick to interpret what they believed to be hidden messages as Vice President Mike Pence took to the stage on the third night, counting 17 flags flanking him on either side. This number is significant in the QAnon mindset, Q being the 17th letter of the alphabet. Facebook groups and Twitter communities went into overdrive, of course.

Activist Mary Ann Mendoza was pulled from the RNC roster on Tuesday, after she shared a thread of messages from a Twitter account linked to QAnon.

But two of Wednesday nights speakers also had ties to the movement. The first was veteran civil rights activist Clarence Henderson, who gave a pre-recorded speech. In May 2019, he appeared on the little-known QAnon podcast A Diary of the Great Awakening. The other was Burgess Owens, a former NFL star and Utah congressional candidate. He was a guest on the QAnon YouTube broadcast The Common Sense Show in May. Owens communications team has told reporters that he is not a follower of the conspiracy theory. In a three-minute speech, he kept things brief, telling voters: This November we have an opportunity to reject the mob mentality.

On Thursday night, Ivanka Trump delivered an address in which she said that America needs four more years of a warrior in the White House, a choice of words that was bound to appeal to a sprawling conspiracy movement that believes her father is locked in battle with a shadowy deep state. She also spoke of her father signing nine pieces of legislation to combat the evil of human trafficking a key issue for QAnoners, who are convinced that a powerful network of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is secretly controlling the United States.

Her words proved popular with conspiracy theorists. I bet they try to run Ivanka after Trump finishes his second term, wrote Twitter user Storm Crow, posting a photograph. Can you imagine this as the leader of the free world?

Earlier, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes had also characterized President Trump as a warrior against human trafficking. Last week, Reyes office postponed a Freedom for the Children rally in Salt Lake City, after concerns were raised that the events organizer had links to QAnon.

The one thing that Trump has always really done well digitally is being tapped into right wing communities. Knowing how to communicate with them, said Melissa Ryan, chief executive of Card Strategies, a consulting firm that researches disinformation. If theres an emphasis on human trafficking or child trafficking at all during the convention which is something that the Trump administration has done things on recently I feel like thats signaling to Q.

The highlight of the convention for QAnoners and for Trumps base was the presidents 70-minute speech on the south lawn of the White House on Thursday. It was attended by a largely mask-free crowd that included the Republican candidate for Georgias 14th congressional district, Marjorie Taylor Greene a QAnon supporter known for her conspiracy-filled blog. Trump has praised Greene on Twitter as a future Republican star.

Speaking in a more subdued tone than he deploys at his rallies, the president still made a point of mentioning how his administration took down human traffickers who prey on women and children. He told the audience, The far left wants to coerce you into saying what you know to be false and scare you out of saying what you know to be true. In one Facebook group, this clip was posted with the question, Did he just talk to Q? Dozens of people replied Yes.

QAnon adherents interpret these lines whether aimed at the Q community or not as affirmations of its cause.

The danger, I think, is to plant seeds in the heads of QAnon supporters and adherents that somehow their views are political-mainstream-supported views, said Jason Blazakis, former director of the State Departments Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office.

Overall, the RNC has proved a bonanza for conspiracists, but one gift just kept on giving: fan favorite Melania Trumps wardrobe. After much talk about the meaning of her military-style olive dress on Tuesday, the first lady opted for a much brighter shade of green for the closing night, paired with a red belt. Naturally, QAnoners saw this sartorial choice as a sign a coded reference to the alt-right symbol Pepe the Frog. As one supporter wrote on Twitter, Message received.

Caitlin Thompson contributed reporting.

Photo by Bloomberg / Getty Images

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Pepe the Frog, human trafficking and secret cabals QAnon's take on the RNC - Coda Story

An artist fights to reclaim his character from the alt right in 'Feels Good Man.' / Boing Boing

Pepe the Frog emerged into this world as a happy-go-lucky amphibian whose life's purpose was to get high and eat pizza with friends in Matt Furie's Boy's Club comic. But that was before the internet got a hold of him. In a nightmare so insidious you know it started on a message board, Pepe was co-opted and corrupted by internet trolls, transformed from a positive character into a white supremacist meme and iconic symbol of hate. A new documentary, Feels Good Man uses live interviews and animation to tell the bizarre story of one man's fight to reclaim the frog he loves from the dark forces who debased him. Catch one of four sneak preview screenings benefitting independent theaters and bookstores this weekend or watch it online September 4th.

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An artist fights to reclaim his character from the alt right in 'Feels Good Man.' - Boing Boing

When was the first time you encountered Pepe The Frog? Was it as the sad frog meme that spread like wildfire on 4chan? Was it in a series of make-up tutorials on Youtube? Or when Nicki Minaj made the evolving meme mainstream with a retweet? Or was it after Pepe went dark, becoming an icon appropriated by the alt-right as a symbol of white supremacy and Trump support? Maybe it was when Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer was explaining his Pepe lapel pin while being punched in the face by an anonymous hero. Or maybe, youre one of the comic books fans that remember this evocative frog from the innocent time before he became the notorious poster boy for every brand of edgelord/incel/bigot trolling. The bizarre journey through all of this and more is unfurled in the documentary Feels Good, Man.

That title might seem confounding considering it centers on a comic book character that has sparked anger and controversy across years around the globe. However, Feels Good, Man ties back to Pepes humble beginnings, where he was one of a quartet of quirky heroes of Boys Club. Created and drawn by Matt Furie, the comic was about oddities of post-collegiate life, which he posted on Myspace. Then, Pepe with his feels good, man catchphrase and expressive mug caught on with the 4chan crowd, who related to his eccentricities and agonies.

Directed by Arthur Jones, Feels Good, Man interviews experts on comics, internet culture, memes, and politics to detail the winding road of Pepes story. Jones also gives a lot of screentime to a shockingly frank 4chan incel who wistfully remembers the days when Pepe belonged to his ilk before the normies (meaning sex-havers and women) invaded their turf by appropriating the character theyd already appropriated. In a particularly disturbing segment, he recounts the spree killing of murderous misogynist Elliot Rodgers as a dark victory for his community. This is just one of many ways that Feels Good, Man is absolutely infuriating.

Props to Jones, as he clearly created a safe space in interviews to allow his subjects to express themselves with candor. What they have to say is shocking but essential to understand this complicated topic. Another interviewee expresses an unrepressed glee at how the liberal backlash against Pepe helped the Trump campaign. The doc also employs clips of conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and problematic youtube Logan Paul praising Pepe, as well as a flood of Pepe memes that are horrifically anti-Black, anti-Semitic, violent, misogynistic, and otherwise profoundly repulsive. In this way, Jones gives an unflinching insight into the dark side of internet appropriation, where memes can run wild and create a stupid and savage chapter of American History. As someone who follows and frequently covers the cross-section of entertainment and politics, I thought I knew the bulk of Pepes story. Yet Feels Good, Man surprised and repulsed me anew.

However, while this journeys details can be absolutely stomach-churning, at its core Feels Good, Man is about the artist who lost control of his creation. Furie drew a feel-good frog who liked to hang out with his friends and piss with his pants around his ankles. When he was posting one-page comics to Myspace, he could not imagine what might become of it. At first, he was flattered when Pepe became a 4chan celeb. While he was trying to figure out how to spin this popularity into profit, the alt-right took over Pepe, leaving Furie flummoxed as to how to reclaim what was once sweet and his. Yet, Furie himself becomes another infuriating element of the doc.

With a soft-spoken delivery and a snoozy stoner vibe, its easy to believe he was overwhelmed by the madness of Pepes trajectory. Even watching Jones careful plotting of this path, you yourself may feel like youve lost your grip on reality. The doc charts how Furie tried to distance himself from Pepe, then reclaim him, and rehabilitate the frog whod become an entry point to radicalism. However, most of these efforts feel frustratingly feeble and clueless. Worse yet, theres a galling sense that Furie is the greatest victim of the Pepe narrative. His aw shucks interviews repeatedly stress how hes trying to stay positive, but struggles when his name is tied to a noted symbol for hate. His friends lament how hes such a good guy who just wants to make childrens books without this scandal hanging over him. While their vexation is understandable, its tone-deaf to focus so much on the emotional wounds of Furie when the doc also displays caught-on-tape hate crimes carried out by white mean wearing Pepe t-shirts and masks. Furie is not Pepes only victim, and likely not even the most dramatically impacted one. But the doc doesnt have the stomach to linger on that thought.

Feels Good, Man is a shocking doc so chock-full of disorienting details, painful flashbacks to murder, bigotry, and Trumps 2016 campaign, that it feels unbearably long at just 92-minutes. Still, I admire how much insight and information Jones works into this runtime. Perhaps he thought a Furie focus would give audiences a breath between montages of deeply disturbing content. Maybe he felt Furies story humanizes Pepe or allows the legacy of this curious character to be recalibrated. Still, I wonder what was the core purpose of this doc? Was it to warn the public about how the bullsh*t memes and trolling of online agitators can spill deplorably and devastatingly into the real world? If so, youd think Jones might reach out to those whove felt the harmful effects of Pepe memes, despite having nothing to do with their perpetuation. Instead, it seems Feels Good, Mans goal is to exonerate Furie and the frog he cannot escape. And that kind of feels f*cked, man.

Feels Good, Man is part of Fantasia 2020, and will be available in the US on September 4. To learn more about the festival and how you can participate, visit their site.

Kristy Puchko is the managing editor of Pajiba. You can follow her on Twitter.

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Review: 'Feels Good, Man' Unravels The Bizarre And Devastating Journey of Pepe The Frog - Pajiba Entertainment News

Former Overwatch pro Silkthread recently recounted how he was fined $1000 dollars by Blizzard for a tweet concerning Pepe the Frog.

On a July 23rd Twitch stream, Silkthread, whose name is Ted Wang, shared the original email he received when the incident took place in 2018.

The email details that during season one of the league, Silkthread tweeted, Does anyone else love Pepe the frog?

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It provoked a response shortly after. The social media manager for the Los Angeles Valiant, Wangs Overwatch team, demanded he delete the tweet immediately.

Wang did delete the tweet, but not before the eyes of the Overwatch League caught it. He was fined $1,000 dollars for the post.

The email he received from the Overwatch League began, This behavior is unacceptable. Your comments violate the spirit of diversity and inclusiveness that makes Overwatch great.

It continued, Comments like yours will not be tolerated by anyone associated with the Overwatch League. Your conduct also violates the letter and spirit of the Overwatch Leagues Official Rules and your Overwatch League Player Professional Services Agreement.

The email then informed him he was being fined $1000, Accordingly, the League Office has determined to impose a $1,000 fine for posting support for a racist meme.

Related: Overwatch League Players Fined $1000 Each for Inappropriate Chat During a League Match

Your Team will be directed to withhold the amount of your fine from your salary until fully paid. This discipline is without prejudice to any other discipline or remedies that the Team may have as your employer, the email stated.

He was able to appeal the fine, citing that he was unaware of the cartoon frog being interpreted as a hate symbol.

According to Wang, he even paid a $60 Uber to go to Burbank just to dispute the fine.

He explained, If you guys want to know what happened, I ended up paying like a $60 Uber to get to Burbank and I disputed the fine. And the dispute worked and I didnt get fined. And thats the story guys.

After telling viewers the interesting anecdote, Silkthread would have a moment of hindsight.

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Thinking back, it probably would have been smarter to take the fine, he said. It would be pretty f***ing cool to be legacized as the person that got fined for tweeting about Pepe the Frog. That would be pretty epic.

Its unclear if this rule is still in effect. Back in March 2018, an Overwatch League spokesperson told Dot Esports, The Overwatch League discourages the use of symbols and imagery which are associated with or used by hate groups, including Pepe the Frog.

They added, At Blizzard Arena, its our policy that fans comply with this policy. We likewise ask the same of Overwatch League teams and players on their social-media accounts.

At the time a number of players deleted their Pepe the Frog memes that they had posted to Twitter.

Jay sinatraa Won indicated he deleted a Pepe the Frog birthday meme.

Esports reporter Rod Breslau reported New York Excelsior DPS Kim Pine Do-hyeon deleted a photo of his phone case that featured Pepe the Frog.

Related: Report: Blizzard Forbids Okay Symbol in Overwatch League Arena Claims Its a White Power Symbol

Its unclear if the Pepe the Frog ban is still in effect. Dallas Fuel player Dylan akm Bignet did post a Pepe the Frog birthday meme back in December.

Related: TheScore Esports Daniel Rosen Applauds Blizzards Reported Decision to Ban Okay Sign in Overwatch League Arena

While its unclear what Blizzard and the Overwatch Leagues current policy on Pepe the Frog is, they did begin enforcing a ban on using the okay symbol last year.

What do you make of the Overwatch League trying to fine Silkthread for a Pepe the Frog meme?

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Former Overwatch Pro Silkthread Reveals Blizzard Tried To Fine Him $1000 For Pepe The Frog Tweet - Bounding Into Comics

As the world was forced into lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alex Lee Moyers documentary TFW No GF was released online. The film focuses on an internet subculture of predominately young, white men who already experienced much of life from the comfort of their own homes, pandemic notwithstanding.

Its title, a reference to the 4chan-originated phrase that feel when no girlfriend, reveals the essence of its subjects grievances described in the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival program as first a lack of romantic companionship, then evolving to a greater state of existence defined by isolation, rejection and alienation. As one of the films subjects remarks early on: Everyone my age kinda just grows up on the internet 4chan was the only place that seemed real I realized there were other people going through the same shit.

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What does this level of alienation tell us about society today? And how seriously should we take the content found on this online patchwork of messaging boards and forums, each with its own language and visual culture that may at first seem humorous or ironic, but often disguises misogyny, racism and violence? These are difficult and urgent questions, particularly given the emergent incel phenomenon incel being a portmanteau of involuntary celibate which appears to be gaining in strength online.

The idea of virtual expressions of alienation and rage translating to actual violence remains a real and present danger, as we were reminded of this May when a teenager became the first Canadian to be charged with incel-inspired terrorism. The documentary, however, avoids confronting the violence that this subculture often glorifies, and the director has since stated that the film was never supposed to be about incels but that it had become impossible to discuss it without the term coming up.

As it turns out, the men we meet in TFW No GF appear to be largely harmless except perhaps to themselves and despite the documentarys lack of narrative voice, it takes a patently empathetic stance. Set against the backdrop of industrial landscapes and empty deserts, this is a United States in decline. Here, role models and opportunities lie thin on the ground, and the closest thing to community exists in virtual realms. Each self-described NEET slang for not in education, employment or training has his own tale of alienation: of alcoholic parents, dead friends or a disenfranchisement with the school system.

For those who study internet subcultures, the memes of Pepe the Frog and Wojak explored in the film will be familiar. Pepe is used as a reaction image, typically in the guises of feels good man, and smug/angry/sad Pepe and, although not created to have racist connotations, is frequently used in bigoted contexts by the alt-right. Wojak, AKA feels guy, is typically depicted as a bald man with a depressed expression.

One of the documentarys subjects, Kantbot, explains that you cant have one without the other thats the duality of man. For these men, Pepe represents the troll self, a public persona that embodies their smug and cocky traits. Wojak denotes a more private and vulnerable self, typified by inadequacy, unfulfillment and sadness. At its core, it is this dichotomy that the documentary seeks to explore, whilst at the same time demanding our sympathies.

On the surface, the men in TFW No GF are united by their failure in finding female partners, a theme which permeates the manosphere that includes Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) and incels. This latter identity has garnered particular attention in recent years due to the spate of incel violence witnessed in North America, most infamously Eliot Rodgers Isla Vista attacks in California in 2014 that left six people dead. According to Moonshot CVE, incels believe that genetic factors influence their physical appearance and/or social abilities to the extent that they are unattractive to women, with some subscribing to the philosophy of the blackpill namely, that women are shallow and naturally select partners based upon looks, stifling the chances of unattractive men to find a partner and procreate.

Incels are a diverse and nebulous community, their worldview characterized by a virulent brand of nihilism seen through the prism of a three-tiered social hierarchy dictated by looks. Here, incels find themselves at the bottom of the pile, after normies, Chads and Stacys. Whilst instances of real-world violence perpetrated by incels remain in relatively low in numbers, its potential to mutate into an offline phenomenon is rightly a cause for concern, with Bruce Hoffman et al., making a convincing argument for increased law enforcement scrutiny, noting that the most violent manifestations of this ideology pose a new terrorism threat.

A counterterrorism approach alone, however, is unlikely to address the reasons why so many young men (and women: see femcels) are drawn to these virtual worlds. If self-reported narratives on forums such as Incels.net and Incels.co are anything to go by, low self-esteem, bullying and mental health issues are rife. An acknowledgment of the pain, rejection and illness that someone may be suffering from is surely required, however unpalatable that is when faced with the abhorrent imagery and rhetoric that may espouse. Underlying all of this is the need for response based in public health.

However, the documentarys empathic approach has been criticized, with The Guardian accusing it of misinformation, particularly in its portrayal of 4chan and the like as harmless, and Rolling Stone criticizing the films acceptance of events without challenging the communities support of violence, misogyny and racism. In this sense, the film is reminiscent of the 2016 documentary The Red Pill, which followed Cassie Jays journey into the world of mens rights activists, similarly focusing on one side of an ever-complicated debate. Thus, showing compassion should ultimately not be a way of avoiding the difficult conversations and, in the case of inceldom, a failure to do so could be seen as irresponsible.

As a researcher of internet subcultures, documentaries like TFW no GF are valuable in so much as we are granted a rare perspective of these men in their own words. Despite the films selectivity and subjectivity representing a small sample of the infinite experiences and beliefs held by those in this expansive community it provides us with a vignette of the online spaces that allow for certain hateful ideas to flourish and be sustained.

For some, the strange and often hostile world of online messaging boards provides a much-needed connection when other doors are closed. For others, they contribute to a more misogynistic, racist and at times violent way of perceiving the world. As COVID-19 continues to rage on, forcing more of us to shift our lives online, the ability to understand and combat deeply entrenched loneliness as well as its potential to intersect with extreme and even violent corners of the internet will be essential.

*[The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Rightis a partner institution ofFair Observer.]

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observers editorial policy.

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Young Men, Alienation and Violence in the Digital Age - Fair Observer