After reading the room for debate, "Can a Meme Be a Hate Symbol?" I noticed that most of the debaters believe that the popular Pepe the Frog meme was a hate symbol, but that's not the truth. Pepe was created without hate symbols and made to only give good laughs and that's it. Ever since his creation, people have reposted different iterations of Pepe, and some of these may be negative but that doesn't mean Pepe himself is a hate symbol. Unfortunately, a couple of these debaters think that Pepe will be tied to these negative iterations forever, but it doesn't mean the meme is only negative.
Most memes are created to bring joy and laughter to all the people who view them, and most of the Pepe memes are positive and uplifting so I don't think that people should focus on the negative dark side of the meme. Viewers should do this for all memes though, just because the meme has a negative connotation attached to it doesn't make it a hate symbol. Instead of criticizing the meme, criticize the creator who gave it the negative traits. What do you guys think of this? Can memes really be hate symbols?
I agree in that most memes are made for me people to laugh and enjoy, however some are made to be offensive and hurtful. I also agree that people should do more research before they criticize a meme based on one negative iteration. I believe that there is a difference between the meme being made to be funny and then a negative iteration coming out of it than the meme being made to be offensive and negative.
ReplyDelete-Eileen Hernandez
I agree that memes aren't hate symbols. Majority of them are created for pure laughter and enjoyment. Unfortunately some are created as harmful content that happen to grow popularity. However that isn't meme itself isn't to blame, the person spewing that offensive content on the meme are to blame. We should block or report the people that make negative forms of memes and enjoy the funny ones. Giving attention to negativity is what enables it to grow.
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