How did a meaningless meme frog character become the “face” of the Alt-Right crowd? – PB/TK
Students Hold Free Speech Events, Get Denounced as White Supremacists – By Christian Britschgi / June 21 2017
Faculty and students at Linfield College have compared the campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) to terrorists and denounced them as white supremacists. Why? Because the libertarian student group attempted to host a series of free speech events at the small liberal arts college in McMinnville, Oregon.
The story begins in April, when YAL members set up a table on campus to promote both their newly formed group and a series of “speak freely” events they were sponsoring. Keifer Smith, vice president of the chapter, brought along an inflatable “free speech ball” and invited students to write whatever they wanted on it.
“The majority of the things written on there were uplifting things, not political, not inflammatory at all,” Smith reports: comments like “you’re awesome” and “have a nice day.” But one person drew Pepe—a cartoon frog that some alt-right trolls have adopted as a symbol—and so the YAL chapter quickly became the focal point of campus outrage.
“Immediately we were deemed alt-right,” says Smith. They were even called white supremacists.
Continue to reason.com article: http://reason.com/blog/2017/06/21/libertarian-student-group-in-oregon-deem
