Eris/Pepe mash-up ripped from the pages of The Pepe Report.
One of the crazier rabbit holes to emerge from the 2016 Presidential campaign was the viral meme of a frowning frog named Pepe, who in the election’s aftermath all of the sudden got this shit eating grin on his face (his frown turned upside down) and MAGA cap planted on his head.
For those unfamiliar with Pepe the Frog (aka Kek), there’s a whole mythology around this meme that’s indeed quite mind warping. Long story short, Pepe became a sigil for 4chan trolls to focus on; a sort of mental image for a magickal working. It’s a story filled with more sordid synchronicities than you can shake a magick stick at, all of which ostensibly got Trump elected.
A good overview of the Pepe mythos can be found here.
Pepe also had a hand (“some people are saying”) in creating—or giving some oomph to—the movement now identified as the Alt-right, which pretty much appeared out of nowhere not so long ago. And a faction of the Alt-right are those who frequent Reddit, 4chan and the deeper regions of the dark web doing whatever it is they do in dim-lit basements, their 400 pound fat guy faces illuminated by the eerie glow of computer screens. This, theoretically, included birthing Pepe into pop culture like some kind of right wing Rosemary’s Baby.
Some of the first articles on Pepe and the Cult of Kek linked the meme to Discordianism.
Many Cult of Kek enthusiasts were quick to make this Pepe/Discordian association, which is way off base IMHO, at least in terms of how I view the Early Discordian practice of Operation Mindfuck (OM).
Just the same, these Pepe/Discordian comparisons could be considered valid in a limited sense, or as its writ in Principia Discordia:
“All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.”
Discordianism (such as it is) has greatly morphed over the years. Some who nowadays identify themselves as Discordians bring all sorts of divergent political baggage to the party—left, right, or off the map—hence the old adage: “We Discordians must stick apart!” In other words, there’s no formal agreement as to what a Discordian is—let alone what the meaning of “is” is— other than Discordians often agree to disagree—or agree on some things, but not so much on others. Hence what might be true for one is false for another. Much of what presents itself these days as Discordianism (ala social media) comes in the form of the sort of shitposting that Discordian founder Greg Hill would have no doubt recoiled from in horror.
Some have also compared Pepe-ism to Chaos Magick, which itself is tangentially linked to Discordianism. The Early Discordians, for the most part, were never all that much involved in ritual magick—chaotic or otherwise—except of course for Robert Anton Wilson (RAW), easily the most famous Discordian of all who dabbled in various forms of ritual magick.
There was a network of chaos magicians that emerged in the 1970s (many of them influenced in part by RAW) who were likewise into Quantum Physics theories in terms of influencing physical reality and consciousness using memes akin to sigils; for instance, the Discordian practice of focusing on the number 23, and the more you concentrated on it, the more it would manifest, the same sort of mindfuck more recently observed with the whole 11:11 phenomenon. Seek and ye shall find…
These earlier Discordian practices
Send us your Eris of the Month Club submissions (more info here) by using the form at the bottom of The MGT. page. (ala the 23 Enigma) were conducted on an informal and often individual basis or through small group experiments—or simply by those who stumbled upon RAW’s Cosmic Trigger Vol. 1—all of this occurring long before the Internet was but a glint in Al Gore’s eye.
Back in the day, it was word-of-mouth-high-weirdness; the memes spread gradually over time in contrast to the Internet age information overload where a simple meme (posted to social media) can spread like wildfire over the course of a few hours.
To this end, the Cult of Pepe is, in essence, a sort of chaos magick working that took some elements from all of the above and projected them across a cyber landscape gone wild, making The Illuminatus! Trilogy look comparatively like a Sunday stroll through the park.
Another Pepe/Discordian connecting point concerns elements of the hacker community (aligned with Pepe) pushing Operation Mindfuck “fake news” memes as a magickal working ostensibly designed to alter physical reality or create a new paradigm; in essence planting a weird seed to see how it will sprout throughout culture and grow tentacles.
With the early Discordians such OM endeavors took the form of injecting into pop culture a fake or alternative Illuminati mythos that was partly true and partly false, fact mixed with fiction which—in turn—created a viral mutation of how we now, as a culture, collectively view the Illuminati.
When Hill, Kerry Thornley, Wilson et al. first launched their OM Illuminati conspiracy, it was uncertain (at least to those of us now on the outside looking back) whether they had any sort of end game in mind—or if OM was all just good fun.
Conversely, the Cult of Kek’s modern and—some might say—twisted form of OM took stories that were partly true—like John Podesta’s real emails—and OM’d them into such beasties as Pizzagate, which is—in essence—a mash up of several pre-Internet conspiratorial yarns, including the Hillary-satanic-lesbian story that was first rolled out in one of the weirder mind control/conspiracy books of the early 1990’s, Cathy O’ Brian’s Trance: Formation of America (archive.org TXT file / Amazon).
Add to that secret tunnels below Comet Pizza—a throwback to the alleged McMartin Pre-School tunnels where children were purportedly transported and used as sex slaves during the height of the Satanic Panic craze—all of which has been recycled into this lurid story of a modern day pizza parlor gone bad!
So the modus operandi was similar (re: Cult of Kek vs. the Discordian Society’s OM) where you take factual elements and conflate them with misinformation/disinformation thus turning these stories into viral Molotov cocktail’s launched into the body politic, the end design to burn it all to the ground—or at least deliver a fully loaded monkey wrench into the works and gum the fuck out of The System.
Perhaps the foremost Pepe chronicler these days is a fellow named A.T.L. Carter who maintains a twitter page called—appropriately enough—“The Pepe Report” where I recently posited that perhaps this whole Pepe craze was on its last (frog) legs. In response, one agitated pro-Pepe commenter suggested I was nothing more than a worthless sack of you know what (ouch, that hurt!) and that if we sorry lot of Discordian losers were as adept as the Cult of Kek in the art of doxing, trolling, and shit posting, we would have elected our very own Discordian President by now instead of talking smack about poor little Pepe.
The agitated tweeter in question also posted a mash-up of Eris meets Pepe—green skin and all—which I must admit is pretty cool and sort of reminded me of an Orion slave girl, and for these reasons we have selected her our Eris of the Month!
In any case, I immediately screen-capped this Eris/Pepe mash-up because you know how these things have a tendency to disappear. This turned out to be a wise move because shortly afterwards our Green Skinned Lady of the Golden Apple was deleted for some reason—by the agitated tweeter in question, I presume—or maybe A.T.L. 86’d it because he didn’t want his Pepe Report devolving into a flame war about who is the superior agent of chaos: Pepe or Eris?
Just the same, A.T.L. referred to me as a “cuck” for my crack about Pepe’s possible demise, which I guess suggests that being called a cuck isn’t quite as bad as being called a worthless sack of stuff.
Whatever the case, A.T.L. seems like an alright (A.L.T. right?) guy, the cuck comment notwithstanding. Of course, I wasn’t entirely clear what “cuck” meant at the time, aside from being a popular Pepe enthusiast putdown.
‘Cuck’, it turns out—after some master class googling—has multiple meanings related to ‘cuckold.’ However, the more recent Breitbartian application (often employed by that creepy Milo guy) seems to describe your average limp-wristed liberal types who get their jollies letting black men do it to their wives while voyeuristically watching from the sidelines. (For further information on the meaning of “cuck” consult your pineal gland and/or Roger Stone.)
Discordian social media forums have been infiltrated—to a certain extent—by this Cult of Pepe crew with the sort of shitposting that some consider hip cutting edge political incorrectness. This type of political incorrectness—it could be argued—eventually led to Milo’s (whatever his last name is) fall from grace due to remarks made on the Joe Rogan Show implying he was cool with underage gay sex—comments that turned out to be a bit much for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) organizers who had scheduled our favorite Alt-right rock star for a speaking gig at their shindig, but thought better of it once his creepy comments made the rounds of social media. Soon after, CPAC withdrew their invite to Milo, who in short order got the boot from Breitbart, as well, probably because it’s kind of hard to promote cheesy Pizzagate stories when your fair-haired Aryan boy is endorsing the very same illicit activities that John Podesta was supposedly party to at Comet Pizza!
Speaking of CPAC, one of the more Discordian acts I’ve seen of late was perpetrated by a couple young pranksters who had a bunch of Russian flags made up with “Trump” printed on them, and then passed them out to clueless CPAC participants entering the event who either weren’t smart enough to know better—or just plain didn’t care that they were waving around Trump/Russia flags. When CPAC organizers caught wind of this gag, they sent their goons into the crowd to retrieve them, but even then some of the recipients refused to hand-over their prized blue, white, and (commie) red banners, the treasonous bastards.
Afterwards, the two pranksters who pulled off this jake were interviewed outside the event, employing mock Russian accents.
Приветствие Эрис!
Send us your Eris of the Month Club submissions (more info here) by using the form at the bottom of The MGT. page.
5 replies on “Eris of the Month vs. Pepe the Frog”
The Egyptian god with the frog head is actually called kuk not kek.
Isn’t that a gas?
I have it on good authority that Pepe is really a Puerto Rican Cane Toad, known for annoying Australians and poisoning their pets with impunity. Hail Eris!
If it quacks like a horse, has feathers like a horse, swims like a horse, and flies like a horse, by God it must be a freaking horse.
Eris swallowed Pepe, (she swallows, Hail Eris) and will be temporarily green before she turns him brown if ya know what I mean.
First of all, this is in defense of Pepe, as a misunderstood symbol who’s been misapplied by one party and then accepted as the only party with any weight behind him as a symbol, even though that party makes up a very small minority of the people who actually enjoy Pepe and use him as a symbol of freedom instead (i.e., the Kekistanis).
Also, I want to preface this entire response with one quote from the Principia Discordia, in the Pentabarf, that stands out to me more than any other, the fifth commandment, “A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he Reads.” call it what you will, but I figure these words of wisdom a thing of beauty. What this statement, and indeed the statement that the OP quotes of there being truth, falsehoods, and meaninglessness in everything and in every statement, is in essence pushing is the free thinking skepticism that’s been lost on most everyone (including the OP, I believe) in the modern age. The statements are saying that there is truth in everything, in every statement, in every written piece, that any piece of information has some truth in it, but it also has some lies, and many things in the statement are meaningless.
In the modern age this is, in every sense, applicable to the media, to the news and the pundits that spew “facts” at you from off of a teleprompter and then talk about it among themselves like they’re sitting around their living room having coffee with each other as friends. Do not be fooled though. I use the word facts in quotes in that sentence because much of their statements are false or are half truths, lies by omission, stories told in part with large chunks left off because they are the powers that be, they are the ones with the resources, they are the ones who decide what truth is and what truth is not. This is as equally applicable to all major media providers, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and so on. “A Discordian is Prohibited in Believing What he Reads.” is this not any more applicable to what someone else reads to you? If someone read the bible to you and told you of Adam and Eve, should you believe them because you’re not directly reading it?
I’m saying all of this because many of the claims made and the very idea even that Pepe is responsible for Trump’s win, is completely absurd and ridiculous. So now I will give a history lesson, feel free to not believe this as it’s being read by you and feel free to take all of it with a grain of salt, I encourage you because I’m not infallible and I can make some mistakes here too, to you about the origin of Pepe, the origin of Kek (the term), the origin of Kek (the deity), the resurgence of Pepe, and Kekistan.
The Origin of Pepe:
Pepe started as a stoner frog comic book character by Matt Fury. One frame of the comic has him looking down sadly as he says, “Feels bad man.” which was later turned into the meme which originated on 4chan, although 4chan does not control the meme because 4chan is dead and obsolete (you’d have an easier time finding reddit posters with clout in the modern age). That’s as far as the origins of pepe go, he would later be redrawn over and over changed into different memes and variants and so on, a meme, an uncontrollable joke image.
Kek, the Term:
Kek is a term derived from 2 titular Blizzard franchises of games, Starcraft and World of Warcraft. Before World of Warcraft it was derived from Starcraft’s Korean player base whose version of lol is keke which translates as, “haha” and was used to taunt other players when they made crippling moves. Afterwards, when WoW came around, if a character who spoke Orcish said, “lol” in Orcish to a player who did not speak Orcish, it would register on screen as “kek”.
Kek, the Deity:
Kek, as I’m certain the OP is aware, is the Egyptian god of chaos and darkness, with their female counterpart being Kekuat. That’s as far as explanation is needed, but if you need further explanation, Kek and Kekuat, along with another pantheon of gods, died when the world came into being (according to Egyptian mythology) and now spend their time in the afterlife causing the river Nile to flow. In other words, Hail Eris, All Hail Discordia, Kek is dead! But I digress.
Kekistan, or How it All Comes Together and How Kekistan is a Set Piece in the Weird World of Internet Politics:
Kekistan emerged as a joke from a live stream of YouTubers Sargon of Akkad, Some Black Guy, Wizard of Cause, Jeff Holiday, and a few others (the names of who I can’t remember off the top of my head). The joke was essentially, “Let’s make a fake ethnicity and replicate the Jedi religion prank of 2001.” now, the reason for this is that Hillary Clinton, out of nowhere, attacked Pepe, disavowed him, and made him an official hate symbol according to the ADL, and they wanted to fuck with Hillary as she is a liar and a shill for corporations. They also did this in part because the only reason Hillary attacked Pepe is that she had her, “Don’t Let Your Memes be Dreams” campaign which fronted her image with memes… even though memes have always been a politically incorrect joke format and she was pandering to the politically correct side of the political debate… yeah. Needless to say this damaged her image and so she found the one meme that seemed to have the most negative images when she searched it on Google, Pepe, and chose that to disavow… but that didn’t really help her as that ignited the live stream Kekistan prank, which itself has spiraled out of control and evolved wildly ever since, and of course this led her to later create the separation of “memes” and “alt-right memes” or, “politically correct memes” and “politically incorrect memes” in other words. So that’s for the origin of Kekistan as an “ethnicity” but what of Kekistan as a whole? Well, Kekistan’s lore came later on when Kek, which was already being used in place of lol by Pepe, was then associated with Kek, the deity, because Kek, the deity, also happens to be a frog headed god, so naturally the 2 clicked together. The lore goes like this:
Back in the ancient and lost country of Kekistan, before the later countries that would form in the region (such as Egypt) would come to rise, and before the country donned the name Kekistan, a mighty god of chaos, Kek, sent his prophet Pepe to spread the word of Kek, thus leading to the renaming. Pepe would continue to lead a rich and prosperous life, living many decades as a religious leader who led the country to prosperity, creating a system of religious worship, meme magic and kek farming, which led to their great power. However, across their border lay the mighty kingdom of Cuckistan, a nation of milquetoast pussies who envied Kekistan’s meme magic and wondrous kek farms and on their other side lay the kingdom of Sarkeesia who shared a similar distaste for the Kekistanis. Their combined might and tactical advantage of surrounding them wore Kekistan’s forces thin and they plead to their final border state ruled by the Normies for aid, but the Normies were indifferent and would let Kekistan die. Thus, in a final act of courage, Pepe gave his life so that the remaining Kekistanis could flee and become a nomadic people, speaking in hushed tones and in quiet places of memes. Thousands of years later their descendants would emerge as powerful meme mages as the digital scape gave way to an easier means of kek farming and the image of the prophet was placed into the mind of a Cuckistani descendant to be put forth and bring about a new age and a rebirth of the Kekistani people.
And thus you have how keks, Kek, and Pepe, were all linked together into Kekistan, a fake religion and joke. The joke would eventually move further and thus, the Kekistani flag would be created, as well as the song “It’s Because I’m Green, Isn’t It?” which would transform Kekistan into a satire of identity politics. The flag of Kekistan parodying the Alt-Right by picking on the Nazi’s flag, and the song picking on the Far Left’s “I’m X thing, therefore I’m being oppressed.” mentality, even if there’s no evidence supporting that.
Kekistan is a joke, Pepe is a joke… the problem is Poe’s Law, “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.” and thus the Alt-Right wouldn’t realize that Kekistan is a parody of them and they’d misappropriate it to make their legitimate racist statements using Kekistan as a symbol and the Left would believe that Kekistan is the Alt-Right.
Now the problem with the guy on Twitter that you reference, that’s all him, who gives a fuck. Now the reason that he and many others believe Kekistan and Pepe won’t die, is that people like you keep bringing them up even though they’re dead jokes (and yes I realize this article is from 2017, doesn’t stop Pepe and Kekistan to keep being revived like Gamer Gate, which is a whole other can of worms that’s not been understood correctly by people who just accept what they’re told.). The other problem that I have is that you accepted the main stream media belief and that stupid wordpress website as fact without doing any further research, which is evident because you use the term, “Cult of Kek” instead of Kekistan, which had you actually done research you’d know is what it’s really called. As for the thing about the doxing and the shitposting helping to win the election… are you fucking serious? Do you really think internet jokes have the power to sway an entire country towards voting a different way? Because, FYI, if you don’t remember Hillary won the popular vote, which means MOST PEOPLE VOTED FOR HER, which means that KEKISTAN IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT, RESPONSIBLE FOR TRUMP. And if you really want to know why Hillary lost, she was cocky and thought she’d win, look at where she campaigned, she completely glossed over swing states that Trump went to, which literally means that Trump won because Hillary was lazy and cocky. Also, back to the whole doxing thing, the actions of individuals do not define the group, you even speak in your article of the differences in the politics and opinions of Discordians. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine Kekistanis aren’t any different?
In truth Kekistan is WILDLY different than Discordianism. Where Discordianism is semi serious and is more of a philosophy, Kekistan is a fictional country made as a joke to spite Hillary, because Hillary is stupid and did something that was so wildly out there that it falls under Poe’s Corollary, an act of extremism that seems like parody. Also, let’s be honest, Hillary was not a better candidate. In 2016 we as Americans had a choice between A) a blatant corporate shill who’s been a racist, homophobe, and defender of sexual assaulters, but then changed all of that because the pop-politics of the country changed, or B) someone who no one really knows what they were about or if they’d enact change… the popular vote’ll tell you most chose A, but the ones with the most influence chose B and B just happened to be another A, but more watered down and easy to hate.