• Avicenna@programming.dev
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    4 hours ago

    Oh shit I remember this period. They used to put this bear on every topic/image with a kid. Then Epstein happened…

  • Redditmodstouchgrass@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

    God, this reminds me of a friend I used to see infrequently. We were playing some made up sport and he tackled me, and because he held onto me for too long I said something or another about pedobear and he got really quiet for the rest of the day. Anyone want to guess what his grandpa was caught doing with him a week later?

  • Kauhuhu@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Shit take, but Pedobear did nothing wrong. He is a satirical character that acted as a cautionary tale, a parody of the creepy behavior. As many of the platforms where Pedobear thrived were used in parts by teenagers, i think the cautionary tale part could work as a palatable way to point out and identify some abnormal behaviors. Quick note, i am aware that in some cases, these characters are adopted by the group they are satirizing as mascots, (example: Beavis and Butthead being adopted by the alternative/metalhead culture they were representing), but i dont believe Pedobear was the case. If anything, this is the time we need this meme the most, sadly.

    • velma@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      It’s a double-edged sword. Joking about and meme-ing about pedophilia also normalizes it which helps predators get closer to victims through “humor”.

      • Kauhuhu@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Yes, tou are right, that was the point i was trying to make with the adoption and appropriation of the iconography of some characters. Should have explained myself better.

  • SailorFuzz@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Memes in 2012: photoshops of a fictional pedo character

    Memes in 2026: screen caps of an actual pedo who is also the president.

          • No_Money_Just_Change@feddit.org
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            15 hours ago

            That will sound like shittake, but it isn’t.

            When i ask myself who would be a better person, pedobear, or trump, i believe in pedo bear.

            1. The memes were about him either joking about pedophilia or oogling children, but at least in my bubble, never actual rape

            2. trumo is a pedophile a rapist and a fascist. pedobear is only a pedophile with no credible witnesses stating he ever acted on it

            • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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              8 hours ago

              I experienced 4chan at the tail end of the unmoderated era. Pedobear was a lot more than that. A good deal of the actual meme posts had openly sadist and rapist tendencies, but the vast majority of pedobear images I encountered were just the bear to advertise a thread of csam, the bear to shorthand calling someone a pedo, or the bear to shorthand pedophilic thoughts about someone else’s post. On a rare occasion, there would be csam with pedobear images for censorship to advertise a seperate website. It’s no wonder the darker parts could be missed or have been scrubbed from the internet.

              As much as I relish the golden glow of the frontier internet, we can’t let that glow hide the rot that was truely there.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      Yah, pedobear was mid-2000s. And nobody back then would say he’s a “meme”, they’d mock people for “forcing memes”. He’s just an image/character. “FGSFDS” is a meme. “Milhouse is not a meme” is a meme.”