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After "Snoop Dogg" started trending due to his controversial music video, I found the following meme in the Twitter stream:


(source: twimg.com)

Are these images real or photoshopped? I came across a larger 1st image that looked like it was photoshopped:

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    I wonder why you think that there is a need to fake such images. The United States has 325 million inhabitants. It's a statistical certainty that you can find a couple radical extremists of any kind among them. That means you will be able to find extremist messages for practically every cause if you just look for them. What would be more interesting is if such extremist sentiments are representative for any notable sub-group of the population.
    – Philipp
    Mar 16, 2017 at 14:08
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    I could absolutely see someone faking images like this.... just like people sometimes fake hate crimes. Why fake a hate crime if so many real ones already happen? It probably centers on ideas like self-victimization, moral panic, outrageous uncivilized "bad guys", etc. I always thought that'd be a good political manipulation technique... have "actors" support an opposing partly loudly (YouTube, etc) and act absolutely crazy/dumb so everyone else goes, "Omigod, if people like that support X, then X must be also nuts and therefore I don't want to be associated" Mar 16, 2017 at 17:19
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    @gloomy.penguin That's not necessary because when it's about politics you always find enough absolutely crazy and dumb people supporting the other side as loud as they can. And because politics is all about getting attention, they usually deliver more than enough material to exploit. This can be seen very well in the feminism debate. Both sides pick the most crazy extremists which argue for the other side and then present them to their own filter bubble as "This is how they all think and behave".
    – Philipp
    Mar 16, 2017 at 18:56
  • I think the more important question is what quantitative and qualitative difference there is between the two. Most/all of these have a racial element, for instance, but I think protests against Trump are probably more widespread (statistics on that would help). Mar 16, 2017 at 22:09

1 Answer 1

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Yes they are real.

Effigy burning.

The event was organised by pastor Terry Jones in January 2013. It was uploaded to Youtube and the entire 54 minutes long thing can be viewed. The burning starts at the 51:50 mark.

In the event they burn the effigies of Obama and Bill Clinton.

The second picture of the Effigy is from an earlier time when the pastor just hanged an Obama effigy infront of his church, during the 2012 presidential elections, from a June 8th, 2012 thesmolkinggun.com article:

The Florida pastor who ignited an international furor by threatening to burn a pile of Korans has applied his subtle touch to the 2012 presidential campaign by constructing a gallows from which a likeness of President Barack Obama now hangs in effigy.

The display in the front yard of Terry Jones’s Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC) in Gainesville features a dummy wearing an Obama mask hanging from a yellow noose. Along with an American flag and a rainbow-striped gay pride flag, the scene includes an Uncle Sam dummy and a child’s doll hanging from the right hand of the Obama figure.

Nearby, the words “Obama is Killing America” are printed on a trailer. So, it appears, the creepy Jones is returning the favor.

Hang in there Obama sign

The sign was put up by Thomas Savka on his property in Wisconsin. According to both the Huffington Post and International Business Times Savka claimed that the sign was pro Obama. Both of them citing and linking to defunct reports by local affiliates of NBC and FOX.

“If it is causing this much attention, then that’s good,” Tom Savka told NBC affiliate WGBA in response to reports that his sign is distressing drivers. “If it gets you off your dead butt, gets you away from watching the football game, and go out and vote.”

The yellow sign prominently displays gallows with a tied noose next to the words, “Hang In There Obama.” But from far away, it looks like “Hang Obama” next to a picture of a noose, WGBA reports. Toward the bottom, Savka has painted in minuscule letters, “I love Obama.”

Savka told the WGBA that the message is aimed at propping up Obama during the last weeks of the campaign.

The message is “never give up. Don’t quit. I don’t care about the noose around your neck, I don’t care if you’re hanging,” Savka said.

the Huffington Post

A man who posted a sign with the words “hang” and “Obama” along with a noose on a Wisconsin highway insists the shocking poster is in support of President Barack Obama.

The yellow sign featured red letters with the words “Hang” and “Obama” with smaller blue text reading “In There” in between the larger words. To the left is a noose.

"It's my attitude for it. Everybody's picking on Obama. It's the attitude of 'hang in there, buddy!' It isn't over ‘til you're done kicking,” Thomas Savka of Redgranite, Wis., told Fox 11 Online, which has a photo of the sign on its [website].

International Business Times

The Obama campaign didn't buy that explanation

Others aren’t buying Savka’s explanation, including the Obama campaign.

“This type of imagery is inappropriate, and has no place in public discourse around elections,” an Obama campaign spokesman told Fox 11.

International Business Times

Obama as a witch doctor

A CNN article covering a Tea Party ray where this poster was shown:

Posters portraying President Obama as a witch doctor may be racist, organizers of Tea Party protests say, but they reflect anger about where he is leading the country.

The posters, showing Obama wearing a feather headdress and a bone through his nose, have been popping up in e-mails, on Web sites and at Tea Party protests for weeks.

The picture

As well as this video showing a news reporter interviewing a shop owner who put the poster on his display.

Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot

A Daily Mail article about three anti Obama billboards put on display outside a motorbike accessories store off Route 27 in Hanson, Massachusetts, one of them saying "Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing its idiot" with a picture of Obama.

Another one of the politically-charged posters, supporting Republican candidate Romney, shows a smiling President with communist hammer and sickle symbols added to his shirt collar.

Beneath the picture are the words: 'Somewhere in Kenya a village is missing its idiot. Obama – One Big A** Mistake America. Vote Mitt Romney For 2012!'

Billboard picture
(source: wordpress.com)

Obama where's your papers

The Daily Beast credit the picture to Justin Sullivan at Getty Images.

Regardless of the authenticity of that specific picture, it talks about the Barak Obama birth certificate conspiracy.

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    I've seen several of the cited images converted to bumper stickers in my neighborhood, particularly the "Somewhere in Kenya..." one. We're a classy country :(
    – Beofett
    Mar 16, 2017 at 12:43
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    The "witch doctor" picture was widely distributed in email chains. I seem to recall that a police officer got disciplined/fired for forwarding it.
    – Avery
    Mar 16, 2017 at 13:25

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