It’s interesting. Pepe has never actually really been a hate symbol. He’s an Everyman symbol, in the tradition of Pierrot, the sad clown, the trusting fool, who just happens to be used by a casual online video game culture (which is definitely a superset of various hate groups, but also contains many who are simply there to Minecraft and shoot aliens.)
Pepe was 4chan culture, but was it gaming culture outside of 4chan? Cause I really did not seen it much in general gaming culture, except from chan people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot