the adl recognizes pepe the frog as a hate symbol (
warning very spicy do not click) and things like the ok hand gesture, but does not recognize ree, therefore it is not officially a slur or hate symbol
honestly I always associated it with this
and therefore associate it with impotent rage, the inability to deal with a problem rationally, or accept things you don't like with dignity
which I suppose you could link back to autism, if these traits are what you imagine when you think of autistic people, but it's not the first place I go