Racist dog whistles

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These days the progressive left talks continually about "racist dog whistles" being sounded by... well, any figure they don't like.

Here's the thing about dog whistles though: only dogs can hear them! And that is the idea behind the "racist dog whistle" meme: this is secret, coded language that only racists can understand. But...

That means the progressives pointing out these "dog whistles" would have to be... racists! Or else they couldn't hear the whistle, they wouldn't understand the code.

Of course, what the charge really amounts to is, "I don't like that person's preferred policies, and while I can't point to anything explicitly racist that he said, I can instead smear him by claiming he's speaking in a secret racist code."

Comments

  1. Lord11:42 AM

    But they can. They can note how the dogs react, and do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Prateek2:54 PM

    Gene, this is the troubling possibility I have had to consider about modern progressives.

    How would they understand the language, the notions, the ideas, and most importantly the dog whistles of far right wing racists if they were not already deeply immersed in it? After all, folks at the ADL and SPLC are watching these racists on social media 24/7, digging to find something to pin on them.

    If they managed to get the same hints as other racists are supposed to when they hear these dog whistles, then it must mean they have some empathy for the ideas and thinking of racists. Note, I don't say agreement. So I wonder if on a certain level, they are troubled by such racist ideas because on some level they can understand why someone would think that way.

    ReplyDelete

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