How someone detects dog whistling?

@rajillustration Rachel
Tue, 03 Nov 2020 02:26:39 +0000

@rajillustration wrote:

Dog whistling in itself is a political tactic to slander people--are they telling the truth? Are they not? When they say x does it actually mean z? Depends on if you like what they say or not. So some people call "Women's Rights" dog whistling to hide the negative term 'abortion'. Other people call "2nd Amendment Rights" dog whistling to prevent using the word 'guns'. However, Womens Rights isn't always referring to abortion, and 2nd amendment rights are not always about preventing gun control. Those words are not always dog whistling. It's all about context.

So a lot of Dog Whistling is absolutely accurate--that's what it is. Other times, people call things Dog Whistling because they want to invent conspiracy theories (and yo there are SO MANY very silly conspiracy theories on the internet.) So be very mindful that it is...legit.

Honestly, the best way to detect it is to have an educated opinion about the issues at hand, otherwise you'll fall into pits and pits of twitter rants and discord server meltdowns. TBH when people say the word "dog whistling," I get the hell out of there. Discussion basically disappears because it's like...if you aren't on the same political spectrum as the other person then it doesn't matter if there's dog whistling or not. They don't agree. Someone who thinks abortion is about Women's Rights, really thinks abortion really is about women's rights, and same with gun control. If they think gun control really is about the 2nd amendment, then that's why they're saying that. Calling it Dog Whistling won't matter if they don't agree.