Dog Whistles
Dog Whistles
Full post here: https://www.tumblr.com/brightlotusmoon/727204642739617792
Posting this to make up for accidentally posting a dog whistle earlier. Oops
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This may be controversial, but I think the way to combat dog whistles like this is to overuse them and muddy the waters. Make it so the Nazi's aren sure whether the "pattern noticer" they are interacting with are antisemitic or not.
ISIS went from being an Egyptian goddess and a great band to a poorly translated acronym for a terrorist organization because everyone let the terrorists win on that one. The swastika has been a neat and simple symbol used by a variety of cultures with a variety of meanings ranging from positive to neutral until it was taken by the Nazi's. 88 is a really neat looking number that's done nothing wrong.
Society keeps on ceding cultural ground to assholes and the rest of us have to tiptoe through every piece of communication in fear of being associated with them.
What's next? How long until some fascists start to use the "cool s" that we all doodled in our notebooks in school? Are we going to have to stop using any numbers with less than 3 digits? Will Allah, Jupiter, and Thor join Isis as symbols of fear?
I've got so much respect for people who fight the good fight and continue posting Pepe in 2024.
But, the whole point is to have the waters muddied. That's why it's called a dog whistle, because only the dogs (the intended audience) will hear the whistle (recognize the true intent behind the phrase).
So fight mud with mud and make it harder to recognize the true intent.
Or better yet, make it so that the symbols are just way more commonly associated with non-asshole meanings.
It's like the ok sign. It's only a dog whistle when combined with other things. Mudding the water doesn't work when there's layers unless you muddy the layers. But then they just add a layer
Better to let them use it and out themselves
Great points. Here is the original post:
I honestly interpreted this as a socially awkward way of trying to do small talk - for example talking about weather
Me, too. But I definitely know about the dogwhistle when they phrase it as "stop noticing things." Subtlety makes it an effective dogwhistle. They will steal vocabulary and concepts from anywhere to spread their bigotry and hatred.
I like the idea of not yielding semantic authority to fascists. Like here in Germany, I've seen (minor) shitstorms over the phrase "to each their own" ("Jedem das Seine") because the Nazis put that on the gate of Buchenwald concentration camp. But the principle of "suum cuique" goes way back to ancient times and is a central tenet of our legal system. So why should we let Nazis dictate what the words we use mean?
That said, they coined a whole bunch of expressions that are rightfully frowned upon to this day and I have no issue with that kind of criticism. I've never felt the need to label anyone's relationship as "racial shame," for instance.
Just my two cents.
Reclaim the fuckin runes! They look cool, are easy to carve in different materials and are a part of my historical heritage
As someone who has read primary sources on actual Norse/Germanic/Rus/Whatever religious rites:
Lol no, let the Nazis have it, that shit was fucked and the revisionism is always either a cover for white supremacy or some hipster idiots that can't admit God is dead.
If you're just interested in the alphabet just make a new, even cooler one... Your grandkid's heritage starts with you.
It reminds me of this old man named Adolf, who when asked why he didn't change his name after WW2, he said "I'm not going to let an asshole with a stupid mustache take away my name"