Which is exactly why they’re called dog whistles. It’s so only certain people (the ones in the know) are able to find the true message. The entire point is to signal solidarity and find like-minded bigots, without exposing yourself. Because they know that if they just come out and blatantly say it, they’ll face a lot of backlash. So instead, they hide behind dog whistles.
People with 88 in their usernames are probably people who've been rocking the same username for 20+ years at this point. I think my username naming scheme hasn't changed since I was single digits in age logging intk AIM and MSN Messenger
I dunno, if I had a username (I don't care how old) and found out it had a racist dogwhistle, I'd change accounts.
Like how my fiance came home onr day and threw out his Punisher shirt because "asshole cops are co-opting the Punisher, even though they're exactly whose asses the Punisher would be beating on!"
That's how appropriation works though, by forcing out the people who used it in its original context.
However, I think Marvel redesigned the Punisher's skull logo thing purely because of that. Those who use the old one are guaranteed to be asshole cop and trump supporters who completely missed the memo.
That’s how appropriation works though, by forcing out the people who used it in its original context.
I'd argue that by making it so only the people who use dogwhistles use it, it now becomes a fog horn. No one in 1910 cared about a Hindu symbol for peace. People cared a lot by the end of 1945.
I made mine long before learning about the connection between "88" and the Nazis, and at this point, anyone who sees my username and immediately jumps to "nazi" is a certified moron.
What's wrong with Humbert Humbert? A man with a poetic sould who did nothing wrong except shooting that guy (no, really, is HH a thing outside of Lolita?)
I was in a tf2 clan called the Hampshire Heavies, guess what the handle was... Luckily we were pretty well known, but incidentally some thought I was a sympathizer.
That's how I found out that HH (and 88) were dog whistles, I had no idea before.