Comment by perl4ever

5 years ago

>It started out with universal condemnation of a murder committed by the police in Minnesota

This is revisionist, though, isn't it? And in a way that specifically eliminates the meaning of the protests. The protests started before the officers were charged, I believe. And while it may not be reasonable to expect the arrests to happen instantly, it's also reasonable that people doubted it would happen at all.

Assuming you mean well and all, this specific wording could nevertheless be interpreted as a dog whistle. It triggers some peoples' political immune system.

12 comments

perl4ever

Reply
AnimalMuppet  5 years ago

ELI5: What is the dog whistle in the quoted sentence? And how is it a dog whistle?

  • perl4ever  5 years ago

    "started out...universal"

    Those two words seem to express what I think is a crucial falsehood, and it works for selective communication (dog whistling) if some people get cognitive dissonance for it and others don't. We have me as an example of the former and you as an example of the latter.

    I'm not saying it's intentional, but it raises hackles for me.

justin66  5 years ago

> Assuming you mean well and all, this specific wording could nevertheless be interpreted as a dog whistle. It triggers some peoples' political immune system.

It never occurred to me that that rayiner might have been using some kind of dog whistle in his reply to me. It would be rather out of character, and yours seems like a needlessly uncharitable interpretation of his comment.

  • perl4ever  5 years ago

    That's why I used the qualifiers and suggested it was unintentional, in order to scrupulously follow HN guidelines. No response seems forthcoming.