Monday, November 14, 2016

Dog Whistles and Mind-Reading

Everybody is a Carnak now.

Trump is an antisemite, racist, homophobe, sexist etc.

How do you know this? Let's set-aside that nobody (okay, no Human) can divine the content of another's soul. But still, how about some evidence?

It is all "dog whistles". So, his heart is judged by how well his enemies can interpret his words to suit their thesis?

Go ahead and Google: "Trump anti semitic dog whistle" for examples. They are perfect examples of seeing all kinds of meaning in random noise. Eg. Complete avoidence of them is what is technically called, "An impossibly high standard", which is another way of saying no standard at all.

Also, a one-way standard: Did Obama ever get criticized in an anti semitic context in the main stream media for having Al Sharpton over to the White House several dozens of times?

Kidding! Of course not.

Anyway, what is the point of a dog whistle if the dog can't hear it? These claims rely on such subtlety, do you really think some troglodyte from the back woods will hear it? The troglodyte may have access to the internet and find out that many of Trump's business associates are Jewish, his son in law too and that the PM of Israel likes Trump. If the kid is motivated by hatred for all things Jewish, I don't think Trump is going to get him fired-up.

But if it can only be heard by enemies, is it still a dog whistle? No. I think the term you are looking for is imaginary whistle.