> It's not "Orwellian" to say "hey, that shit hurts people, be conscious of how your actions affect other people." It's polite.
I think it is Orwellian to declare certain words or phrases "dog whistles" and suppress their usage based on that.
I think it is Orwellian to declare certain words or phrases "dog whistles" and suppress their usage based on that.
If you don't want to be thought of as a white supremacist, it's remarkably easy not to parrot their phrases. And nobody's even saying you can't do it if you want to die on that hill. But actions have consequences, don't they?
That's really easy.
The statement 'America is a meritocracy' is not remotely a phrase or statement supporting White Supremacy.
The fact any reasonable person would try to put such an innocuous statement in the camp of 'White Supremacy' makes me afraid.
It could be if you insist that it's a meritocracy in the face of all the evidence that it is overwhelmingly biased towards white people.
(It could equally just be an ignorant statement from a blistering ignorant fool who hasn't done any thinking, mind.)
Last time I checked, Asian Americans were the wealthiest racial demographic in the US. Does it follow that meritocracy is even more biased towards Asians than it is towards Whites? Or, perhaps there's more to it than blanket claims that, "it is overwhelmingly biased towards white people."?
This is what is so insidious about accusations of dog-whistling. It's a cheap and effective way of simplifying reality and portraying the target as a straw man.
I wonder if the right will adopt this tactic and start calling things like "diversity initiatives" as a dog-whistling for the exclusion of conservatives.
And maybe because when people use a word we don't automatically assume the worst intent unless there is evidence to support it?
/pol/ in particular gets a lot of fun from getting progressives to jump at shadows ("It's ok to be white", and that unsuccessful campaign to turn a lone black dot into a symbol of white supremacy). The "O.K. symbol as white supremacist" also came from them I think, and the intent was to get progressives to seem crazy for flipping out at something so innocuous.