"dog whistles"

[Joel S. Berson]

Victor, I was merely trying to be ironic, or sardonic, or metonymic,
or something ... And my question was rhetoric.  (Others, such as
Daily Kos,  had already answered it on the web.)

P.S.  I utterly and sincerely deny I am rational ... about Republicans.

Joel

At 4/4/2014 07:16 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>Joel, that's precisely the point. First, these memes don't need to be true
>(propaganda rule #2). Second, even had they been true, I'm not suggesting
>that they prove anything. But this trio, along with other random tidbits,
>is undeniably used to portray Obama as lazy /in the minds if those who use
>them/. Your rational approach clearly demonstrates that you're not the
>target audience.
>
>There are several others. There's the "hauty" image that's being stoked as
>well. That may include the "selfish language" claim (that's been debunked
>every time), the "doesn't want to negotiate" claim (overlapping with
>"lazy", but equally nonsense), and a bunch of other similar constructs. It
>doesn't mean any of it is true, just that someone tries to project that
>image. There's the "weak" or "over his head" image that has several
>associated memes with it and has resulted in conservative endorsement of
>Putin.
>
>I can keep going but first there's a question that requires an answer. It
>is often hard to differentiate between a concerted effort to create a
>perticular image (propaganda) and a post hoc reconstruction of this goal
>based on coincidental classification that had nothing to do with intent
>(effectively, a conspiracy theory).
>
>VS-)
>
>On Apr 3, 2014 8:10 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
>...
> >
> >
> > >merely oblique
> > >references to make Obama look lazy, or is this a dog whistle to the
> > >Southern image of blacks as lazy?
> >
> > Would these be oblique references to make Republicans look lazy, or
> > dog whistles to the effete elite bicoastal Democrats' image of
> > Republicans as the idle rich?
> >
> > Joel
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org