# What are some dog whistles of the American left? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 2, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012 "2020-07-02T02:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/143 "2020-07-28T20:16:49Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > but a true lefty should take no issue with which particular religion he practices I think you misspelled “scotsman”. As a artificial liberal (with added vitamins), I have rather a large problem with mormonism, based on personal experience with it. But the thing is, as I’m not an ostracized minority, I have dick-all reason to whistle around the bush when I call him a mormon. (Or, er, however I would slur that. Wait, is “mormon” a slur now?) Thought I think you’re hinting towards a possible source of liberal whistles with your scotsmanning - subcategories of liberals that outsiders and perhaps even some other liberals might not approve of. One that lunges to mind is drug use. I get that some people are stoned and proud, but mayhap the culture includes some terms that at least originally were intended to be meaningful only to those in the know and not, say, the po-po. I can’t answer this myself, because I’m a boring person who doesn’t use, but it seems possible to me. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/144 "2020-07-28T20:37:15Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I am sure we have some liberal Dopers who live in rural red or otherwise hardcore-Trump regions. Share? Trumplandia doper here. I got nothing. You do seem to be misunderstanding the concept here a bit. Dog whistles are how you address a crowd, an audience. It is not how one person addresses another. So, the entire point of them is that they are not secret. Their meaning may be, but the words they use are not. Do you have examples of things that you think are dog whistles of the left? That may be more productive than trying to get us to come up with some for you. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/145 "2020-07-28T21:08:11Z")
I remember when Jimmy Carter spoke about maintaining the “ethnic purity” of neighborhoods… But that was a liberal mouthing essentially a right-wing dog-whistle, not really a left-wing one. Does “deplorables” count? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/146 "2020-07-28T21:09:39Z")
Does “deporables” have both a “common” and “secret” meaning? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/147 "2020-07-28T21:15:34Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Check the definition of ‘holistic’. In medicine\* it means comprehensive, considering the social and mental aspects of health and disease, absolutely nothing to do with crystals, magnets, copper or ‘psychic bullshit’. Holistic care defines the specialty of Family Practice medicine. > > \*definition taught by Massachusetts General Hospital when I was there in nursing school in 1981. I agree, that’s what holistic SHOULD mean. But I’ve been to plenty of places advertised as “holistic” that were selling a load of crap. > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Paleo diet as Wikipedia explains also includes animal meat, just not eggs or dairy. My point is that the plaeo diet has very little to do with what is “natural” considering the fruits, veggies, and animals they eat have no semblance to what our paleo ancestors ate. > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > And where are you getting that holistic and Paleo diet is the purview of ‘liberals’? Or are a ‘dog whistle’ evoking any subterranean shared belief? You got me there – these are more common on the left but not the purview of liberals, as I said in my post. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/148 "2020-07-28T21:38:10Z")
Mormon is not a slur but is also not what that faith has asked to be called and I try to respect that. Also, I try to capitalize a faith name such as Mormon, Catholic, Islam, as a gesture of respect. Avoid using the abbreviation “ **LDS** ” or the nickname “ **Mormon** ” as substitutes for the church’s **name** , as in “ **Mormon** Church,” “ **LDS** Church” or “Church of the Latter-day Saints.” Refer to members as “members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” or “Latter-day Saints,” not “ **Mormons**.”Aug 16, 2018 [image] Salt Lake Tribune › 2018/08/16 › ld… ### [LDS](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/08/16/lds-church-wants-everyone/) ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/149 "2020-07-28T21:44:47Z")
Well, putting aside the fact that I have _no respect whatsoever_ for mormonism (or any religion, really), I tend not to even capitalize months or days of the week. If you’re a person then I’ll capitalize you (unless you have a username that doesn’t include a capital (like mine) in which case I’ll respect your lack of capitalization) but if you’re not a person then whether I capitalize is somewhere between a crapshoot and ‘forget about it’. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/150 "2020-07-28T21:45:17Z")
Jeebus on toast with jelly and a cracker. Y’all, calling Mormons the L.D.S. isn’t a friggin’ dog whistle. Eating paleo isn’t a friggin’ dog whistle. Does anyone understand the usage of the term? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/151 "2020-07-28T21:55:54Z")
When are we going to decide that dog whistles are the sole province of the American right, and the left doesn’t have any use for them? Tapping my foot here. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/152 "2020-07-28T22:00:08Z")
Hey, I’m willing to entertain the idea that there might be certain classes of left-winger that have phrases and symbols that have specific meaning for the in-group but which seem innocuous to the out-group. I particularly suspect that the hippie/drug using subculture might have had some of that. I get that by calling it “dog whistle” it’s sort of implying that those who use them are animals, but I figure I can ignore that implication. I’m willing to accept that there might be liberal subcultures that had secret codes, like the racist conservative subculture had before it just became “conservative culture”. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/153 "2020-07-28T22:01:58Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Does “deporables” have both a “common” and “secret” meaning? Well, I think, yes, sorta… The common meaning is just “scum.” But the secret meaning is “conservatives,” the kind the Obama said cling to guns, religion, and antipathy to others. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/154 "2020-07-28T22:05:25Z")
I don’t think that _anybody_ has any doubt as to who and what is meant when somebody talks about “deplorables”. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/155 "2020-07-28T22:08:46Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Jeebus on toast with jelly and a cracker. > Y’all, calling Mormons the L.D.S. isn’t a friggin’ dog whistle. > Eating paleo isn’t a friggin’ dog whistle. > > Does anyone understand the usage of the term? You seem to be upset that any dog whistles on the american left aren’t as malevolent as the dog whistles on the right. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/156 "2020-07-28T22:10:04Z")
When she said that half of Trump’s supporters were in the basket of deplorables, how was it a secret that she was referring to conservatives? Now you are just taking any words that anyone left of center has ever uttered, and declaring them to have double extra secret meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/157 "2020-07-28T22:14:50Z")
I still think it kinda counts, because it is “euphemistic.” It isn’t overt. It codes one group of people with another. **k9bfriender** I gave one possible example, so your charge that I’m taking “any words that anyone left of center has ever uttered” is more than a little hyperbolic. ETA, the original quote was overt, but if the word is used today, it can be code-language. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/158 "2020-07-28T22:29:01Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > ETA, the original quote was overt, but if the word is used today, it can be code-language. There is no chance that anyone has forgotten what “deplorables” refers to. Let’s just make sure we’re on the same page here - a dog whistle isn’t just a word with a euphamistic meaning. It’s something that is made so that _only the dogs can hear it_. Which is to say, it’s a word or symbol that has meaning to a subset of people who are in the know but which goes unnoticed and remarked upon by the average person - and the fact that it works this way is part of the reason to use the word or symbol. For example, an ID ten-T error could perhaps be considered a dog whistle in computer circles. I’ve read lists of other ‘codes’ used in other industries to alert employees about things without customers noticing. The question is whether there liberals, or liberal subcultures, have similar private codes that only they recognize. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/159 "2020-07-29T14:45:01Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > For example, an ID ten-T error could perhaps be considered a dog whistle in computer circles. or, “a loose nut behind the wheel”, in automotive. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/160 "2020-07-29T15:04:14Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > > [@begbert2](#): > > > > Does “deporables” have both a “common” and “secret” meaning? > > Well, I think, yes, sorta… The common meaning is just “scum.” But the secret meaning is “conservatives,” the kind the Obama said cling to guns, religion, and antipathy to others. First of all, it was Hillary Clinton, not Obama. Second, she defined exactly what she meant when she said it: people who cling to their religion and guns. There was no secret meaning that only liberals understood. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/161 "2020-07-29T15:28:30Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > There was no secret meaning that only liberals understood. Specifically, from the [transcript](https://time.com/4486502/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables-transcript/): > [@Hillary Clinton](#): > > The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. There needs to be a specific term for “reverse dog whistles”, where an idea’s opponents insist that a well-defined concept has a secret, hidden meaning that one should engage in histrionics over. E.g: “Basket of deplorables” → Every conservative ever “End of life planning” → Death panels “Any kind of immigration reform” → Open Borders ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012/162 "2020-07-29T16:49:53Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > There needs to be a specific term for “reverse dog whistles”, where an idea’s opponents insist that a well-defined concept has a secret, hidden meaning that one should engage in histrionics over. Catnip? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-dog-whistles-of-the-american-left/914012.md?page=9)