What are some dog whistles of the American left?

[begbert2]

@Delayed_Reflex

If I were to guess, the majority of people who are trolling using white supremacy dog-whistles probably have some racist tendencies (but then again, pretty much everyone has some racist tendencies) - but I would think that a significant number of them would be against actual white supremacy, they just like triggering lberals.

And if I were to guess, I’d say that non racists don’t tend to get pictures taken of themselves holding up a sign next to their faces saying, “I’m a racist”.

I also don’t think that any discernible percentage of men would publicly discard their masculinity to get into a woman’s bathroom, but that’s a different discussion.

[Skywatcher]

@begbert2

Presuming I was parsing him correctly, DrDeth seemed to have been making the argument that since 4chan deliberately came up with the idea of co-opting the OK symbol, that means that the use of it to troll liberals does not indicate that the person using it is signaling that they’re racist.

“99.99% of the time”. If one completely ignores context, that is.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@Delayed_Reflex

So, while I agree there will definitely be some trolls who are also racist, it’s absolutely possible to troll using something that you don’t believe in. For example, a troll could use “transwomen are women” and state that they self-identify as a woman, even if they actually feel like and present as a man, to troll people by entering women’s bathrooms.

This is kind of convoluted hypothetical, but I’ll note in this example that the troll is clearly transphobic, given that the person is parroting a trans-friendly slogan while undermining it with their actions and presentation.

I’d call this strategy either “crocodile tears” or “I’ll tell you who is the REAL racist” tears.

[Irishman]

Is that an OK sign? A white power symbol? Or just a right-wing troll?

This use of the signal preceded the 4chan hoax that made it go viral. A number of alt-right figures, notably white-nationalist guru Richard Spencer, published photographs of themselves using the symbol as early as 2016. Milo Yiannopoulos adopted the symbol on social media as early as 2015.

So 4chan might have meant to spread it as a hoax as a way to delegitimize liberals, but it predates that effort by 4chan.

Since then, the hand signal’s use has nonetheless spread. It’s used “ironically” by a number of Trump supporters at far-right rallies. It’s been particularly prominent among far-right street protesters such as the Proud Boys and the Northwest-based Patriot Prayer, whose members have prominently displayed the sign in group photos and during street protests.

So White Power groups like the Proud Boys are using it in their group photos and protests. Is that merely to troll liberals? Doesn’t their using it to mean “White Power”, even if intended ironically, mean that the sign means “White Power”?

Dismissing the spread of the hand signal as a hoax overlooks two hard realities: first, that its increasing use gives open license to actual racist ideologues to operate and recruit under the cover of the “plausible deniability” established by less ideological young trolls; and second, that any kind of wink-and-nudge interaction with the racist right is a direct route to its normalization.

So what does it mean when someone flashes the OK sign? In the end, it can mean almost anything, but primarily it’s one of three things:

• It can be a harmless use of its traditional meaning that all’s well.
• It can be an ironic attempt to troll liberals with a symbol chosen to “trigger” their inner “SJWs.”
• It can be a surreptitious way of signaling your presence to other white supremacists.

The first of these (and its most common, but also most declining, use) is harmless. But it can’t credibly be claimed by anyone who has a record of involvement with the many far-right elements that swirl both around the Trump White House and outside it as well. Nor can it be claimed by street-protesting Proud Boys chanting far-right slogans.

The second is less directly harmful, but hardly innocent of wreaking havoc. The normalization of the radical right under the rhetorical protection of self-proclaimed “centrists” and “libertarians,” particularly those who spread conspiracy theories and are often labeled the “alt-lite,” is a legacy that could last a generation or longer.

The third is, of course, reflective of a toxic worldview and authoritarian politics, bent primarily on the destruction of liberal democracy. At the moment, it remains the smallest bloc of the three.

Yet trolling culture, the ethos that fuels the second motivation, has proven a direct gateway not just to the alt-right, but also to even more poisonous cultures such as that of woman-hating “incels”. It’s one thing to shrug off misbehavior by embracing the “troll” label, but it still means you’re a participant in a toxic subculture. It’s easy for the second motivation to morph into the third.

And that last is one of the more insidious elements of this whole “trolling” thing. Efforts to troll the libs and make harmless signs into ambiguous symbols of hate act to delegitimize the real concerns of people over increased racial hatred violence and more prominence and acceptance of hate groups and hate speech.

Online trolls are ubiquitously despised (except by the trolls themselves) for their divisiveness and destructive interaction. Well, real life trolls should be despised even more. When conservative people use “White Power” signs ironically as a way to deride and mock liberals and “Social Justice Warriors”, they should be equally despised for their anti-social and destructive behavior. They’re not being funny, they’re making the world a worse place. They are minimizing and delegitimizing concerns over real racism and they are giving cover to racists by making their symbols more easily argued as innocent. Trolling isn’t innocent.