Dogwhistles in Activism

This post contains a lot of politics, you have been warned.

Originally taken from a post content warned "terminally online activism".

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To be honest, the real problem is that "kill all [blank]" is arguably a dogwhistle, not necessarily a call for a change. There's always gonna be some violence when resisting oppression, but the second you start believing "kill all [blank]", hate displaces solving the actual problem. [blank] can be anything, it can sound like a noble goal, but it's so easy to spin the wrong way.

I don't have to state all the things that can be filled in for [blank].

Do people say it ironically or as a hyperbole? Of course. But such a slogan can be used for plausible deniability for something really fucked up. Do I get offended or feel insulted when someone calls to kill [white people]? No, of course not. I understand where they are coming from. Do I wanna be close to the person saying something like that? Honestly, it makes worry for how they treat other people, even if I feel sympathetic towards what kind of social issue they are trying to challenge. Everyone reacts to an indirect threat of killing differently though.

Because, even if it were something like [billionaires], it raises my attention towards other stuff they say. Like a dogwhistle.

Notorious example also being [men]. Is patriarchy bad? Absolutely. Do I believe they plan to kill men? Not necessarily. Does it give me an impression of a cult of empty phrases and toxic activism? Yeaaa. Catchy statements like (the unrelated) ACAB are often neat, but please make sure you're not deferring your thinking to punchlines without considering the implications.