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[–] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Normal people use it using the new agreed upon definition.

That’s the old, pre-fascist, pre-eugenicist definition, not a new one, and no, we don’t use it, because we haven’t been living under a rock for the last ninety years. We know what a dog whistle is.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Languages evolve I guess. I know blink 182 had a song named "degenerate". If I enter the word in chosic, I get 7000 hits (songs with the word in the lyrics). I find the expression "degenerate gambler" is kind of common? Idk.

    Just trying to show that the word is common and lost it's ties to nazis and fascists a long time ago. Just a regular but harsh insult imo, but wtv.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    https://www.dangerousspeech.org/libraries/dangerous-metaphors-how-dehumanizing-rhetoric-works

    One speaker said: “And, at some point, we will have enough power that we will clear them from the streets forever, that which is degenerate in white countries will be removed.” This racist statement implied that the people in question represent a hygienic threat to the society that should be eliminated. The existence of these humans was reduced by the speaker to “degeneration”. This biological term refers to unstoppable deterioration that can be prevented only by the eradication of the subject.

    The reason we’re so hard-ass about dehumanizing terms and other dog whistles on Lemmy is because we know how online fora become Nazi bars like 4chan. We remember and learned from GamerGate. The whole BreadTube phenomenon was formed around countering “alt-right” influencers in online spaces.

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