Instance side-eye
@emsenn @greyor Iām all for language changing over time, Iāve always been believed in descriptive or generative grammar, not prescriptive. Meanings of phrases do change and are corrupted. āFake newsā once began as a phrase to literally describe misleading and incorrect news, and has morphed into meaning the exact opposite. I get it. I donāt know that Iāve seen āpublic forumā weaponized to that extent but I donāt hang out in those places so I wouldnāt know.
Instance side-eye
@emsenn @greyor Right, but understand that what you hear might not be what the intent is, and we should try to discern intent, not hyperfocus on the exact wording of things. Racists ironically use the flip side of this same argument when they create cute little memes that donāt overtly call out racism but are, as you say, dog whistles; they claim the exact wording of the memes are OK so they must be OK even when the intent is clearly to be racist.
Instance side-eye
@digicana In my experience it's one note higher of a dogwhistle than "free speech." I don't think people who appeal to it realize they're saying "let me exercise my privilege," but that's what I hear. @greyor