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I thought it means "dogwhistling", except for the political left instead of the right?


Sort of. My understanding is that it means "declaring your (virtuous) opposition to <bad thing X>, regardless of whether <current topic Y> is actually an instance of X or whether Y is actually harmful."

On the right, it might be: murder is bad, therefore I oppose abortion.

On the left: gay marriage is good, and opposition to it is homophobia, therefore Brandon Eich should be fired.

When the link between X and Y is too specious, it implies the speaker's primary goal is to show virtue by opposing X, rather than any real concern they have about Y.




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