Being very suspicious of politicians in general and businessman-turned ones in particular, I take a lot of things out of the mouth of Donald Trump as dog whistles. Let me give you an example. I might be accused of being too sensitive but, just the other day, I heard the Republican presidential candidate say that Americans are not safe in their own country.
He was addressing fighting terrorism, of course but what I want to point out is that by “Americans”, he has his own idea of who those Americans are. To him, he was talking about, say, rich, white Americans like himself. When he said the United States is not “safe for Americans”, he did not have, say, Muslims and immigrants from Mexico in mind.
But those Americans whom Trump was aiming at should, I assure you, be able to get his message.
Dog whistle, by the way, is a term coined by Australians in the 1990s. Australians are not known for producing shrewd and Machiavellian politicians, I know, but perhaps they have lately caught up, even to the point of inspiring Brits and Americans in terms of political language.
Anyways, WiseGeek.com explains political dog whistle thus:
Dog-whistle politics is a form of political rhetoric in which coded language is used, thereby ensuring that a message reaches a target audience without making the general public aware of the specific content of the message. Much like a dog whistle, which is only audible to ears which can hear sounds in a certain frequency, dog-whistle politics often slides below the radar of the average citizen, allowing politicians to target certain groups of the electorate with very specific language.
【Dog whistle politics】相关文章:
★ 学外语的忌讳
最新
2020-09-15
2020-08-28
2020-08-21
2020-08-19
2020-08-14
2020-08-12