The popularity of online gambling, especially among young men, has addiction researchers worried in New York, where mobile sports betting has surpassed casino gambling as the primary reason for calls to the state’s helpline.
It’s a loaded term that should be replaced with a more nimble definition.
A dog whistle is the name for a loaded term that is used to tag a specific target with a large baggage of information, but in a way where only people who are part of the “in group” can understand the baggage of the word, hence “dog whistle”, only heard by dogs.
In the case of the word “degeneracy”, it’s a vague word that has been often used to attack, among other things, LGBTQ and their allies as well as non-religious people. The term is vague enough that the user can easily weasel their way out of criticism for its usage, but the target audience gets the message loud and clear: “[target] should be attacked for being [thing].”
‘Degeneracy’ is just a dogwhistle
What am I dogwhistling? A dogshit, decrepit capitalist society designed to exploit poor people?
It’s a loaded term that should be replaced with a more nimble definition.
A dog whistle is the name for a loaded term that is used to tag a specific target with a large baggage of information, but in a way where only people who are part of the “in group” can understand the baggage of the word, hence “dog whistle”, only heard by dogs.
In the case of the word “degeneracy”, it’s a vague word that has been often used to attack, among other things, LGBTQ and their allies as well as non-religious people. The term is vague enough that the user can easily weasel their way out of criticism for its usage, but the target audience gets the message loud and clear: “[target] should be attacked for being [thing].”
Another example of such a word would be “woke”.