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There has been no claim that I have seen that Damore was dog whistling. Scott said that he was motivated to write this linked post by others who feared his prev

There has been no claim that I have seen that Damore was dog whistling. Scott said that he was motivated to write this linked post by others who feared his previous post might be interpreted by others as a dog whistle to the alt-right.

clavalle 9y ago
Damore at one point mentioned in passing IQ as also having statistical truths that are taboo to talk about. I took that as a dog whistle reference to 'The Bell Curve' since that is the most famous treatise for that view and a support of the conclusions that it made. Or I could be just reading too much into it and extending Damore's thesis into race, too, is unfair. That's the secret sauce of dog whistles...plausible deniability.
- manyoso 9y ago
  Right, it makes us doubt our usage of this powerful heuristic to instantly identify people as friends or enemies. That heuristic is what powers racism and stereotyping. That's the irony! People combatting racism (completely understandably) want to use the same technique of quickly identifying friends and enemies to identify racists. And dog whistling interferes with that. It makes us uncertain and doubts our usage of it. In my view, it is this uncertainty that we as a species need to get better at. You want to combat racism? Find ways to make them doubt the heuristic too.
  - matthewbauer 9y ago
    I think you're right when it comes to dog whistling outside of politicians. But right wing politicians have a very real history of using dog whistles to in the U.S. Think "state's rights" as opposed to "segregation". Those uses should still be called out.
- thehardsphere 9y ago
  There's no reason for him to make a dog whistle reference to The Bell Curve. Even though people don't agree with or like that book, it's not exactly a book that is so scandalous and horrific that you need to dog whistle about it. If you're going to dog whistle, it's going to be to something so horrific it can't even be discussed with any pretense of academic distance or distinction. The problem with the "dog whistle theory" though is that only dogs can hear them, so anybody who is not a dog can label anything to be a dog whistle with no real proof whatsoever.
  - matthewbauer 9y ago
    I think among the more intellectual side of the alt-right that book is fairly important. I'm not sure if Damore's usage could really be considered dog whistling but I'm pretty sure that's what he's referencing.

clavalle 9y ago

Damore at one point mentioned in passing IQ as also having statistical truths that are taboo to talk about. I took that as a dog whistle reference to 'The Bell Curve' since that is the most famous treatise for that view and a support of the conclusions that it made. Or I could be just reading too much into it and extending Damore's thesis into race, too, is unfair. That's the secret sauce of dog whistles...plausible deniability.

manyoso 9y ago
Right, it makes us doubt our usage of this powerful heuristic to instantly identify people as friends or enemies. That heuristic is what powers racism and stereotyping. That's the irony! People combatting racism (completely understandably) want to use the same technique of quickly identifying friends and enemies to identify racists. And dog whistling interferes with that. It makes us uncertain and doubts our usage of it. In my view, it is this uncertainty that we as a species need to get better at. You want to combat racism? Find ways to make them doubt the heuristic too.
- matthewbauer 9y ago
  I think you're right when it comes to dog whistling outside of politicians. But right wing politicians have a very real history of using dog whistles to in the U.S. Think "state's rights" as opposed to "segregation". Those uses should still be called out.
thehardsphere 9y ago
There's no reason for him to make a dog whistle reference to The Bell Curve. Even though people don't agree with or like that book, it's not exactly a book that is so scandalous and horrific that you need to dog whistle about it. If you're going to dog whistle, it's going to be to something so horrific it can't even be discussed with any pretense of academic distance or distinction. The problem with the "dog whistle theory" though is that only dogs can hear them, so anybody who is not a dog can label anything to be a dog whistle with no real proof whatsoever.
- matthewbauer 9y ago
  I think among the more intellectual side of the alt-right that book is fairly important. I'm not sure if Damore's usage could really be considered dog whistling but I'm pretty sure that's what he's referencing.