âsave the childrenâ is an alt-right dogwhistle and I really need yâall to accept that
Oh so the newest dog whistle we are to view is dangerous is⌠âChildren should be protectedâ
âŚ. Do yall just stop and think? Like what can justify yourself?
The idea behind protecting children is to protect societyâs most vulnerable, what then motives you? Other than to out right say that children are not as vunerable as adults of certain demographics. Certain demographics that are just able and intelligent as any other. If thats the case then you truely haved warped your prespective and then have to ask yourself, is what I believe leading me to rational conclusions?
âWonât somebody think of the children?â is a textbook example of an appeal to emotion, one of the most blatant of logical fallacies. Specifically, itâs an appeal to emotion which relies on whichever moral panic is hip, happening and groovy at the moment. In the 50s we had (among others) the Lavender Menace and the Red Scare. In the 60s we had hippies. In the 80s we had the Satanic Panic. The 90s gave us a fresh new iteration of âgays canât be teachers.â Now weâve got panics over the existence of trans people and critical race theory and antifacism.
âWonât somebody think of the childrenâ is literally the basis of the F*urteen W*rds, you pair of wet socks on a cold day.** It is the call to action which points the white supremacist and the fascist toward queers, POC and Jews, among others.
Itâs not just an alt-right dog-whistle, but it IS an alt-right dog whistle, in much the same way that the existence of green apples does not disprove the existence of red ones.
If you donât recognize and account for things like the very basic appeal to emotion fallacy, and we do, I think itâs fairly clear who is approaching things rationally here, bud, and it ainât you.
So yeah, bud, thatâs totally what is being said here. đ To react the way you did is to admit itâs your emotions being spoken to, because if it was your logical brain, youâd be able to go âoh, hunh, yeah, I can totally see how people would phrase their appeals that way if they were trying to get me to disregard any sort of critical thinking and jump into action at their command, therefore, when I see such an appeal I shall have to be very careful to not go off half-cocked but to instead treat these arguments much more carefully.â If youâre not aware that yes, the alt-right uses this specific appeal to emotion in order to manipulate people, and not just them but âgender crits,â pro-censorship movements of all stripes, and Q-Anon, among others, then youâre gonna get taken in by it.
It is possible to be rationally concerned for the welfare of children without using the appeal to emotion to demonize minorities and surf from election to election on moral panics like a lot of politicians do, but thatâs not what this post is talking about. This post is literally talking about the fact that the alt-right does use this tactic in order to make people abandon rational thought and do what theyâre told.
Sucks that youâre so vulnerable to that logical fallacy tho, that you attack someone for reminding you that it exists and is frequently used in modern politics. Best of luck with that, there, pal.
** I ainât spelling that out and making it even vaguely searchable on my Tumblr.
âwow, so the newest dogwhistle is (insert innocuous-sounding thing here)?â yeah its almost as if thats how dogwhistles work? theyre SUPPOSED to sound completely fine to those who dont know whatâs going on to provide plausible deniability, thats the entire point
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