dog-whistle politics
Veiled partisan messaging
Dog-whistle politics is the use of coded language that appears innocent to the general public but carries a specific, often inflammatory meaning to a targeted group.
The term comes from the high-pitched whistle audible to dogs but not humans.
Politicians may use phrases like urban crime or traditional values to signal racial or social positions without explicitly stating them: Critics accused the campaign of dog-whistle politics when it emphasized "law and order."
- subtextImplicit meaning beneath words
- wedge issuesDeliberately divisive political topics
- implicationIndirect suggestion or consequence
- innuendoOblique disparaging remark
- politicspeakEvasive official rhetoric
insinuation · euphemism · signal · implicit bias · messaging · intimation · connotation · populism · silent majority · suggestion · race baiting · welfare queen · law and order · allusion · microtargeting · nuance · group identity · code-switching
dog-whistle politicssaying the quiet part loud
Accidentally revealing hidden motives
whistle, politics, whistles, whistled, whistling, whistler, political, politically, politician