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I am irreverent in the extreme. I don't subscribe to language being "coded" to signal tribal loyalty.
Idk if democrats are really hitting the defect button here, that would imply this is a prisoner's dilemma-esque game. They are just advocating for what their constituents want(in the ideal aggregate). What's really happening is that DonnyBoy, knowing full well that DHS funding was due for a refresh after the last CR, decided poorly that Jan/Feb was the perfect time to go vindictively goad democratic communities. Then American citizen's got shot by ICE... Dude could have chilled on Minnesota until after the budget was passed, but that's not his style. Poor strategic instincts, lead to poor policy outcomes.
Well no you don't get to decide whether language is interpreted because it already is. You don't have to subscribe to any particular interpretation yourself but obviously when we read comments on the internet we use limited information to interpret what perspective is being communicated. That's how language works. So when you say "Donny" as opposed to "Donald Trump" or "Trump" or any alternative you are obviously putting some kind of spin on what could be described in some other term. And the word "Donny" is a diminutive or even a pejorative compared to just "Trump". This is all priced in, this is how language works inherently. I'm just explaining this because this informs my approach in treating your first comment to me as more hostile than neutral.
And in this case you are in fact critical of Trump so my read seems more than justified. (Outside any other debate at the object-level about Trump and Minneapolis, where I think you're wrong.)
This is not the broader internet, it is a niche community, people's affective information appears in a continuous manner. There are iterative engagements, post history, etc that give greater semantic clarity than shallow linguistics reads. Justifications about deploying rough signal filters ring more hollow. Donny is diminutive in the sense that any more casual nickname is diminutive. Would you freak and call someone a lefty for calling Richard Cheney something so diminutive as Dick? Regardless, it's not something I hear left wing folks say either, so as a dog whistle its pretty weak.
The fun part about being an independent that voted for Trump in 24, is that I get to critique him. I earned that right. As I have literally demonstrated that I will move across the aisle, and am not a tribal partisan hack. Unlike a lefty who would never vote for him or a righty who would never vote left regardless of candidate. Hell, my vote probably mattered more than yours...
What you think shock and awe tactics against an outgroup when they hold a veto enabling minority to fund the group you are using to do shock and awe tactics with, whose budget renewal is coming up, is the smart thing to do? You think American citizen's weren't shot in Minneapolis? There is a smart way to enforce border deportations and then there is the dumb way. It would have been much harder for democrats to resist on principle if ICE looked competent and professional (they still would try, but that's politics). Now ICE looks like thugs who "murdered two American citizens exercising their 1st and 2nd amendment rights to protest such obvious authoritarian brutality. The cost to us citizens thus must be borne by any means to curtail that abuse" (not my words, but that's the general normie lefty view/vibe/interpretation). Meaning democrats can afford much more pain for shutting down DHS.
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