Re:The Pivot
by refulgentis on Friday October 17, 2025 @05:59PM
(#45622623)
That's one of the ways [EDIT: s/white supremacists lure people in/they get ya], it's by far the predominant usage, but it's a bastardization of a term of art in the social sciences, essentially, a transition to a low death rate & low birth rate society from norm of high/high: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition
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Re:The Pivot
by pavel_lishin on Friday October 17, 2025 @06:18PM
(#45622802)
That's how who gets who? I am having a real hard time trying to understand what you're attempting to communicate here.
“Demographic transition” has become a white supremacist dogwhistle. They’re not upset about declining birth rates in general, they’re upset about declining birth rates among specific populations.
Even if they are abusing the phrase among themselves, legitimate usage is still heavy enough that I don't think I would assume it's a dogwhistle by default.
I would suggest that you need to look at context in order to determine whether a phrase is being used as a dogwhistle.
For example, if someone is also repeating other far-right propaganda (“fracking has solved the oil problem”), what are the chances that their use of this term is in good faith rather than as a dogwhistle?
Hence "by default."
Incidentally, are you claiming one of the above posters here has already included "other far-right propaganda" that tips the scales?
From my perspective, there's been some kind of false-alarm. The danger exists out there, but--unless there's some author reputation I'm unaware of--this isn't it.
Yes, the idea that the problem of “oil” (fossil fuels) has been “solved” by fracking. That’s another right-wing tell, because it ignores the broad environmental destruction caused by the use of fossil fuels and presumes that the only problem with them is scarcity.