Has someone whistled at you to get your attention? Have you heard the expression: " You, Dog!" or "Dog, Breath" or "That looks like Dog Food!" or I wouldn't treat a dog that way!" you're not alone. People have been using disparaging ways to hurt people by calling them or their actions in the name of Dogs since our canine friends became constructions of mad and wanna be genetic scientists. BTW if you can hear like a dog, consider yourself fortunate. Dogs can hear things other animals can not their sensitivity to sound may be part of origin of Dog Whistle Politics. Today on You, Animal! we discuss the widely used Dog Whistle Politics a practice incorporated in many ( if not all ) political and advertising campaigns. Because politics has taken center stage on news platforms, dinner tables and throughout neighborhood coffee houses, pubs and pizzarias we thought it appropriate to find the meaning in the term:
1988 "According to William Safire, the term "dog whistle" in reference to politics may have been derived from its use in the field of opinion polling. Safire quotes Richard Morin, director of polling for The Washington Post, as writing in 1988, "subtle changes in question-wording sometimes produce remarkably different results.... researchers call this the 'Dog Whistle Effect': Respondents hear something in the question that researchers do not", and speculates that campaign workers adapted the phrase from political pollsters."
1997 Use in Australia since around 1997. The dog-whistle analogy was drawn from Australian sheep-farming, where a farmer uses a whistle which is only audible to one dog. This idea was taken over into political contexts as a way of describing a message aimed exclusively at one section of the electorate.- ( Stack )
Dog in language usage often applied in derogatory fashion ( "You, Dog!" for example ) is common in many languages despite fact based evidence a dog Canis lupus familiaris - would never use "Dog Whistle Politics" on humans:). DWP has no pure bred heritage and can be traced to agriculture and unsavory / hurtful political word play. More about the negative history of Dog Whistle Politics from Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics…
