USPol/New Dog Whistle?
So here we have JD Vance calling himself "based." I hope this serves as a reminder of why folks using speech made common or popular by 4chan should absolutely get your eyebrows raised in any situation. These folks know what goes on in those online cesspools too and are trying to market to them.
Ignoring the USPol bit in the previous post, I'd seriously just say in general to anyone who uses terms like "based" that have grown super popular on 4chan or are still using Pepe for memes in places?
It's all dog whistles at this point. Loads of marginalized people use these as litmus tests for their safety. If you use stuff like this it doesn't matter if you want to "reclaim it" or whatever, you're signaling to a lot of people that they should avoid you.
Be sure you know if you wanna do that or not and act accordingly.
@literalgrill do you think Black people from northern California are unsafe for using the term “based”
@literalgrill You must realize that “based” comes from somewhere. It’s appropriated Bay Area Californian slang. Do you even know about Lil B the BasedGod? Sure if a Polish guy uses it it’s probably not due to an affinity with the hyphy scene, but you expose your lack of cosmopolitanism by demanding certain language from people and universalizing your understanding of meaning.
@destroy It's almost like meeting people in different contexts can give words different meanings? Like I just said?
It feels like we're talking past each other here because you just shared an example yourself of someone using the term in a different context (the Polish guy) and how it could come from a different place.
I carefully wrote, for a reason, "Be sure you know if you wanna do that or not and act accordingly." I think folks using area slang with their friends are likely not trying to dogwhistle being a shitty person to others, yeah? I doubt that's making those folks feel unsafe!
When you're in different spaces, that can be ENTIRELY different. Like the would be second in command to a hopeful dictator here, or tons of white folks who appropriated language from others then turned it into something tons of bigoted people use.
TBH maybe the initial post should have especially signified this as advice for white folks, I'll legit give you that.
@destroy I dunno, might have to introduce me to someone specifically and not generalize an entire group of people?
Read the post again. Different groups of marginalized folks have different things they know to look out for to ensure their safety. Doesn't mean people won't interact with others at all, but if those folks were spamming Pepes in chats and using language I knew fascist internet trolls used a lot? I wouldn't hang around. Someone just says based now and then? I might explain why they maybe shouldn't, gently, like in a social media post with extremely low stakes.
That is the point of this post here. We should avoid using language that will make folks feel unsafe if we can. Especially if trying to foster community. Why chase folks away?