Code word

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A code word is a type of term of art whose meaning is intentionally obscured, usually in order to increase acceptability to outsiders. The act of using code words is often referred to as dog whistle politics, referring to the fact that the "code" can only be understood or heard by a select target group. Many, though not all, such terms are also snarl words, but are used to disguise the outright offense that they would cause if the user just spoke literally. Many Christian terms, including "salvation", "pagan", and the like, were code words in the original Greek and Latin forms. Similar to the "euphemism treadmill", some code words eventually cease to be coded as they've been used so often that people can see through them.

In many respects, prayers and especially imprecatory prayers can be viewed as coded messages, although in a slightly different sense to a "code word". In these cases, prayers that call for actions - ostensibly by the hand of God - may be seen as incitement for people to actually carry it out. Prayers calling for good acts can also generate this effect, so preachers name-dropping charitable acts may inspire their flock to donate their time or money. More sinisterly, preachers who call for curses to be placed on their opponents may just be blowing off steam, but are guilty of incitement should anyone try to take the matter into their own materialistic hands - it could be further argued that this is intentional, and coding the request behind a call for divine intervention absolves a preacher from guilt.

[edit] Example code words

Code words attempt to disguise a particular view, making it palatable to outsiders who have yet to "decode" it, while allowing the less savory meanings to be understood by the in-group. This makes them slightly different to plain loaded language, which tries sway opinions about a subject.

  • Cultural enrichment - Phrase used by white supremacists to refer to works of fiction that portray people of color, LGBT people, and women in a positive light.
  • Family values - Broadly interpreted as homophobia and misogyny, but is essentially actively discriminating against most "alternative" lifestyles or anything remotely "non-traditional" (even though the traditional, or Nuclear Family, of "one man, one woman, two sweet kids, a dog and a picket fence" ideal has little-to-no basis in historical reality).
  • Intelligent design - The ID movement began as a way to secularize creationism; people are happy with a "design hypothesis" but less happy when it's overtly religious. Although ID claims to be a "scientific" way of thinking, rather than just a code word, the fact that it's considered by the scientific community as identical to creationism qualifies it as a mere code word. The appearance of "cdesign proponentsists" in the "textbook" Of Pandas and People, clearly a sloppy attempt to replace "creationists" with "design proponents", is generally considered the smoking gun, though a somewhat unnecessary one given the existence of things like the Wedge Document.
  • Male friendly content - This and similar terms have been cropping up increasingly amongst MRA forums and rants about feminists. Basically code for rape jokes and threats about domestic violence.
  • Open mind or do your own research - Usually when this is used as an escape hatch, either to denigrate an opponent as supposedly "closed minded", or possibly a euphemism for "why won't you agree with me?!" - often used in conjunction with "decide for yourself", which basically means "if you don't decide the same thing as me, you need to open your mind".
  • Patriot - A term used by Sovereign citizens to self-identify. You can't be patriotic unless you perform the voodoo rituals that will allegedly remove yourself from Federal jurisdiction, apparently.
  • Pro-choice/pro-life - These can mean a number of different things depending on who says it, but in general, bringing up the idea of "choice" is used to demonize an opponent as "anti-choice", and by extension "anti freedom". For example, pro-choice leads to the idea that anti-abortion campaigners are against a woman's right to control their fertility, and choice is also brought up by vaccine lobbyists when they know that their claims can't be backed up by evidence - they must be given a choice of whether to take a vaccine, and evidence and benefits are irrelevant. Similarly, "pro-life" is used to insinuate that proponents of legalized abortion not only approve of abortion, but approve of death and killing as well.
  • Pro-family - A subset of "family values" mentioned above, usually used for point-scoring for politicians. It really means that they are only "pro" the kind of stereotypical "family" that they like, rather than any other possible unit, regardless of whether it is healthy, beneficial or stable.
  • Recognize the enemy - Using profiling to weed out who a terrorist is, i.e., do they look Muslim? Essentially code for "round up the ragheads."
  • Right to Work (or recently, the even more Orwellian Economic Freedom) - Used to put a warm, fuzzy glow on policies aimed at busting unions and obliterating workplace safety and employee rights. These are particularly nasty examples, as they're carefully crafted to appeal to the people they hurt most, like unemployed and under-employed blue collar workers.
  • Secure the border - in a similar vein, a euphemism used in the U.S. for securing the Mexican border so as to keep out "racial undesirables;" the Canadian border is never mentioned.
  • Strong national defense - Often used by, e.g., neoconservatives as a euphemism for "bombing the shit out of uppity foreign countries," since neo-cons pretend to be doing this in furtherance of human rights and cannot say that openly. It also refers to increasing military spending, often exponentially.
  • School choice - Getting around desegregation, making sure little Billy or little Suzy doesn't learn science or history in school.

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