The problem with that problem is you can say any kind of accusation of racist behavior is non-falsifiable in the same way (“You can’t prove I was shitty to them because they were black, maybe I was shitty to them because they’re just a jerk”), but everyone knows racist behavior and dog whistles still exist
if people buy the claim
This is a good demonstration of why the concept of dog whistles isn’t really a problem, because when it’s a totally absurd accusation people aren’t going to buy it.
That actually might be exactly what we should do, just try to reinterpret this before it gets off the ground and make all their attempts to dogwhistle to their fellow shitheads come off like they’re just calling themselves paranoid schizophrenics
And, like, for what it’s worth, “Is bigotry a mental illness?” is a question that’s gotten some academic debate. The professional consensus is still “no,” but it honestly makes a lot of sense to me to think of bigotry as a form of delusional and compulsive thinking (although I don’t want to minimize the evil of racism or demonize mentally ill people, so like I’m still thinking over that one).