Ex-Trump Aide Says Trump’s Use of ‘Riggers’ Isn’t a Racial ‘Dogwhistle

I mean... It's one letter off.

"People that annoy you"
- Can we refer to Trump as "that rigger guy" from now on?
I just don't know why he doesn't just come out and say it. Who does he think he's fooling?
- Brought to you by the "let's go Brandon" people.
- He wouldn't lose a single supporter. Probably gain a ton.
- We are very lucky they’re so fucking stupid
a perfect letter
you leave Tigger alone!!
Several others are one off. (Not too defend them, but to make a stupid point about words.)
Bob Igger (his last name. Do not just Google his last name at work.) Digger Figger (actual word) Gigger (again an actual word)
Anyway, this is boring.
Edit: it has come to my attention that done people are actually doing the "rhymes with" thing with cruel intent. (Not here, but elsewhere.) Just thought I would, sadly, point that out. Leaving this because it doesn't matter anyway.
- You mean Bob Iger? The CEO of Disney and curator of Ron DeSantis's nightmares?
- I don't live where they are, so I don't often have occasion to, but I get nervous talking about chiggers.

Eh ... I'm not convinced.

We have an inexhaustible supply of real and unambiguous crimes and other offenses that we can pin on him.

I think it unnecessarily muddies the water to even bother with something this ambiguous.

The guy is on trial for RICO charges, and in all likelihood will see seeing a 5-year prison sentence for ORGANIZED CRIME in trying to overthrow a lawful election.

Let's just keep talking about that. And these fact that we have it on tape that he was asking the Georgia Secretary of State to "find" exactly the number of votes Trump needed to overturn the election he lost.

Yeah I agree. trump is racist AF, we don't need to strain and stretch to make him racist even in the event that he isn't being 100% racist.
I don't have any faith that he'll see a jail cell. I wish I could be like you.
- The RICO charge carries a mandatory 5 years that can't be pardoned and can't be paroled. And RICO is stunningly easy to get a conviction on. It was built to catch mob bosses who directed activity but didn't get their hands dirty.
  Until the RICO charge, I didn't think he'd see prison either... but now... looks pretty good.

Hah I thought it was for those that rigged (allegedly (falsely)) the election. A group of riggers. Who rig.

How naive of me. This is worse

I caught on to the use of "riggers" when I noticed it was only black election workers that they were going after.
- I thought he was angry at the lighting electricians and the people putting sails up on his boats
I'm having hard time believing it's something other than just people who rig. Seems like the more likely explanation than him wanting to drop the most thinly veiled n-bomb possible and managing to make it clever too.
- yeah we're not dealing with masters of subtlety here...

I’m not sure Trump is bright enough to use a dog whistle. He’s more of a shoot them in the middle of 5th avenue guy.

I hate when people talk like this

The fact that he’s introducing race into this prosecution surprises me, it’s disgusting, it’s textbook Donald Trump, but it comes as no surprise.

So surprise or no?

"Beep boop I am a Large Language algorithm" -- 'journalist'
- TrumpGPT
"I was surprised, but I shouldn't have been."
- Yea, the phrase "in retrospect" or something like it should sit in the middle there in the original, for clarity. It's technically not incorrect to imply it but damn does it look like bad writing.
- It's a definite maybe, that's for sure
Just shitty journalism. They're not wrong, but they're bad at their job

Rigga, please.

I read that in Scooby's voice
- Well he ís the only brown character on the show.
- Oooooh, I finally get the top comment.

He is racist, but not clever in any way, I think he meant a made up word in his bullshit accusation, I don't think he was trying to be racist here.

Someone else said it and he repeated it, or someone else wrote the tweet. It was absolutely intended to be racist.
Yall know rigger is a real word right? Like, I work with a group of people explicitly called riggers. They rig stuff up. Use cranes, chain falls, shit like that?
Trump is using a dogwhistle though.
- Yeah it’s also a common term in the bdsm community for people who like tying people up. But he definitely isn’t referring to them.
  Some people don’t get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to dog whistles.
- Fair point, but I guess I meant, it's a word that doesn't have a definition attached to it that has anything to do with how he used it.
It is probably something he heard somewhere and he liked how close it sounds.

A Taxonomy of Right-Wing Dog Whistles -The Atlantic

They accuse one side of “They want to take your pickup truck. They want to rebuild your home. They want to take away your hamburgers.” - while on the other side, they themselves want to take nothing serious, just your freedom and democracy,
- Or your kids. Or your medicine

He's stupid in a lot of ways, but he's popular as a speaker for a reason, and he has done a lot of dog whistling in his life. This is just the most blatant. I do think it is intentional.
- He's popular as a speaker because he "tells it like it is", which roughly translates to "he says the quiet racist parts out loud". I agree that this probably isn't a dog whistle. Or, it probably wasn't. It definitely is now, and I fully anticipate seeing someone wearing a shirt that colorfully uses the word "rigger".
- he’s popular as a speaker for a reason
  I think he has a natural talent to listen to what gets a rise out of people, what gets a reaction, and then copy that in his own way. What he says, once transcribed to written form, is often not very intelligent. It's his mannerism and even his unique makeup and hair - that people listen to far more than his actual meaning. I find people who think Trump is a great person often have serious difficulty interpreting and understanding hard sciences like chemistry and physics... and are influenced by advertising techniques in particular ways.
- I just can’t believe this selfish lying fuckwit would think that everyone would be on his side.
Must just be a big coincidence his supporters started posting this kinda shit afterwards. 'Dindo Riggers' could mean anything!
Doesn't take too high of an IQ to come up with this dog whistle.
Stop giving him the benefit of the doubt.
His word vomit is pulled from a very small bin of stuff that's "worked" in the past. Now that he knows it works as a dog whistle, we'll be hearing the word daily for the next 2 years, at least.
Why do you think you know him better than one of his former assistants?

I live in a very protected part of the world. I once thought the N word was "No", and that was why people hated it so much.

Ya know, the first time I read that I thought an aide must have swapped his N and R keys. But I was just making a little joke about it.

"like, scoob, ya can’t just say that!" -- Shoe0nhead on Twitter as Shaggy

It's like the N word but with two hard Rs.

With a hard or soft r?

My Aigga

Reminds me of SouthParks " People who annoy you "

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=CmXG1J75GHw&
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

All I can think about is Epic Rap Battles of History: https://youtu.be/Kbryz0mxuMY?t=171

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/Kbryz0mxuMY?t=171
https://piped.video/Kbryz0mxuMY?t=171
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
What's happened to them? They were so popular, and still would be if they kept releasing videos. Now it's one or maybe two a year.
Presumably they have other projects on the go. Anyone know what, exactly, their day jobs are?
- NicePeter had a drug and alcohol addiction and only recently considered himself sober. He and the others intend to return to ERB, but yeah, that was kinda an issue that he needed to work through first.
- They went independent again a couple years ago, which is great for creative freedom but necessarily means they have fewer resources. I'm glad they're taking their time though, if it helps them maintain a high level of quality. I did some googling and it does look like they're actively working on at least one upcoming video, potentially up to five at once given past teasers. They've also got a side channel with interim content and a Patreon with a private Discord if you want to keep closer tabs.

'r' is just an unfinished 'n'

Fine, but what in the hell are riggens?
- Running backs.
- I knew someone was going to say that. I also know the first thing that you thought of but, wisely, decided not to type it :)

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/f89cfb00-a442-47c7-89e8-1e7b1297822e.webm

I dont see it at all?

I mean, there's enough bad things you can say about Trump. There's no need making shit up like this?

Let's say someone with a base that includes explicit white nationalists starts using "naggers" as a pejorative for their opponents. Would you also consider that innocent?
- If he was talking non stop about people nagging him for years, and in the same sentence he was still refering to people who nag him all the time, and then finished with "im so tired of all the naggers", then yes. There's no reason to believe otherwise.
  Also, isnt it bad enough already that he tries to overthrow the election?? Shouldnt that be the cause to alarm, not that if you change the letters, "election rigger" becomes "election n***r"??
I don't think it's Trump, but Trump lovers have a penchant for stupid wordplay like this. "Let's go brandon," for example. They'd totally use it because the other one got them put in "Facebook jail"
I mean, there’s enough bad things you can say about Trump.
Cool. Say some of them.
- That he tried to overthrow the election? That he refused to leave the office even though he lost, and then tried to coerce judges and others in his party to overrule the democracy?
  Because that's what I'm seeing here. And thats more than serious enough. No need to twist his words around and change out the letters.
Yeah, to be honest, I don’t think he’s clever enough to make a “riggers” pun.
Just to add some thoughts: Why would he want to piss off and lose any chance of ever getting a vote from any non-white non-mega-racist ever again? Can somebody eli5 why he would shoot his foot off like that? Edit: btw I dont like Trump, I never did, and I think what he's doing is incredibly dangerous to the democracy. Im also not american, so maybe ive missed something.
- I mean, he’s said horrible things about women, and evangelical women still vote for him in droves. His supporters are so dumb and brainwashed, he can directly insult them and piss on their face, and they will ask for more.
- He ran on a rather explicitly white nationalist campaign in the 2016 election. He’s never not been openly racist. Republican voters are demonstrably OK with that.