They could even keep Mickey. Just give him a narrow mustache and a Nazi uniform like you see in Indiana Jones movies and they're good to go.

Except, I'm guessing Infestation '88 is about being hunted by Mickey, so maybe they should change that too.

there are no other dog whistles

Uh-oh.

There's some pretty obscure ones to that came and went in a hurry like a glass of milk.

I feel like some have also been claimed for general use. I don't really associate Pepe memes with the alt right anymore

In my opinion the better option is to ditch the concept of dogwhistle. We [people in general] should look at what a symbol (including words, gestures, etc.) conveys within a certain context, we shouldn't be picking individual symbols and assuming the discourse (what is being said) based on them.

For example, the 88 in the title of the game should be associated with the rest of the game. Because depending on the rest of the game it might convey only "1988", or it might convey "heil Hitler".

It's not like it's a good idea to just go on flashing "ok" signs and pretending it hasn't been coopted by facists

Why not? Symbols only have meaning given context. In Germany, a swastika is a symbol of hate, whereas in India it's a symbol of prosperity and good luck. It's usually not hard to differentiate them, so there's no real reason to avoid a symbol just because some idiots have decided to use it to mean something else.

On the flip side, there's a fantastic reason to keep using them: the best way to beat a troll/bully is to ignore them. Don't give them the emotional response they're looking for and you remove all rewards for their behavior.

So if the alt-right coopt a symbol, use it more. Don't let them impact you or they'll keep doing it.

The "ok" sign thing pissed me off. I had learned from a very young age that it was sign language for "ok" (it combines the signs for the letters) and when I went to swim class, my mom would watch and when I'd look over to her she would sign that to me that everything was ok, and sign "I love you" (🤟 — not to be confused with 🤘ROCKANDROLL🤘) to me as well. For the record, no one in our family is deaf, we just learned some basic sign language because communication is cool.

This isn't "the 'OK' hand gesture is used by nazis"

This is shit like a game about gassing rodents to death, lots of "14 88" references, references to german WW2 military technology, etc.

Care to explain yourself

He's clearly a witch. I'm going to denounce him. Right now.

• "avater" has six letters. "lemmy" and "world" have five each, suspiciously close to six. His username is almost a literal 666.
• "I had an 88 in my old email address back in the days cause you know I’m born 1988" has the exact letters, in the right order, that allow you to spell "heil [name of the devil]".
• He wrote the number "8" four times. Eight symbolises new beginnings, regeneration, and resurrection; he's signalising to be full converted to satanism.
• He's German. You know how Germany is known as? Birthplace of Protestantism, one of the major heresies against Christianity. How much do you bet that he worships Luther, Mammon, Calvin and Asmodeus???
• Being German also means that he's from the same place as that witchcraft band called Faun. I bet that he already heard Walpurgisnacht on the radio. Perhaps he even likes the band. Or did no effort to call them out. (If you sit with witches then you're a witch too)

There are simply too many obvious signs of him being a witch. Sure, one or another might be coincidence, but all of them?

I hope that someone publish this in a sensationalist news site. Then other people will find further evidence that he's a witch.

He could prove his innocence, though. Witches float, honest people sink, so w could put a 20kg stone around his neck and throw him into the river. Of course he won't accept it, witches do not want to be outed as witches.

By the way, anyone trying to defend him is just trying to cover a witch. They're probably dancing partners in the Hexennacht (German for "the devil child-eating ritual")

[/sarcasm][/irony]

This. Cryptofascism relies on being able to scream, "It was just a joke / I didn't know!"

Mistakes can happen and you might accidentally engage in a dog whistle as a normal person.

A dozen mistakes all pointing to the exact same thing are unlikely.

And to be fair, it could be one person at the top putting all these wink wink indicators in, and the majority involved might just be normal folks.

I still won't be buying the game.

So, out the door any media playing with steamboat Willie being public domain is suspect because of rat adjacent symbolism?

Counting characters seems like basically numerology, if you want to get to a specific number it's not hard. If you count the space it's 14 characters, but you could just as easily not count the space. What if it had been "infestation: 88”? Not Nazi because of the colon, or do we skip the space now?

Using the conclusion of your argument as evidence to make further leaps is also not super sound reasoning.

It's an asset flip game capitalizing on steamboat Willie and the "make a now public domain children's character scary" money grab. It's exactly what happened with Winnie the Pooh.

It's a horror game with a mouse as the scary creature. The only cultural touchstones we have for mice are either cute, infestation or disease. Exterminators are who you call when you have a mouse problem, and people wearing gas masks are one of the most prolific assets you can buy models for in asset shops.

Dogwostles exist, but it's important to actually look at context.