tchaikovskaya:

the entire point of dogwhistling as a concept is to leave enough doubt for you to plausibly deny that that’s what you meant, but it’s a signal to your intended audience who would immediately recognize and understand Exactly What You Meant By That. so yeah you can say “so-and-so didn’t outright say x y and z and you cant prove it was their intent to imply that” and you’re right, we can’t prove that, but you’re eating out of the palm of their hand when you say that, you’re literally right where they want you