If I said that "We need to protect the German fatherland's industrial capabilities from globalists on behalf of the german folk" would you be willing to take it at face value that I want to develop Germany's industrial capacity for economic reasons? That is a possible interpretation of those literal words.
Other people would be perfectly correct to point out that the language I am using is associated strongly with certain political groups, and that it has strong implications of racial bigotry. I could then come back and clarify that I am talking about the relative merits of protectionist economic policy in the era of globalized, state supported economic segments, and not Nazi economic policy.
I pointed it out because, while the story is not about Canada the country, it is about a Canadian doing business in Canada with a Canadian business. The comment uses language and specific phrasing preferred by anti-indian immigration groups in Canada.
Is it possible that the original comment was completely unrelated... but the specific words and phrasing on a comment about a thing in Canada happening to a Canadian lead me to believe that they mean the same thing as the other people that use that exact phrasing about things happening in Canada to Canadians.
> Reductio ad absurdum doesn't really work when the subject is dog-whistles, by definition.
I was using a more globally recognizable example to illustrate it since you have already implied that you do not understand the Canadian context. It wasn't reductio ad absurdum, but just an example of the concept moved to a different domain.
> If someone says "we woke to a chaotic airport" and you go on about how "woke" is dog-whistle, I'd consider that to be an off-topic diversion, at best.
That's not what I'm doing literally or figuratively. I'm not picking on one specific word.
I am pointing out that specific phrases and ideas used to express a specific sentiment on a specific topic can have hidden meaning assigned to them by interested groups.
In this case the phrase is "... [booking.com's] free cancellation policy only really works in a high-trust society, which at least one prominent nation seems to be backsliding"
The ambiguous/suspect terms here are "high-trust society" and "prominent nation seems to be backsliding". I am not suggesting that we cannot use those terms without being suspected of anti-indian sentiment, I am suggesting that using that phrasing to convey a message on that specific topic is a pattern predominately invoked by those with anti-indian/immigrant sentiment.
Accusing anyone that uses the word "woke" of being necessarily political is reductio ad absurdum of its own sort, and I fully agree that using a single word once is an absurd way to determine political meaning. Fortunately that isn't what I said. At all.
I am leaving open that the OP truly does want to talk about changing social mores leading to businesses having to change their policies, and that this is not a comment on immigrant communities. But I am pointing out that they have used the same language and specific terminology that is used in anti-indian immigrant political discussions.
If their intent is not to target immigrants, fine, that can be clarified. If it is their intent, I would prefer that they plainly state that they think that immigrants are the cause of hypothetical future changes to policy at high-end luxury hotels.
Other people would be perfectly correct to point out that the language I am using is associated strongly with certain political groups, and that it has strong implications of racial bigotry. I could then come back and clarify that I am talking about the relative merits of protectionist economic policy in the era of globalized, state supported economic segments, and not Nazi economic policy.
I pointed it out because, while the story is not about Canada the country, it is about a Canadian doing business in Canada with a Canadian business. The comment uses language and specific phrasing preferred by anti-indian immigration groups in Canada.
Is it possible that the original comment was completely unrelated... but the specific words and phrasing on a comment about a thing in Canada happening to a Canadian lead me to believe that they mean the same thing as the other people that use that exact phrasing about things happening in Canada to Canadians.