Yes. It's a way to say 'you seem bad, and nobody should listen to you' by virtue of simplistic pattern recognition. If you happen to use the same few words that somebody the OP dislikes used, you are categorized and ignored. Note that this is completely independent of whether those words are true or false, harmful or helpful.
It's a discussion killer and a thought ender, and I think HN would do well to ban accusations of dog-whistles. It never heightens the dialog, it only drags it down.
It's a discussion killer and a thought ender, and I think HN would do well to ban accusations of dog-whistles. It never heightens the dialog, it only drags it down.