So sorry. I’ve been having good luck lately keeping most of them at bay by taking one or two capsules of feverfew when the feeling of one coming on first hits.

Then think about what they stand to gain by winning over our hearts and minds, and remember that they wouldn’t be wasting their time if our allegiance were not incredibly valuable to them.

Case in point: if in the near future presented with the idea that our wonderful neighbors to the north, who have always been among our best allies, are guilty of shocking and horrible crimes you previously knew nothing about, fact check the hell out of every word that comes out of their mouths.

Next time we hear someone demonizing someone else, appealing to our impulse to be afraid of other people and encouraging us to react out of that fear, instead of coming running, let’s think about what the whistler stands to gain by dividing us.

And the dog whistle is what will plunge us deeper into darkness without a massive course reversal.

The dog whistle has been heard issuing from the most powerful people in our country from the beginning when wealthy slave holders called poor southern whites to heel, and now, with new objects, new threats, new spin, the dog whistle has led us to the crisis we are now facing.

The dog whistle led to the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany, and ultimately to World War Two.

It says, “those people are very bad—they will hurt you—I will protect you from them if you give me your loyalty and do what I say.”

The dog whistle is conveyed through barrages of strategically directed misinformation designed to elicit a fear-based response at scale.