Abstract: What is the difference between a neo-Nazi saying “we need to protect our right to speak freely” and a Hongkonger democracy activist saying “we need to protect our right to speak freely”? Despite having identical lexical content, they seem to mean very different things. I develop the concept of politically obfuscated speech to make sense of such phenomena, and describe the theoretical foundations for this concept in Donald Davidson’s philosophy of language. Someone engages in politically obfuscated speech when the intended meaning of their speech is purposefully hidden for political purposes- be that vote-garnering, protecting their reputation, or simply signalling membership of a political in-group. A major and harmful kind of politically obfuscated speech is dogwhistles, but I contend that the concept of politically obfuscated speech has broader explanatory power than dogwhistles alone. Arming ourselves with the concept of politically obfuscated speech allows us to identify when and, importantly, how political actors make themselves intentionally obtuse.
