Recognition and Recruitment in Overt Code Dogwhistles

In her most recent book, Jennifer Saul suggests that overt code dogwhistles can function as recruitment tools for wild conspiracism and blatant racism insofar as they can be used to co-opt the existing legitimate interests of potential recruits. I show that this claim is true of only a particular subset of overt code dogwhistles: only polysemous codes can recruit. All other overt codes, including homonymous codes and nonsense codes, can do little more than allow existing followers to recognize one another under the radar in public.