TWErvin2
Auror
So do I, but why does it bother you so much?
In the end, writing (both the practice and your career) is a solitary pursuit. What's more, in order to be successful there is an inevitable darwinian struggle in which you have to claw your way over the top of other writers. The dog whistle, I suspect, is just a tactic to win some gouging room in that struggle.
These forums, in fact, are a funny sort of postponement of the struggle in a way. We can be all supportive and collegiate here but there is always the reality hanging over us that we are in competition for slots with publishers...or self-pubbed amazon breathing space...or the even more vicious darwinian struggle of the bookshop.
Let them whistle and stay focussed on the ultimate prize.
While there is, I believe, some truth to the competition for available publishing slots and/or attention from self-published as in survival and thriving of the fittest, the overall higher quality work that is out there will increase the number of readers and the amount the are willing to spend, this increasing the size of the pie (or the available habitat for more writers to survive and thrive).
In addition, there is such a variety of fantasy out there for the varied reader taste, little is a carbon copy of another work.
I've found, for example, at book signing events, that writers 'hard selling' only their works tends to encourage readers to move on, while, for example, when through conversation and observation that a reader browsing isn't interested in my novels, if I am aware and suggest the works of other authors in the room that have available something more along that reader's interest, a sale for that author is far more likely. When such is reciprocated, I also have better sales. But if I am in a room/hall of hard sellers focused only on their works, on average, we all experience lesser success in attracting readers and selling our works. That's been my observation over the past few years.
Whether that similarly translates to online sales, I am not sure.