A True Believer can contextualize any utterance, no matter how innocuous, in terms of their particular worldview. What sounds to you and I like normal conversation is, for them, a complex structure of code words and shibboleths. Some people live in such exciting worlds.
"By making a dismissive, condescending remark like this, McCain was tapping into a current of superiority among white voters. It was an attempt to 'otherize' Obama and tap into the implicit bias that so many of us hold," Wiley said.
(H/T to tgirsch at Unc's.)