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Left Wing "virtue signaling"?

smartcooky said:
By "a fiction" I mean more that it is a made up term for things that already have terms, such as....



where the rich man is just being a conceited arse-hole.

The only times I have ever been accused of "virtue signalling" (at least on this forum) has been by our resident racists, and bigots, usually when they have felt impugned or threatened by me calling out their racism/bigotry.

When someone gets all poutraged and accuses me of virtue signalling, or woke, I wear that as a badge of honour because I now know that person is a snowflake, and I have succeeded in getting under their skin or triggering them.



[qimg]https://www.dropbox.com/s/i8npx59qj7lqjut/Weird_Science_Facepalm_01.gif?raw=1[/qimg]
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The term is obviously loaded, yes, but I think it can be useful nonetheless and often be applied right back at the side using it, just as snowflake can.

If someone accuses me of virtue signaling, I would just ask what is wrong with it? Assuming something is a virtue, it sounds as though that is a good thing. Is the person accusing me claiming I lack modesty? If that’s the case, why are they immodestly unfurling the flag of modesty (a virtue?) anyway?
 
I think we should be able to call public self flagellation a virtue signal. Immodest expressions of piety do appear to be telling everyone how virtuous you are. “Look at me! I believe in God so much I strip the skin off my back! Aren’t I great!”

“I think you could put your efforts to better tasks!”
 
I have pointed out to various instances of virtue signaling on this forum particularly by those who keep harping on the "leftists" here indulging in it. Just go to the Roe vs. Wade or the CRT discussions for the more egregious examples of this.
 
Susheel said:
I have pointed out to various instances of virtue signaling on this forum particularly by those who keep harping on the "leftists" here indulging in it. Just go to the Roe vs. Wade or the CRT discussions for the more egregious examples of this.
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As a one of those "leftists", and a liberal, I can tell you that when you are having a debate on this forum with certain conservatives, GQPers and those morons who owe their fealty to The Fat Orange Turd, its almost impossible to express your own opinion of anything with which they disagree, such as a belief in the ending of systemic racism, and/or belief in a woman's right to choose what she does with her own body, and/or a belief in free or low cost access to medical care for all, and/or a belief in a minimum living wage for all, without risking being labelled a virtue signaler.

This is why the term has no meaning to me other than as a badge of honour. Its why I laugh inwardly when I have been so labelled, because I know I have triggered the snowflakes.
 
smartcooky said:
As a one of those "leftists", and a liberal, I can tell you that when you are having a debate on this forum with certain conservatives, ...
This is why the term has no meaning to me other than as a badge of honour. Its why I laugh inwardly when I have been so labelled, because I know I have triggered the snowflakes.
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:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
It’s an attempt at dismissing protests without having to present a rational argument against their aims.
 
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If you want to see non-left, non-liberal virtue signalling, come to the UK, especially England, in a week or 2 in the run up to Remembrance Day and see how much flak non-poppy wearers or white poppy wearers get...
 
Hercules56 said:
Is virtue signaling a real phenomenon,
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It's real in that people do try to say stuff that make them more popular with a certain group of other people. They'll even say things that would make them more acceptable in an anonymous poll. They'll give a wrong answer to a question if other people in the room gave the same wrong answer. (Actual studies showed that, btw.)

Hercules56 said:
and is it specifically unique to left-wing AKA liberal and progressive people?
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It's not limited to any particular political stance or group, really. Right wing, left wing, center, OS nerds on Slashdot, teenagers deciding what music to praise to fit their group, game fanboys on gaming sites, art snobs saying the same things that would make them fit in with other snobs, church goers pretending to be more faithful than the Pope, etc.

But I mean, for a long time it's been pretty much a meme that some republican is foaming at the mouth against gays, and then it turns out he was paying gay prostitutes. Or foaming at the mouth against abortions, then... get an abortion. Or being against porn, and then it turns out the whole flippin' red state is topping the porn search rankings.

Anyone who thinks just one group is doing it, is... optimistic, to say the least.

It's a mass sport, really.
 
Is "virtue signalling" just a euphemism for "lip service"?

I would have thought that the "war on drugs" was the ultimate form of virtue signalling. It doesn't do anything to curtail the drug trade and creates immense socio-economic problems. Yet those in charge insist on doubling down on the "tough on drugs" approach because they don't want to send the "wrong" message.
 
Is "virtue signalling" actually a thing?

I thought it was one of those random phrases that right wingers blurt out when they are out of ideas (ie all the time).

A bit like "woke".
 
“Tough on crime” is another buzz phrase that comes to mind which is nowt but virtue signalling when falling out of the mouth of a politician.
 
Robin said:
Is "virtue signalling" actually a thing?

I thought it was one of those random phrases that right wingers blurt out when they are out of ideas (ie all the time).

A bit like "woke".
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I know what you mean but I do think virtue signalling does have some actual truth behind it, even if as psionl0 mentions it is most often used as a modern version of claiming someone is only “paying lip service” to something.

To please those that think rights for all are “lefty” ideas I’ll use the example of businesses donning a LGBT+ symbol - like the rainbow flag, that is virtue signalling, why should they need to parade the fact that they treat all their employees fairly, they don’t put up a symbol to say they treat heterosexuals fairly do they!? (Yeah - we know the actual reason why most do it - profits.) So many such companies are indeed using virtue signalling.
 
Hercules56 said:
Is virtue signaling a real phenomenon
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Yes.

and is it specifically unique to left-wing AKA liberal and progressive people?
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Of course not. It is perhaps easier to see on the left because the media tilts heavily to the left, making it more visible there. But it’s a universal human foible.
 
smartcooky said:
Virtue signalling is a fiction. Its just a made up term like "woke" predominantly used to demean those who have a fully functioning moral compass.
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All language is “made up.” And “woke”, like “social justice warrior”, was coined as a self-descriptor which developed negative connotations precisely because of the absurdity of certain people who used it to describe themselves.

As for “virtue signaling”, it’s quite real. As with pretty much any term, it is sometimes misused, but there absolutely are valid use cases for the term.
 
Carrot Flower King said:
If you want to see non-left, non-liberal virtue signalling, come to the UK, especially England, in a week or 2 in the run up to Remembrance Day and see how much flak non-poppy wearers or white poppy wearers get...
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This! In fact, I already said it... ;)


angrysoba said:
I also consider the wearing of an over-sized poppy to be virtue signalling.

Link
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Another one sometimes mentioned is that whenever there is a mass shooting, some people like to immediately argue that "this is not the time" to talk about gun control and to offer "thoughts and prayers". There may indeed be a very few people who get comfort from that, but for the most part that is definitely virtue-signalling.
 
Modern day so-called 'virtual signalling' as epitomised by 'taking the knee' in sporting events, is likely designated 'left' because right wingers often don't want to understand the roots of it. The gesture of 'taking the knee' was started by Colin Kaerpernick, a US American footballer:

Leading up to the 2016 season, Kaepernick was active in July on social media with social commentary on the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the police shooting of Charles Kinsey and the acquittal of police in the death of Freddie Gray.[113][114] In the 49ers third preseason game of the season, reporter Steve Wyche noticed Kaepernick sitting down during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner",[113] as opposed to the tradition of standing.[115] During a post-game interview, Kaepernick explained his position stating, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.
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wiki

It spread to Europe after the killing of George Floyd by a policeman kneeling on his neck. Many fans of these sporting events, not wanting to care a darn about the issues of oppression wolf-whistled and booed because they are probably openly racist and changed the slogan from 'Black Lives Matter' to 'All Lives Matter' as if to imply the concern is merely 'woke gone mad'.

We see this attitude in UK politics, with the recently resigned Home Secretary Suella Braverman claiming that she was being prevented from transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda by 'Guardian reading, tofu-eating, wokerati'. As if carting people off to concentration camps is normal and any protest is 'wet'.

Calling humanitarian concerns 'virtual signalling' is a form of downplaying and rationalising away the moral issues of our day.
 
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Back to the beginning

Took me awhile, but I think that this article is the first modern coinage of the phrase, or at least the first one that gained traction on the internet.

Virtue signalling crosses the political divide. When David Cameron defends maintaining spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid, he is telling us that the Tory party, or at least he himself — as a rather wonderful, non-toxic part of it — cares about the poor in the developing world. The actual effectiveness or otherwise of foreign aid in achieving this aim is irrelevant.

When Osborne says he wants a higher minimum wage, he is saying, ‘I am a good guy who cares about the low-paid and wants them to be better off.’ Never mind the unintended consequences. Just feel the good intentions.

‘I hate 4x4s!’ you declare. This is an assertion that, unlike others, you care about the environment.
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Not particularly good examples, but there it is.

Here is an opposing view from one of my fav podcasters.

My view has been that virtue signaling is fine as long as it drives the practice of actual virtue.
 
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