DrZoidberg
Contributor
I doubt Dr. Z wears US flag lapels.. but boy, talk about virtue signaling among the right-wing and alt-right. I remember back when carrying a tiny copy of the US Constitution was also quite popular among the right-wing to prove how patriotic they were.I am so sick of the bullshit term "virtue signaling".
The term does have some merit. For example, when conservatives use the term "virtue signaling," they are most often virtue signaling.
And of course, complaining about "woke" means you are patriotic in some virtue signaling of its own.
I wear it next to my swastika
From Wikipedia:
Virtue signalling is the expression of a moral viewpoint with the intent of communicating good character.[1][2][3]
...
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, virtue signalling is "an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media... indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings".[4]
Let's start with the last part first--
- "...expressing disgust ... for certain political ideas or cultural happenings." Negative commentary regarding wokes and virtue signaling fits this part of the description, i.e. "expressing disgust" for "political ideas" or "cultural happenings."
- "...especially on social media..." -- welp, facebook, twitter, even IIDB are social media, but social media is not a necessary part. Pundits like Cucker Tarlson also engage in virtue signaling.
- "...expressing opinions..." -- yup, when conservatives are engaging in negative commentary regarding wokes or virtue signaling, they are expressing opinions.
- "...attempting to show other people that you are a good person..." -- ah, well, this one is always the claim by an observer who is critiquing the person in question or what they said or wrote and the motivation of the person might or might not be debatable. We could claim that Cucker Tarlson or Dr Z or even I by writing posts am engaging in communication for sake of looking moral. In any case, anyone who is saying "you're just doing it to gain the moral high ground..." is attempting, even unconsciously to gain the moral high ground.
So, since, attacking virtue signaling is itself virtue signaling, these types of critiques are virtually meaningless. They are an exercise in triablistic echo chamber saber rattling and fist bumping. Sound. Fury. And Pedestals.
Likewise, woke. What does it mean, but to be awake to the social issues of the day and promote the awareness through communication. To conservatives, talking about the wokes is showing conservative wokeness, i.e. awareness of conservative ideology and critiques of liberals and special anecdotes about extremists to going on and on about. And memes. Don't forget memes.
It's like, think back to Bill O'Reilly talking about Culture Wars. Would you say Bill O'Reilly was NOT trying to take the moral high ground. The very nature of conservatives is to try to make value judgments they are brainwashed into by various institutions and then try to push them on everyone else. Remember, they hate cultural relativism and moral relativism. They have moral absolutes. And when they publish their ideology or engage in sophisticated critiques of "The Left" they are showing they are Woke to it.
One of the main differences these days is much of the conservative leaders are complete frauds. So, I am not sure we can actually say that Cucker Tarlson is a Conservative Woke, if he is deliberately lying. He pretends to be enlightened and very aware of everything and can come up with a litany to support his purported moral high ground, but much of it is made up or cherry-picked, deliberately.
So, I suppose it's really the conservative minions who are the conservative wokes.
I have an example. After 9/11 western mosques were being harassed and it was demanded by them (through social pressure) that they condemn the attacks on WTC.
That's compelled speech. In that media climate the Muslim statements were worthless. Even if a mosque community was for the attacks, they would of course have said they weren't.
It was public theatre. Compelled virtue signaling complete bullshit. Harassment of a minority.
It would, of course, have been better to let the Muslims be allowed to share their opinions freely.
We in the west have a tendency to be a bit blind regarding the horrific impact of the cold War in the post-colonial world. The way the Ottoman empire was ripped apart after WWI was not cool. Of course that would lead to a godawful fucking mess.
Religion has a way of stepping in when society fails. What happened isn't bizarre. And I think we could all benefit from everyone feeling able to speak freely.