Virtue Signaling - The Thing Is...
It just dawned on me what the problem is with virtue signaling. I mean, what could possibly be wrong with letting other people know how good and liberal and non-judgmental you are? Am I right? How can that be wrong? So what could possibly be wrong with signaling what your virtues are, virtue signaling?
It took this YouTube channel for me to understand the situation. Just in case the link changes, the name of the channel is "bald and bankrupt".
Lately I've been watching YouTube channels where the channel host or hostess travels around the world often going where no other tourists are likely to go and basically doing documentaries about their travels. Recently YouTube recommended this guy to me so I've been watching his videos and he does go where others fear to tread, no doubt about it. But right from the first video of his that I have watched I have known that there was something a bit odd about the guy. He schmoozes his way through some hazardous situations. In fact you sit there watching and you wonder if the people he is with are aware of his true nature because his true nature does manage to show itself despite all the schmoozing.
And that's what just dawned on me. Virtue signaling is schmoozing. It's faking it, putting on airs, pretending to be what you are not, pretending to think what you don't think and expecting people to imagine you are what you are not. This guy wears his pompous English superiority all over his behavior but hides it in plain daylight by constantly virtue signaling, schmoozing both the audience and the subjects of his videos.
This guy is what is wrong with virtue signaling. If you can act and think and judge the way this guy obviously does yet keep people convinced by your words that you are a nice guy, you have mastered the art.
The purpose of virtue signaling is not to convince people that you are a good person. The purpose of virtue signaling is to make people doubt their own negative perceptions about you, regardless of whether those perceptions are accurate or not. The effect of virtue signaling on others is often cognitive dissonance, that sense of stress that you feel emotionally when your thoughts and conclusions, often programmed, disagree with your observations.
It took this YouTube channel for me to understand the situation. Just in case the link changes, the name of the channel is "bald and bankrupt".
Lately I've been watching YouTube channels where the channel host or hostess travels around the world often going where no other tourists are likely to go and basically doing documentaries about their travels. Recently YouTube recommended this guy to me so I've been watching his videos and he does go where others fear to tread, no doubt about it. But right from the first video of his that I have watched I have known that there was something a bit odd about the guy. He schmoozes his way through some hazardous situations. In fact you sit there watching and you wonder if the people he is with are aware of his true nature because his true nature does manage to show itself despite all the schmoozing.
And that's what just dawned on me. Virtue signaling is schmoozing. It's faking it, putting on airs, pretending to be what you are not, pretending to think what you don't think and expecting people to imagine you are what you are not. This guy wears his pompous English superiority all over his behavior but hides it in plain daylight by constantly virtue signaling, schmoozing both the audience and the subjects of his videos.
This guy is what is wrong with virtue signaling. If you can act and think and judge the way this guy obviously does yet keep people convinced by your words that you are a nice guy, you have mastered the art.
The purpose of virtue signaling is not to convince people that you are a good person. The purpose of virtue signaling is to make people doubt their own negative perceptions about you, regardless of whether those perceptions are accurate or not. The effect of virtue signaling on others is often cognitive dissonance, that sense of stress that you feel emotionally when your thoughts and conclusions, often programmed, disagree with your observations.
posted by Bill | 1:15 AM
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