"Virtue Signaling"

Have you heard of the term “virtue signaling”? Coined in 2015, the term is used to describe “the way in which many people say or write things to indicate that they are virtuous”. A snippet from the man who says he coined the term would help understand:

“By saying that they hate the Daily Mail or Ukip, they are really telling you that they are admirably non-racist, left-wing or open-minded. One of the crucial aspects of virtue signalling is that it does not require actually doing anything virtuous.”

This tendency is believed to be “endemic to the political left”. Predictably then, given the mood these days, there is now a backlash against said virtue signaling. Or as this New York Times article says:

“When people offer their vehement condemnation of some injustice in the news, or change their Facebook profile photos to honor the victims of some new tragedy, or write status updates demanding federal action on climate change, observers like Bartholomew smell something fishy: Do these people really care deeply about the issue du jour? They probably aren’t, after all, out volunteering to solve the problem.”

C’mon, you say. Everyone can’t do something about every problem; and what’s the harm in gestures like the above on a topic people may really care about? Aha, but the question many ask now is this:

“What if they’re motivated, above all else, by simply looking like people who care?”

While that criticism must surely be true in some (many?) cases, the perception is that “this ‘‘cultural tic’’ has become universal on the left”. And as a result, “almost any public utterance of concern becomes easy to write off as false — as mere performance”. And Twitter in particular is a great medium to voice outrage at the hypocrisy (real or imagined) of others… so don’t expect the opinion wars to die down any time soon.