“Virtue signaling” is a phrase @shutterbug used in a thread that’s now locked. I loved the caustic slant of it and looked it up …
Pix did seem a little harsh when he used it but maybe that’s the nature of the phrase. It surely does apply to my wife’s Facebook group.
In my opinion, what Pixel called virtue signalling was really just empathy. The fact that an opinion is favorable within a specific group does not mean it shouldn’t be expressed publicly.
I’m not crazy about the term, personally. Here are a couple of pieces expressing some of the problems with it, one from a right wing source, one from a left wing source:
He didn’t say it shouldn’t be expressed. He just said he was not into it. And that in itself seemed to be signaling the virtue of detached superiority.
I generally believe in free speech and think there’s no reason why we shouldn’t signal virtue. It’s human nature. I just did it and I think pixel is one of the best of the virtue signalers. 
He certainly implied that there was no good reason to express such an opinion other than to appear kind/whatever. And I agree that saying he didn’t like virtue signalling is in essence a kind of virtue signalling. That’s a good point.
I thought of it as humorously patronizing. I didn’t realize the term had been around a long while and seriously overused. Thanks for the articles @Rhubot. I was only on Twitter for 5 minutes once a long time ago.
Just call me “Out of the loop,” please, moderators.
I’m pretty impressed that you zeroed in on one of the ironies of the term within minutes of hearing it for the first time!
And now I see that expressing any type of opinion can be seen as VS.
Back in the sixties when we had lost our ego opinions were a no-no.
More like signalling a lack of virtue and also a lack of empathy. I have a difficult time forming emotional attachments to people close to me. I don’t form them at all with groups of strangers.
I think something like this is so innate that people on either extreme can seem foreign to one another.
I’m the opposite, an excess of empathy, and it’s been that way since I was a baby. I was always getting upset and crying whenever I saw someone else in distress, like I had some faulty perception of where I ended and other people began. I think there’s actually a term for this, but it slips my mind.
My parents were always calling me “tenderhearted” or “champion of the underdog,” but it was also clear that they found this tendency of mine frustrating.
That depends on our motives. Are we going to practice what we preach, or are we giving off false signals in order to, say, seduce our best friend’s girlfriend, or trying to sell a worthless piece of equipment to a naive person, and so on? There are all kinds of ulterior motives for signaling virtue. I guess it is harmless as long as someone doesn’t have nefarious motives.
I understand that others have empathy. I don’t understand why they channel it into useless activities. Motivation should be used to good effect, achieving some sort of beneficial change.
I agree that all the empathy in the world doesn’t do anyone any good if it’s not acted upon.
But empathy, by its very nature, is accompanied by a level of emotional distress. And sometimes that just needs to be expressed, by itself.
Here is what it looks like to non-empaths:
Princess Pixel regularly bursts into tears over things on Facebook. I’m like, “yeah, you’ll want to talk that one over with Mom.”
This was the first time I read the sentence “virtue signaling”, I don’t know if it will last very long.
It’s not exactly 100% correct or that poetic to stick around. It’s interesting though, how can one make a point in common sense without signaling virtue? That’s the whole point…
I’m sure it does look that way.
My political analysis professor made a comment (can’t remember who he credited as the original source) about how natural scientists would find their jobs far more frustrating if rocks could talk. While it’s obvious to us that the force of gravity causes an object to accelerate as it approaches the earth, if you were able to ask the rock why, it would tell you that the earth is its home and it’s excited to finally get there. We’re not always the best narrators of our own experience.
My mom was a Pixel trying to fill the role of a Mrs. Pixel at the same time. She tried to be supportive of the way I was, but sometimes just had to throw her hands up and warn me not to let myself get wrapped around the axle about every single thing. Solid advice, but hard to put into practice.
“Everybody lies.” ~ Gregory House, M.D.
I think you’d like this class. It’s about applying game theory to public action. Doesn’t matter what you say, this is what you’re going to do, in other words.
There’s also something called a global solidarity. Its invented by feminists so I can see why some people find it so strange.
Call it however you want, but here is a little caricatured picture: a group of people gathered to mourn a person, then an individual went in and proudly announce his aliveness. Or worse, throws a joke.
Best time for it, really.