How did we go from a virtuous life being a great example for people to “virtue signaling” seen as a negative?
Bizarre.
Discussion
Lead by example I guess?
Because somewhere along the way, showing virtue turned into performing it for approval.
True virtue is quiet — it doesn’t need an audience to be rea
The point of signalling that you are against evil is so other people don't feel alone.
Because the majority of us are against evil, but some spineless cowards help the evil Zionist scum by not signalling that they disapprove, and the media is all owned by them so they try to suppress and censor every word against Israel.
It's not proformative to say you disagree with Jews being allowed to rape children or commit a genocide.
It's actually normal to speak out against evil
That's not how most people understand the phrase.
"Virtue signaling is the act of expressing moral opinions or stances, especially on social media, with the primary goal of demonstrating one's good character or moral superiority to gain social approval, often without taking meaningful action to support the cause.
The term is typically used pejoratively to suggest the expressed morality is insincere or motivated by vanity rather than genuine conviction."
Exactly and that’s the point
that’s the whole point. 💡
It’s not the virtue that’s the problem, it’s the performance of it for attention.
Real conviction doesn’t need applause….it leaves proof in action, not posts
Be careful of people who say virtue signalling is a bad thing, do not leave them alone with children or animals.
They are bad people who think it's ok to hurt the vulnerable.
Because virtue signaling is just saying something, not necessarily actually doing it, ie a flag on your social media avatar. In the derogatory sense the term means saying without doing anything.
If you are actually virtuous, you don't need to signal it.
For the average person I don’t know how that even works.
Because we moved from living truth to performing it for validation.
Real virtue doesn’t need to trend — it just shows up, consistently, I hope we all understand that.
Why Bizarre? If the "virtues" signaled are in fact not virtues at all (mostly the opposite in fact), signaling them becomes justly negative.
Depends on what you consider to be signaling. But in the context of social media it’s impossible to tell is the virtue is followed or only signaled
There's been a lot of good discussion of this on lesswrong, dating back a decade or more. This is a good article to start with on signaling. You could spend a while going down the rabbit hole there. It's something humans have been thinking on for a long time.
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vzyhBN2SZpvqER4ao/an-introduction-to-signalling-theory
"Despite the relatively recent appearance of the term "virtue signalling", the problem of questioning someone's motives for appearing virtuous is an old idea. Matthew writes 2 millennia ago, "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full."
Why would signalling virtue if you're actually virtuous be bad? This starts to get more speculative, but it may mean they may be motivated by the benefits of appearing virtuous instead of actually being virtuous."
Many people would rather feel right than be right. They don't form opinions, policies, and philosophies primarily based on facts, but on feelings.
Feels great to say you're vegan, but factually, you're malnourished.
Feels great to say "illegal immigrants are people too," though factually, they're dragging down the quality of life in our society.
Feels great to say "we need a more tolerant legal system," but factually, the more crime you tolerate, the more there will be.
Virtue signaling is an attempt to demonstrate moral superiority based solely on how one feels about certain beliefs, even though those beliefs are not factually correct or productive.
Living a virtuous life is far different from merely signaling a virtuous one, just as proof-of-work is far different from proof-of-stake.
It takes a certain level of intelligence and awareness to discern the difference.