2 ms·

I always interpreted virtue signalling not as implying insincerity, but rather implying the main reason they're broadcasting the belief is to put a spotlight on

by xamuel 8y ago

I always interpreted virtue signalling not as implying insincerity, but rather implying the main reason they're broadcasting the belief is to put a spotlight on themselves. If there was a murder in the news and you immediately went on Facebook to post "Murder is bad" so people would Like your post, that's virtue signalling. Of course murder is bad. Only a crazy person would think murder wasn't bad. So there's no point posting that opinion on your feed, unless your goal is to get Likes. A less silly example might be if an acquaintance posts a picture of themselves at a restaurant and you post an unsolicited reply saying "I would never eat that, I'm a vegan." Ok, maybe you really are a vegan, but you're just posting that to look morally superior.

dragonwriter 8y ago
Murder is unlawful, whether it's bad is... variable. From the perspective of then-applicable British law, the American Revolution was a massive seditious conspiracy involving tens of thousands of murders. While that's a fairly extreme example, you see some of this playing out with more recent murders, like those in anti-abortion extremism, where there is a constituency that sees them.as justified whether or not legally murder.
- xamuel 8y ago
  No sane person thinks murder is good, rather people differ in what they consider to be murder. Soldiers killing enemy soldiers in combat during a war is not really murder, who cares what some judge 3000 miles away says. Btw when you say "recent murders, like those in anti-abortion extremism", that makes it sound like that's much more recent/common than it really is. The last three such cases were in 2015, 2009, and 1998, per wikipedia (granted the 2015 case left three dead). I wonder why those cases get disproportionately so much more attention than, say, the ongoing genocide of Christians by ISIL.

by xamuel 8y ago

dragonwriter 8y ago

Murder is unlawful, whether it's bad is... variable. From the perspective of then-applicable British law, the American Revolution was a massive seditious conspiracy involving tens of thousands of murders. While that's a fairly extreme example, you see some of this playing out with more recent murders, like those in anti-abortion extremism, where there is a constituency that sees them.as justified whether or not legally murder.

xamuel 8y ago
No sane person thinks murder is good, rather people differ in what they consider to be murder. Soldiers killing enemy soldiers in combat during a war is not really murder, who cares what some judge 3000 miles away says. Btw when you say "recent murders, like those in anti-abortion extremism", that makes it sound like that's much more recent/common than it really is. The last three such cases were in 2015, 2009, and 1998, per wikipedia (granted the 2015 case left three dead). I wonder why those cases get disproportionately so much more attention than, say, the ongoing genocide of Christians by ISIL.