3 ms·

What is virtue signaling?

• davidw 7y ago
  When people on the left say things that people on the right dislike. Serious answer: there's a theory that some people say things just to impress their friends of the same ideological stripes (although the charge is usually leveled against those on the left), rather than actually placing much importance on those things. For instance, the github people opposed to the ICE contract are just doing it to "look good" in the eyes of their peers rather than actually, say, caring about kids locked up in cages and the other nasty things that an unleashed ICE is doing. I think it's mostly a BS theory.
• mcbits 7y ago
  Originally, disingenuous words and actions intended to build rapport with people of a particular ideological persuasion. Nowadays, nothing, in the same sense that quantum foam is nothing.
• camel_Snake 7y ago
  You know how virtually all American politicians end their speeches with 'and God bless America'? That's a great example of virtue signalling. It doesn't really add anything of substance to the conversation, but does convey that 'I believe in God too', which is presumably a good thing to the electorate.