I don't think there is anything implicit in this phrase anymore -- it quite explicitly accuses someone of posturing instead of paying the honest price for signa

I don't think there is anything implicit in this phrase anymore -- it quite explicitly accuses someone of posturing instead of paying the honest price for signaling. For example, a peacock's tail is a honest fitness signal -- it does take a lot of effort to maintain (in food and vulnerability) so it serves as a good signal for fitness. Naming an existing place after a virtue you want to pretend to hold is an empty virtue signal. Rezoning the city to reduce car traffic would be a honest virtue signal for the same virtue. "Empty" is usually dropped from "empty virtue signaling", because why bother. Alt-right association or origin don't make the phrase automatically invalid. You could even say pretending that it does is itself a virtue signaling in the derogatory sense.