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> > virtue signaling > I despise this term. You don't know people's motivations. These may be genuinely important issues that they are using their audience and

by mcv 4y ago

> > virtue signaling > I despise this term. You don't know people's motivations. These may be genuinely important issues that they are using their audience and reach to magnify and promote. Accusations of virtue signalling get misused a lot, especially by people opposed to those important issues. But it's absolutely a real thing. I think the most notable form of virtue signalling is public prayer on TV by politicians. They want to display their piety in public for all to see. They're not raising any kind of awareness by doing so, they're just fishing for approval from the right crowd. (And of course this is exactly the kind of behaviour that Jesus condemned.)

elondaits 4y ago
It’s impossible to know people’s intentions, because we even can’t really explain 100% the things we do ourselves. So, it’s a bad starter for an argument… It’s better to judge people for their actions, rather, because even if someone does something involuntarily they should be responsible for it.
- mcv 4y ago
  Of course it's better to judge people for their actions, but that doesn't mean you can't know people's intentions. Sometimes they're really incredibly clear about their intentions. Intentions and actions aren't separate things.
- deleted 4y ago
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deanCommie 4y ago
Absolutely no one who uses "virtue signalling" on the internet is talking about prayer - from TV preachers or politicians. It's a word typically used associated with a whole set of vocabulary including "woke" and "social justice warrior/SJW". It's meant to deride people talking about diversity initiatives, systemic inequalities, feminism, LGBTQ issues, etc. The explicit implication of the term is that nobody actually genuinely cares about these issues, they just speak about them to virtue signal to their in-group (progressive/left/urban/etc) that they have permissible opinions and that they are not problematic.
- mcv 4y ago
  Like I said, it gets misused a lot. Often by the very people using the word to silence honest ways to raise awareness.

by mcv 4y ago

elondaits 4y ago

It’s impossible to know people’s intentions, because we even can’t really explain 100% the things we do ourselves. So, it’s a bad starter for an argument… It’s better to judge people for their actions, rather, because even if someone does something involuntarily they should be responsible for it.

mcv 4y ago
Of course it's better to judge people for their actions, but that doesn't mean you can't know people's intentions. Sometimes they're really incredibly clear about their intentions. Intentions and actions aren't separate things.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

deanCommie 4y ago

Absolutely no one who uses "virtue signalling" on the internet is talking about prayer - from TV preachers or politicians. It's a word typically used associated with a whole set of vocabulary including "woke" and "social justice warrior/SJW". It's meant to deride people talking about diversity initiatives, systemic inequalities, feminism, LGBTQ issues, etc. The explicit implication of the term is that nobody actually genuinely cares about these issues, they just speak about them to virtue signal to their in-group (progressive/left/urban/etc) that they have permissible opinions and that they are not problematic.

mcv 4y ago
Like I said, it gets misused a lot. Often by the very people using the word to silence honest ways to raise awareness.