What Is "Virtue Signalling"?

I'm seeing the accusation of virtue signaling going around a lot lately no they're not criticizing their skill at the red dreamcast lighthouse escape game virtue a signal they're actually judging them as people in fact one rational level-headed individual directly called me out for it in a long rant where he gets my name wrong virtue signaling is the latest in a long line of hastily propagated all right neo reactionary buzz words including Cooke G's anti jeje or everyone who thinks harassment is bad literally who if you're one of the prime targets bayit has feminazis white knights Spangler's a phrase on the up and up in the community get ready to be called one of those on twitter in the near future and of course cultural Marxists oh sorry does that phrase have really bad implications we'd better come up with a new word that means the exact same bad idea what regressive leftists there that'll do the term was originally coined by James Bartholomew for the spectator to decry people who say I don't like this thing very much in order to feel good about themselves and then just vote labor every few years or whatever and take no stake in actually making things better this is a fairly straightforwardly good call to action the term actually decried a real existing problem of course then the idiots got their hands on it when interpreted poorly almost every belief statement or piece of writing becomes virtue signaling an attempt to look good for thinking the right thing what's that you like reading books you're just trying to look like you do a lot of reading to look smart virtue signaler what's this you tweet pictures of kamen rider figurines and silly and compromising poses you're just trying to signal that you own cool toys that have good photography ability gasps yeah yeah Oh what was that you criticized me when I say racist or sexist things or have bizarre fixation with one particular woman clearly you just want to make yourself look enlightened and like a vaguely good person so people will think you're nice and I don't know sleep with you this gives in hand with another popular term the white knight white knights are traditionally people who defend women on the internet out of the misguided belief it will result in some kind of reward usually sex which sounds difficult to do over the internet but who knew apparently the best way to get it is to be nice to people as someone who frequently impersonates a woman in online games I can confirm that white knights do actually exist and they are really weird but we've reached a point where any male person defending any female person for any reason Nets an accusation of just wanting them to pull their dipstick because why else would anyone side with a woman right it's not like you can just you know think they're right about something men's rights activists and pickup artists love to decry criticism as virtue signalling but not because they're against the idea that it's wrong to say and do things for sex in fact people have built careers on telling these groups exactly what to say and do in order to get someone to sleep with you so the problem with virtue signaling can't be that it's wrong to say what you think will get you laid their problem appears to be that they view it as an ineffective strat and of course to bring the whole thing back on itself like a bulging veiny Ouroboros whenever they're tasked with formulating their own beliefs in detail they invariably end up appealing to things like classical virtue you know those things put forward by someone at some point in history interpreted by me look at this statue clearly this means the Greeks were afraid of homosexuality and thought it should be repressed pay no attention to actual historical fact you only look at the facts because you want to look smart you know the Greeks the famously straight people and when they're not accusing them of trying to get people to sleep with them they're accusing them of being gay I would just like to take a moment to point out that we've reached a situation where to some people being gay and wanting to have sex with women are interchangeable this eradication of a meaning is part of a deeper problem with Internet culture it's the same with the word cook a few years ago Kirk Andre was a fetish where one spouse engages in sex with another person to emasculate their partner now the word is just another one-size-fits-all disparagement to use against people who you don't like you can say what you like about Jan boards but at the very least they're incredibly effective at rendering words meaningless instead of having to defend your point of view which could be really difficult you can just ignore them and dance around accusing them of trying to look like they're good people it's a fantastic defense mechanism except for the part where it isn't very good at all let's give the 3 main reasons why firstly let's say the person you're arguing with really does think they're making themselves look more virtuous for calling you out for saying something that sounds very racist that doesn't invalidate their point does it this argument is about as stupid as your garden-variety ad hominem argument oh you criticize my behavior well you're dumb and you smell and you just want to look good because it doesn't even need to be an inaccurate statement to be clearly let's say I really do smell quite a bit and I really am dumb and I do secretly think being nice to women on the Internet will one day reap dividends in the form of insert comical foreplay even ISM here does that make my argument wrong it is an actual historical fact no this is actually quite hotly debated please do your own research that Socrates smelled like and didn't take care of his kids either he might have secretly thought he was super smart and liked looking smart by criticizing people but that doesn't make him any less biting or correct when he tears apart someone's belief system in a story you can be right and take regular showers although I myself have trouble with that concept but in a discussion the ideas should be the focus not the perceived self righteousness extant or otherwise of the people you disagree with secondly it seems reductive to believe you know a person's intent or secret deep inner feelings because I don't even know my inner feelings on a lot of topics I have to stay away from male Greek statues because they awaken things in me so to pretend that I could deign to know your inner feelings is stupid I'd like to take people at their word whining that people you don't like her just virtue signaling is essentially a method of protecting yourself from a real discussion these people will often also decry things like safe spaces not realizing that they do so from the safety of the one in their own head we're all opposing arguments have been scrubbed clean of content thirdly once you invoke it you grant that it's wrong to criticize things just to make yourself look good but isn't that inherently what you're doing when you accuse someone else of doing it you're saying quite straightforwardly I am smarter and better than you because I don't virtue signal that's what some people actually write they literally write this I care the least so I'm more rational I win though where I don't virtue signal like a badge as if it signals what virtuous people they are heck even the creator of the term is getting in on the action look at me I invented virtue signaling shallow me with praise please all right weirdos well I might not be right but at least I don't vert you to signal people who use this term often simply don't have any worthwhile criticisms to make of the arguments that face them or are unable to express it meaningfully so they pick a word from the list and throw it out there accusing someone of virtue signaling isn't simply lazy and often inaccurate it actively flies in the face of the very concept of words having meaning you can see the same thing taking place on the opposite side as well the phrase problematic has become something of a joke itself because of its overuse but these people tend to then turn around and explain why these things are as it were problematic these people can be right or wrong in their assessments of course but at least they don't just yell virtue signal law and then run away I'm still waiting to be rewarded with sex though I'm sure it'll happen any day now is this it is my quit lashing finally getting me a shaft shellacking have the heavenlies do guardians finally opened the gates to the gaff of Spath no wait what's this something's wrong no it's you ones the wicked on the sidle matriarch cease bad person look at you White Knight a pathetic creature of coke and beta panting and sweating as we tried to find someone to defend the slacks look I appreciate the reference but System Shock 2 came out what 24 years ago can we like just to talk in plain English okay basically it turns out to get laid you have to actually be super abusive and manipulative towards people and treat them with zero respect God haven't you read 30 bangs but isn't the real priority to treat people like reasonable humans and not do it for some kind of reward is it ever possible to have a discussion of what is moral and good no it's actually all about sex literally all the time I'll hang on you're not once you're Manos fear I knew you allowing this oh shut up beautiful Spengler can't you see you'll become a stronger person once you practice my testosterone cream and self-help ebooks and start using fantasy literature is a basis for your socio-economic worldviews I literally can't see anything at this point this transcendent void is actually really hard on my eyes no don't look away pay the playfun to me pay attention to me I'd like to say a special thanks to Jason Walter Jenny angel John calf P Kevin M kenneth e MK made of stone max sure rob brunt sam al scott Girton fatwa Zalewski and two armed flus and red drapes I would also Casey Schnabel whose name I pronounced wrong last time sorry Oh while we're at it III spelt back McKenzie Ben McKenzie I'm so sorry special thanks to Chris Murray who is voicing me right now

Channel: hbomberguy

Views: 1,288,797

Rating: 4.5479312 out of 5

Keywords: hbomb, hbomberguy, vritue signalling

Id: sAmM872874A

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/TheSugarRay]

A classic.

[u/KudosGamer]

Old but gold. This was such a good take. I always think of this video whenever I hear people talk of virtue signalling.

[u/LitGarbo]

man I much prefer hbombs older videos to the new overly produced ones. much more charm

[u/Biffingston]

Aren't claims of "virture signaling" in and of themselves the same thing that they're doing when calling it viture signaling?