Still having trouble figuring out what I'm talking about with this term? Want an example? Take the good looking thirty-something man that says on Facebook, "Women please be proud of your bodies no matter how they appear. You are lovely whether you are fat or thin, white or chocolate, and in any shape or size. You are all beautiful." But then you actually know this guy and he dates only thin models or women who have smooth legs that exist nowhere in nature outside of a dolphin (and wear high heels and have long flowing hair and makeup). And yes, the same guy dates only white women. Yet he is chased after by dozens of women, because yeah...he's good looking...like movie-star good looks. He could have anyone he wants, so why not take the Lizzo look-alike? It's because what he's saying online is a hypocrisy. It is not the truth, because fat women actually don't (and never did) have a chance with him at all. It's the "do as I say, and not as I do" type of person.
I've noticed that one of the things about virtue signaling is that it actually does not require the person saying anything to live by what they preach. Additionally, the person that is engaging in "virtue signaling" generally comes across as pompous and bossy. I think most of us would want others to just privately act on one's convictions without the hope or expectation of acknowledgement. However, a lot of people in the modern world have no self-identity within themselves and depend on an external source of validation in order to obtain any kind of life happiness or satisfaction.
And I think that's the ultimate answer to the question I posed in the headline: why do people spend so much time virtue signaling online? It's because in the modern world, a lot (and I mean LOTS in all caps) of people are relying upon external validation for their self-esteem. Through virtue signaling, they get reassurance that they know what they stand for, they point out to others that they are a good person, and they (maybe) identify with a wrong that harmed them personally and are pointing it out to the world so that others avoid being damaged in the same way.
That's what I think, anyway. As to why people collectively worldwide seem to possess low self-esteem, I have only a few theories. The most prevalent one is that the Earth is extremely overcrowded (population explosion times infinity). Because of this, scarcity of resources is becoming an everyday thing as is the inability to distinguish oneself from another because anything you have to offer is a dime a dozen.
The term "spoilt for choice" comes to mind. This is a British phrase that means, roughly, that there are so many things to choose from that it becomes impossible to choose, which can create anxiety. Remember elementary school and not wanting to be the last one picked for a dodgeball team? Well society is essentially a dodgeball team on a grandiose scale. Whatever is doing the picking, whether it is for a job, for a lover, to be a model, to be a singer, to be a famous author...no one wants to be in the picked over pile. But because there are so many of us, the pickers are "spoilt for choice" and (I hate to say it) but a lot of us just end up on the bottom of the barrel rotting away. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, I think Earth's ever increasing population does a disservice to us all by collectively devaluing the actual cost of a single human life with each new baby that comes along. That's not to say that I don't like babies. I adore them as much as the next person. I'm just trying to state the obvious that when a population goes from a million to ten million and to a hundred million, each individual in that population is worth less (in terms of what value they bring to a society). This is why we all have to join unions to get collective bargaining power: a single person alone is no threat at all to the employer.
So maybe virtue signaling in the end is an attempt to restore some of that lost value damaged by unchecked population growth. However, (and for whatever reason) it always makes me think for a little while that the people who are doing it are smug. It makes me want to ask, "Who gave you the power to tell others how to live?" I don't like it, but I don't think it's going away anytime soon. Just my two cents on a Wednesday.
Curious: do you virtue signal online? Please leave your answers and thoughts in the comments.
Mostly I think it's that everyone can see you online so if I'm not supporting women or minorities or the homeless or indie authors then I look like a jerk. In the real world far fewer people would be able to notice.
ReplyDeleteThink of all the people who have lost jobs because of something they Tweeted or Facebooked even a long time ago, like when Marvel fired James Gunn for a Tweet from like 2013, though of course they later rehired him. So you're better off "virtue signaling" than the opposite because some current or prospective employer might go searching through your social media and it'll probably better for you if you say, "We should really help the homeless" vs "Fuck the homeless! I hope they all die off in the winter!"
DeleteIn your example, I definitely feel like (if your bosses or the people who give you money) have liberal views, it definitely pays to "virtue signal." I've noticed that people with liberal views (and I want to say that it's a sliding scale here with the more extreme becoming more intolerant) have wrapped themselves up in what I call "superior morality blankets." Also, I'm just talking about what I'm observing. I'm not necessarily saying that this is right or wrong. Maybe "superior morality" is good for society as a whole? I abstain from making a judgment on that. James Gunn almost paid a high price because he didn't realize that the people who give him money (whether Disney or whether the supporting audience who attends movies) is full of people wrapped up in superior morality blankets. If your power and your finances depend at all on people who are cocooned in SMB (Superior Morality Blankets), then you'd better "toe the line" or you're history. The thing I find fascinating about society is that if you move politically to the right and tie your fortune to only those who are politically to the right, then you can basically get away with anything. The further you go (toward fascism) the more you can just be a monster and no one cares.
DeleteYou have a very bleak outlook on the world.
ReplyDeleteYou're statement here isn't necessarily disagreeing with me. But is it so wrong to be bleak? Is it so wrong to clear the air and point out the terribleness that exists? Sorry if I'm a "buzzkill." :)
DeleteOh no, I'm not saying you're wrong. I was just reading this and thinking how so many of your posts are about some horribleness or other, and this is the only thought that came to me to comment. I had a rather odd day, and I couldn't think of anything else to say.
DeleteI rather think that the world one lives in has to do with the world one decides to inhabit. And by that, I mean that if you see bleakness everywhere, you see bleakness everywhere. But if you look for rainbows, you will surely find them.
As for virtue signalling, I feel sorry for people who base their existence on how others perceive them. But we all do that to a certain extent. So... Yeah, I was better off not saying anything. Most days I'm better off not saying anything.
Haha. I love your comments, Liz. Truly.
DeleteI don't post much of that kind of content.
ReplyDeleteIn the last year, probably, the closest I got to something like that was posting that I voted for Warren in the primaries here, but my intent was to prompt people to go vote, not to declare myself superior in any way.
So I don't know.
And I'm too tired, at the moment, to think more deeply about this.
I think the wider problem is that our sense of community has become entirely abstract. Community now means identity groups. It doesn't have to have any personal relevance at all. And it assumes that everyone is the identity group thinks the same. Which is impossible. And yet we're meant to believe that if we are in an identity group and don't conform to the stereotype, there's something wrong with us. We splinter out of anything that's right in front of us. We don't really value families anymore. We don't really have neighbors. Smartphones dominate our lives because they symbolize the bubbles we exist in. This is ironic coming from an introvert, I understand, but the things I struggle to have in my life are the things everyone else seems to think are abstract concepts at best, and increasingly so. This has nothing to do with the size of the population. If anything, it should it easier! But in trying to imagine what a large population looks like, we keep shrinking it down, breaking it down, until there's nothing left but a bunch of idiots shouting at how stupid everyone else is for not agreeing with their perfectly irrational ideas.
ReplyDelete