Hmm, I’m not sure that you’re saying anything that the other side (people annoyed by current “virtue signaling”) would disagree with, good virtue signals are useful if they’re done well, and bad virtue signals are bad, they’d certainly agree that Mcdonald’s should virtue signal about its beef quality, though they might not realize the that this is in fact virtue signaling because of how the phrase’s usage has evolved. A vegan friend mentioning he’s a vegan off-handedly while apologizing for the hassle before coming to your house for a BBQ is completely fine, but veering off the conversation at every opportunity towards the immense and cosmically important suffering of chickens is starting to become either bragging, or a weird power move that people reject instinctively. Being moral yields prestige in the tribe, and a too-obvious virtue signal can be read as attempting to elevate your power. In fact, I think everything you’ve written also applies to bragging about your skills: sometimes very necessary, others really should be informed of how competent you are, but there’s still a whole host of social norms about the way to do that appropriately, and everyone who hates bragging really only hates “bad bragging”.
I intentionally didn’t engage with motives for virtue signaling or the way the signal is reported but focused on their information value. The virtue signal with the character information here is actually “not eating animals”, not talking about it.
The virtue signal with the character information here is actually “not eating animals”, not talking about it.
Umm, I think there’s still a disconnect with your definitions and general usage of the term. The VIRTUE is “caring about animals”, or maybe “not eating animals”. It’s arguable how important that virtue it is, but most people don’t object.
The virtue SIGNALING is talking about it, proselytizing for it, and the implied judgement of lack of virtue in people who aren’t visibly into it.
Hmm, I’m not sure that you’re saying anything that the other side (people annoyed by current “virtue signaling”) would disagree with, good virtue signals are useful if they’re done well, and bad virtue signals are bad, they’d certainly agree that Mcdonald’s should virtue signal about its beef quality, though they might not realize the that this is in fact virtue signaling because of how the phrase’s usage has evolved. A vegan friend mentioning he’s a vegan off-handedly while apologizing for the hassle before coming to your house for a BBQ is completely fine, but veering off the conversation at every opportunity towards the immense and cosmically important suffering of chickens is starting to become either bragging, or a weird power move that people reject instinctively. Being moral yields prestige in the tribe, and a too-obvious virtue signal can be read as attempting to elevate your power. In fact, I think everything you’ve written also applies to bragging about your skills: sometimes very necessary, others really should be informed of how competent you are, but there’s still a whole host of social norms about the way to do that appropriately, and everyone who hates bragging really only hates “bad bragging”.
I intentionally didn’t engage with motives for virtue signaling or the way the signal is reported but focused on their information value. The virtue signal with the character information here is actually “not eating animals”, not talking about it.
Umm, I think there’s still a disconnect with your definitions and general usage of the term. The VIRTUE is “caring about animals”, or maybe “not eating animals”. It’s arguable how important that virtue it is, but most people don’t object.
The virtue SIGNALING is talking about it, proselytizing for it, and the implied judgement of lack of virtue in people who aren’t visibly into it.