Virtue signaling can even distort foreign policy decisions. Back in April, my friend and fellow Wrong Speak publication mate/staff writer John Sullivan appeared as a guest panelist on an episode of Narrative Dissonance on the Safe Space live podcast. John was amazing, as expected. The podcast was quite interesting and thought provoking. I strongly suggest checking out the episode. John is renowned for his relentless dedication to digging beneath the surface of issues and writing/discussing nuances that no one else will or dares to discuss. It’s one of the reasons why I admire him so much. He is beyond intelligent and is very inspirational. John is a foreign affairs guru and has written extensively on such topics, especially as of late. As the topic shifted to this area during the podcast, you could sense his passion and fervor.
Notably as expected, the foreign affairs topic talked about the most was the Ukrainian-Russian crisis. John explained how “racial bias” has played a significant role in how the left has perceived the conflict as well as how much coverage, attention, and support has been given to it because of such. Like always, John brought receipts (supporting examples) because he understands that this isn’t a statement that could be made without them, even in “free thought environments.”
It’s a point that I never really thought about or even considered. While dwelling and considering that “racial bias” is a component that is rooted in the reaction and perspective of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it made me think of another matter that I believe is also rooted in how many, especially the ideological left, have reacted to this topic and many others. That is the disturbing and troubling trend of virtue signaling.
I truly believe and agree with John’s point, that there is definitely a racial bias influencing the left’s perspective and reaction when it comes foreign affairs, especially this conflict in Ukraine. However, I think this can also be expanded even further, to how many see themselves, especially the so-called elites in our society and those that think they are our moral betters. While we should all genuinely care about the Ukrainians who are suffering from Russian military aggression, no one should use this invasion to project their own moral superiority. It seems that too many Americans don’t see this conflict as purely a tragedy, but as an opportunity for self-ennoblement.
Much like the huge public support of Black Lives Matter after George Floyd’s death, many people are expressing their support for Ukraine. A lot of these people are regularly seen wearing Ukrainian lapel pins on suits and posting Ukrainian Flag emojis in their Twitter bios. This is now the latest form of virtue signaling. This permits all of those willing to participate in the latest trend of virtue, to put themselves on a moral pedestal and demonstrate to everyone just how “tolerant” and “caring” they are without actually doing anything productive or useful.
The posting of the Black Square, as a profile picture, the use of the Ukrainian flag emoji, the public display of vaccination status, and even the use of pronouns in one’s profile description all come down to the elevation of one’s moral status. It’s very narcissistic, vain, and egocentric. God forbid anyone question these people’s motives or dares to question narratives and/or nuances about any of the most recent trendy crisis of virtue, and they will be vilified as an evil person, a racist, sexist, xenophobe, a wacky conspiracy theorist, a lover of Putin, or whatever insulting name the woke virtue signaling crowd can come up with.
It is usually impossible to have a conversation or even a civil debate with these people. Most aren’t willing to engage or even have a cordial discussion, because the majority aren’t intelligent and versed enough to do so. The vast majority of these folks have no understanding about the complicated long history of Ukraine and Russia. They can’t discuss any of the motivational factors behind what might be behind Russia’s invasion. Most don’t care. In reality, their virtue signaling is about themselves and not victims or the crisis.
If they truly cared about humanity as they claim they do, it wouldn’t be so easy to point out their hypocrisy on just about every issue they choose to virtue signal about. For example, why is it that most of these people are more concerned about the invasion of Ukraine’s border than the invasion of America’s? Why is there such a stark contrast and hypocrisy in their treatment of atrocities happening in Ukraine, versus others that are happening and have happened around the globe, including those perpetrated by the United States?
From just a pure broad argumentative standpoint, a fascinating example of this hypocrisy is exhibited and on full display by how many of these people have treated the situation in Ukraine versus Israel. They have shown strong support, virtue, and have rushed to the defense of Ukraine; while strongly opposing and showing utter vitriol towards Israel. The argument in totality shows their true colors. Ukraine is a “Western country” just like Israel, while Russia isn’t a part of the “West” like Palestine. Ukraine is a sovereign territory, in which areas are being carved off by people (Russians) who are engaged in terrorist activity. It’s a pretty good description of what has happened in regards to the Gaza Strip, Judea, and Samaria isn’t it? Yet, I haven’t seen nearly as many Israeli flags in American Twitter bios.
Every day, we hear people from the mainstream media talk about how Ukraine should never surrender any of its territory to Russia, because Russia is the evil aggressor in the region. This is a fair argument, of course. However, as John Sullivan has pointed out on many occasions, Ukraine is no angel. Ukraine is rife with corruption and its armed forces are comprised of openly far-right neo-Nazis. The same so-called “ideology” we are regularly warned about by the Biden administration and is supposed to be the biggest threat here in the United States of America.
Of course, our moral better virtue signalers and our leftist biased news media core frequently ignore these little details. The stories that are told and written, are all colored with a tone that the left ear can tolerate. The only way we would know about any of this in detail is from underground journalistic outlets like this one. Thank God for Wrong Speak!
This same hypocrisy can also be seen regarding the “much virtuous” Black Lives Matter virtue signaling. I’m being sarcastic when I describe it as being “virtuous” of course. Many of the people wearing BLM merchandise, putting black squares as their bio profile pictures, and black fist pump emojis aren’t willing to discuss the organization’s shady and corrupt finance practices, nor the proud radical Marxist leftist messaging that they openly stand for.
They also aren’t willing to talk about the many problems plaguing the black community such as single parent homes and widespread drug addiction. . Many of these folks call for defunding the police and ignore the increase in violence and killings happening in black communities, mostly perpetrated by other black people. Black Lives Matter huh?
The bottom line is, many of the stories that are covered and the way in which their narratives are advanced/promulgated are all done for self-serving purposes. The same is true for all of the “virtual (online) humanitarians” we see daily on social media, demonstrating their higher moral values and moral grandstanding to us. None of this is about exploring the truth or getting to the root cause of any of the issues and crises they so proudly say and show they care for.
The trouble with the hyper virtue signaling trendy environment we are in today is, there is little to no room for objective criticism, discussion, and debate on hardly any of these subjects, particularly in the virtual public square, (ie.. online).. It’s “go along to get along” baby. Thus, if you dare to buck the trend, you are damned to hell and canceled for not paying your ideological penance to the virtue-signaling woke mob.
This article previously published at Wrong Speak Publishing. Reprinted here with permission.
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Ukraine’s problems were caused by the left’s so-called policies and corruption, namely Joe Biden. Obama had his hand in the corruption also, and as evidence for that, his open mic comment about being able to do more after his re-election, in 2012.
Turns out that the left made their own opportunity to make demons and “try” to destroy said demons, in the Ukraine war, and they could succeed, which will turn out to be a disaster in our country, because an old feeble Depends depending president will be able to restore his image(they think) and it will lead to diminishing the “Red Wave”.
The left is all about lies, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Virtual signalling has been one of their favorite tools, and that just makes no sense, but it does appear to work to enough useful idiots.
Hopefully, enough see through this stuff, nowadays. Especially now that the left has started using more dark and historically evil versions of their symbology, like the one displayed in Philadelphia, last week. They are showing signs from the 1930s, in Germany.
I don’t believe that any of us want Vladimir Putin and
the Soviet UnionRussia to win its war of conquest against Ukraine, but I, for one, am not willing to do what would need to be done to prevent it. Russia has now shit down the Nordstrom 2 natural gas pipeline to Europe, and that means that a whole lot of Europeans are going to get very, very chilly in a few more months. More, waging a proxy war with Russia, which has a strategic nuclear arsenal and a leader who has already shown a willingness to shell nuclear power plants, brings the world closer to a possible nuclear war. I may not want Kyiv to fall to the Russians, but I am not willing to see New York City incinerated to prevent it.Not all nuclear weapons are city-busters; both the Russians and we have ‘tactical’ and even ‘battlefield’ nuclear weapons, weapons of relatively low-yield designed to take out small but nevertheless difficult targets. If we continue to supply Ukraine with weapons which can strike military targets near but still inside the Russian border, it is not difficult to imagine the Russians using one of those tactical nukes to take out such a weapons emplacement, and if that happens, if the nuclear threshold is crossed, how can we ever be certain that it won’t be crossed again, perhaps in ever more devastating actions?
I generally like your writing but I stopped reading at this line. You had your reasons for writing that passage but… sorry… I don’t get it.