Is virtue signaling an actual thing that people are capable of doing

The term is polluted because the right wing often criticize the left for being sanctimonious hypocrites.

Also the thing where the right pretty much consistently embraces criticism of traits that they themselves embody more hardcore than literally anyone on earth (e.g. the people who cry about having to drape a piece of cloth across their faces calling other people 'snowflakes').

Sure

yeah, in the context it came up last night it was just the typical "i'm neutral man and the rest of you don't have any actual beliefs," while you are posturing as neutral man on a message board, which is itself signaling something, though not a virtue that's for sure

"It’s still an annoying sign"

Agreed, and I think that's why there's an impulse to paint the homeowner as a hypocrite.

Putting all those statements into the frame of "In this house we believe..." is the self-congratulatory kicker. It's not all about your household, sugar. The commercialization of the sign as a mass-produced commodity means that the framing phrase comes with your purchase and that bit of self-congratulation becomes inseparable from the rest of the statements.

https://✧✧✧.bt✧✧✧.com/10222/10222388/products/0x2✧✧✧@1625904682c27d90c✧✧✧.j✧✧

Oops, that didn't work. Let's try again.

https://i.etsystatic.com/23968014/r/il/968273/3189342342/il_1588xN.3189342342_b716.jpg

I have a giant blow up photo pasted on cardboard of my cat staring wide eyed in the window of my condo. Those are the values in my home.

ok is a pride flag virtue signaling?

ofc not. pride is one of the seven deadly sins.

is it on a house or like the pride festival sponsored by lockheed martin

xxpost Yeah, I think we're kinda getting in the weeds here and conflating what we find personally distasteful with disingenuousness.

it’s called bragging?

these signs are like "live, laugh, love" signs in the home. live, laugh, liberal

I voted!

it definitely depends on the context. I've watched my neighborhood go from nice but affordable to totally unattainable. There's been virtually no new construction anywhere nearby during that time. The people with these signs in their yards here are not riding their bikes to the co-op, no one is riding bikes anywhere. They are all just a bunch of rich assholes regardless of their politics.

The pride flag expresses solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. It is the noble banner of an ongoing civil rights struggle.

The “in this household” sign expresses sneering contempt for hypothetical conservatives who might read the sign but probably won’t because these signs only appear in deep blue suburbs.

Thinking of those signs springing up around the time of the 2017 Muslim Ban, it at least signals to neighbors that they aren't on the side of Trump. In the same way that American flags in fall 2020 felt like a substitute for Trump signs in the fancy neighborhoods I walked through during the lockdown.

trump signs signal contempt for people with the "in our household signs," which signal contempt for people with trump signs. it's just a loop of performative politics--or of people mistaking their political positions with their personalities.

i don't think these signs effectively signaled solitary with people at-risk of trump's policies if only because they fueled more trump signs and trump flags.

the trump flags are the ones i hate the most. why does he have his own flag?

Pride flags def used to bother me a lot, in certain contexts. I'd see a pride flag in some instances as a reminder that I should expect to be persecuted, that I needed a special invitation in order to feel welcome, and that the bearer was congratulating themself for extending to me that special invitation. I think I feel differently about it now, that seems like an ignorant way to have thought about it.

no that makes sense and is a good point

The "In This House" sign is from Madison, WI, which is indeed deep blue but is not a suburb

https://mashable.com/article/in-this-house-we-believe-black-lives-matter-kindness-is-everything-sign

everything between the hudson and mississippi is an outer suburb of new york to me.

what did i just signal with that quip?

why does he have his own flag?

it's a merchandising opportunity

xxpost new borad descript

I guess the gen x-er in me just finds any sort of "message" or political sign/flag around one's home to be like soooo lame man.

I don't want to be misconstrued as caping for these signs that are ugly as fuck and stupid, but one of the most reliable tropes about ilx is watching people make absolutely asinine assumptions about people's interior lives and thoughts based on a sample size of a grand total of one outdoor yard sign.

It's the equivalent of the dipshits that hear you reference one band, one time and spend the entire rest of their social interactions with you assuming you are said band's global #1 fan. Jesus, grant people a little more depth of thought for once in your lives.

Ugh. I already regret venting my frustration here, but that simple minded shit drives me nuts.

Notice that it's always negative assumptions that are made. I do it too (tho I'd like to think I scold myself upon reflection), it's like it's hardwired into the human mind.

this is a clearer example of the kind of thing i think some people were trying to get at (?)

This fucking country, man pic.twitter.com/e6KWztfVYU

— Michael Oswell (@_MichaelOswell_) August 30, 2021

stating the far too obvious the sign/flag thing absolutely depends on who is displaying it in what context

Agreed. For example, out on the road today I saw a BLM sticker on a Cadillac.

hippie-signalling? performative grooviness? is this anything

i can see you
your virtue signaling in the sun

I can tell you
My virtue will still be strong
After the affordable housing is gone

One time I saw an obviously wealthy boomer couple driving a black BMW SUV and the license plate said ZNFNDL

tipple signalling

IMDRNK would be a funny vanity plate

ILXOR

automatic police stop because they're drunk on their own posts

Facebook is basically like 3,000 of these lawn signs per day, on a variety of topics

my ban is up and while I have started posting here and there again, I barely read it at all. it's bliss.

^virtue-signaling

I don't even own a virtue

Suddenly flashing back to the early-2010s talking point that Occupy Wall Street was just guys acting like activists to “pick up chicks,” which seems like the start of some of this.

Do people think no one got laid at '60s rallies

I think I had a breakthrough today, when I observed that the term "virtue signaling" would never ever in a million years be applied to people who post on the internet about taking down elite pedophile cabals