That's stupid take. Virtue signaling does zero good. It gaslights others. I'd rather someone be vulgar and do something good for people.
Plus the typical virtue signaling is for terrible causes.
If the option is between being virtue signalling and being vulgar but good, I would choose the latter all day. But that is not the option I was weighing. I am a realist, so I am looking at the options we have.
The choice we are generally presented with is between virtue signalling and being vulgar and unabashed in one's baseness.
In this specific case we compare sober virtue signalling Conor helping at least a couple of homeless people versus brash, shirt open, drunken, Conor celebrating some debauchery. I prefer the former.
I prefer the bad character (whether a so called libtard, or reborn Conor, or a principled conservative) that still knows what good is enough to signal/fake it over the bad character that does not even recognize the good enough to fake it/ want to fake it. The reason is that the former can more easily be oriented toward the good, even if only for show, whereas the latter first has to be made aware that it's bearings are off before it can even be reoriented.
This is an important topic these days (most days for all of history, but with some urgency in times like this), and so I am happy to engage this in more depth if you remain unconvinced.
The truth of the matter is that we are awash in ignorance and baseness, and most people do not even have the sense to know what they are arguing over or what they are saying.
They (
you in this case) throw around terms like "virtue signalling", or some (others) will say "right wing", or "conservative", or "liberal snow flake", without knowing what they even mean.
Most people cannot describe/define liberalism or conservatism to save their life, to say less of fascism or virtue, which is problematic since that is the language they are using to argue their points.
So yeah, is Conor psychologically manipulating me to question my perception of reality (gaslighting)? I say no. He is trying to convince me he is a good person by signalling the behaviour of a good person. Is he a slightly better person for doing so than if he was not even trying? I say yes. Dance for me baby.