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11/21/19: CHEAP TALK – STUCK IN A WORLD OF VIRTUE SIGNALING

Clyde Lewis | November 21, 2019

CHEAP TALK

STUCK IN A WORLD OF VIRTUE SIGNALING

MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY CLYDE LEWIS

Back on November 7th, we produced a show about a document that was produced by a group calling themselves the “Alliance of World Scientists.” We found out that group was from Oregon State University and that the so-called document that was produced appears to be a fraud that has been created by a group of virtue signaling activists that solicited 11,000 signatures from random people instead of 11,000 scientists.

Headlines everywhere announced that 11,000 scientists had declared that we’re facing a “climate emergency.” And it seemed to have the desired effect, attracting extensive press coverage. After reading further into the so-called declaration and reading practically all of the signatories it was understood that many of the so-called scientists were far from scientists.

Apparently many of them are simply Malthusians and in some cases just random individuals that were asked to sign a petition – it was even found that Mickey Mouse was one of the scientists that signed the petition and Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts was also a signatory.

The “study’s” list of signers included an “animal behavior” teacher in Valencia, a “scientist emeritus” in Canada, a “researcher” in the Czech Republic, a “professor” from Argentina, a “student” from a neotropical biodiversity institute, an obstetrician from Brussels, a Spaniard who’s into “biologo,” a Turkish mathematician and a Finnish engineer.

You can throw a dart at the list and you will find a teacher of foreign language, a copy editor enrollment coach, the ever vague research project manager for the University of California, and even a zookeeper.

None of these are scientists.

In fact, the Oxford Epidemic the group that published the Bio-Science report is now claiming that the entire document was an op-ed viewpoint document provided by the “Alliance of World Scientists.”

While I actually could not believe the verbiage that suggested that we find ways to curb population growth – the paper was obviously another attempt at virtue signaling by activists that are willing to tell outright lies to make a point.

Scientific “consensus” is a popular buzzword commonly used by climate fanatics to “prove” that man-made climate change is a real thing. This has led to many of the so-called believers of the climate emergency to get on their soapboxes and demand that people start living the way they dictate.

If you follow their nonsense you are a righteous justice warrior – if you question the credibility you are evil and a denier of science.

This is called for a lack of a better explanation, “virtue signaling.”

Virtue signaling, in short, is the use of sweeping, lofty language to signal how virtuous you are while circumventing substantive action. Basically, you demean systems and general practices on the macro level while still subscribing to them on a micro-level.

A few days ago, I talked about the frame war and the idea of Tu Quoque which is the appeal to hypocrisy in the political arena with regard to the impeachment hearings.

While “virtue signaling” sounds like hypocrisy in the frame war it actually is more insidious.

How is it virtue signaling different than being a hypocrite?

Well, a hypocrite says to not do an action but then does it anyway. A hypocrite at least is diverting you away from something they are masking as being bad, and then choosing to do it against their own words.

A virtue signaler, however, tries to shame you out of something while passively maintaining the very system they are shaming.

The biggest group of virtue signalers is Antifa. Antifa is short for antifascists and they are praised by the left as warriors in the fight against the so-called tyranny that we are allegedly experiencing.

There have also been politicians from a distance believe that this group is protecting us, yet their way of protecting people is to assault those who express themselves as being conservative. They explain that they want to eliminate Nazis for the greater good and yet Nazis had the same attitude when it came to sifting of the +human material or those that did not think like they did.

The idea here that in order to eliminate the fascism that they declare to be fascism—they use the same system of might makes right that was utilized by the likes of Stalin, Mau Tse Tung, and even Hitler.

They have the support of sideline hypocritical politicians that do not necessarily support the violent behaviors but use and exploit them to their advantage.

But their posturing and activities are dangerous and myopic.

A virtue signaler is typically unaware of their nature because it is masked in benevolence without a change in action, hidden behind supremacy of thought without sacrifice, and guised in progressiveness while staying static.

Nothing changes for a virtue signaler besides their status updates and hashtags.

A story that was first reported in the Bay area last spring pitted a virtue signaler against a 74-year-old man wearing a MAGA hat.

The incident took place in a Palo Alto Starbucks – the man, only known as Victor F., was in the Starbucks when a woman was triggered by that hat and began calling him a racist and a Nazi.

The woman, Rebecca Parker Mankey, then began taking photos and posting about it on her Facebook page, saying she was going to shame him, get him fired, kicked out of clubs and march up and down his street.

Victor wears a yarmulke underneath his MAGA hat. He is Jewish and so to him, being called a Nazi is hurtful.

But no matter the woman was relentless and was hoping that she would get support from others in her tirade.

No one cared – only her boss. The woman was fired because her company said that they support diversity and her actions did not reflect the company’s values.

Virtue signalers love to use cheap talk in order to make their points and we should expose cheap talk in order to curtail it.

What is cheap talk with regards to virtue signaling?

They are signals that are cheap, quick and easy to fake, and that aren’t accurate cues of underlying traits or values. When partisans on social media talk about political virtue signaling by the other side, they’re usually referring to this sort of cheap talk. Virtue signaling as cheap talk includes bumper stickers, yard signs, social media posts, and dating app profiles. The main pressure that keeps cheap talk honest is social: the costs of stigma and ostracism by people who don’t agree with your signal. Wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat doesn’t cost much money, but yet it can cost you a friendship or maybe an invite to the Thanksgiving gathering –and for what reason “virtue signaling” of course.

Another example of virtue signaling is the so-called Climate Strike that was led by activist and major virtue signaler Greta Thunberg.

In the matter of a few months, Greta Thunberg went from a lone girl protesting in front of the Swedish parliament to an international phenomenon. Although mass media is making it seem as if this meteoric rise to prominence happened organically, this is simply not true.

Behind Greta is a major machine, one that is controlled by major international actors and backed by major funds. This PR machine has allowed Greta to make the covers of magazines, become the subject of thousands of news articles while being photographed with world leaders.

Then she gives a speech at the U.N. scolding everyone that has been responsible for her rise to fame saying that they are not doing enough. All the while virtue signaling sheep applauded while the young girl cried out “How dare you?”

Although many are ready to deny this fact with great vigor (because it goes against their agenda), Greta is merely a pawn. She is controlled by powerful people and big money to promote a specific agenda. The agenda is not merely about climate change – it is about climate change through a very specific angle.

Her role was perfectly defined by Greta herself during a speech at the (very elite) World Economic Forum:

“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope. But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.”—Greta Thunberg

Panic and fear: Two words that lead to hasty and irrational responses based on negative emotions. And this fear and panic are being thoroughly ingrained into the youth, creating a generation that is convinced that the world is burning.

All of this sparked walkouts at schools. Teachers encouraging their students to get involved but of course while many teachers are raising “virtue signalers” in the classroom – many of them do not know what their support of drastic cutbacks for Climate Change entails.

Ask a young “virtue signaler” how he or she feels about having to walk or ride a bike across town to school. Ask them how they will feel when their clothes that are mostly made of plastics will have to be destroyed for less practical styles.

Not only that but why don’t we talk about how they will have to alter their diets to avoid eating meat ask them about how they feel about not wearing leather shoes? The alternative would be plastic – plastic is made with oil – oil and plastic use has to be curbed.

How will that go over with the young virtue signalers?

George Orwell once made the statement: “Circus dogs jump and do somersaults when the trainer cracks his whip. But the really well-trained dog is the one that jumps and does somersaults when there is no whip.”

There are mountains of shifting dynamics that are happening right now in the world.

Clearly, there are manipulators that continually try to cover up and obfuscate their machinations. The more we are aware of them the more we should feel obligated to expose them.

Reality doesn’t bend to good intentions. If we fail to consider the secondary and unseen effects of even our well-meaning actions, our grand plans can make things much worse.

When we embrace the meatless burger as a victory over factory farming, we don’t consider how much-added land must be cleared to raise soybeans.

We enthuse about “zero-emission” electric cars but fail to see the coal-burning power plant at the other end of our electricity grid. We agree to eschew plastic straws without calculating whether “strawless” lids actually use more plastic.

We should celebrate young peoples’ desire to do good and to change the world. We should also be aware of the disastrous impacts of “just doing something” when no one can foresee how the doing or our own undoing, may unfold.

But again to a Virtue Signaler, it is all about online activism and hashtags and lip service from people who use the very system they allegedly claim to abhor to get ahead.

Some the worst Virtue Signalers come out of the Hollywood establishment – I know there is this label that is given called limousine liberals but they certainly use the very things they say they hate as a vehicle to spread their ignorance and hate.

The recent reboot of Charlie’s Angels bombed at the box office.

The writer and director of the film Elizabeth Banks was asked if she feels that “woke films” are a bad idea at the box office she replied:

“Look, people have to buy tickets to this movie, too. This movie has to make money. If this movie doesn’t make money it reinforces a stereotype in Hollywood that men don’t go see women do action movies.”

Or maybe they don’t buy tickets to movies that are actually vehicles for virtue signaling of feminism at the expense of males.

Lest we forget that the first Charlie’s Angels foray on film with Drew Barrymore was a surprise hit in 2000 making more than $264 million worldwide.

Not to mention the recent successes like Wonder Woman $821 million and the response to Captain Marvel $1.128 billion.

The truth here is that when films become vehicles for virtue signaling people feel they are being talked down to.

For example, some have claimed that the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi made all of the male characters look incompetent and all of the female characters stronger and more dominant.

Many Star Wars fans hated that film – the critics loved it.

The same thing happened with the all-female Ghostbusters. The movie was funny up until the point you understand that it is a huge “virtue signal” for powerful women. The secretary they had was cast as being stupid and incompetent.

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, selling free-range eggs at a farmer’s market or a $90 million movie, your customer doesn’t like being treated with condescension. Worse, they don’t like being treated with derision.

You can’t build your story based on your political propaganda, in this case, feminism, and expect people to respond to it. And the reason is that it simply isn’t true at the symbolic level. And people don’t watch movies at the conscious level. It’s all subconscious.

There was a string of these films that were put on the schedule in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in 2017. And they are a clear example of Hollywood trying to regain some trust with its audience, saying, “See! We don’t all treat women like crap! Believe us!”

The trouble is with virtue signaling is that it is not sincere – it is cheap talk; plain and simple.

Kanye West has put out a new album called Jesus is King.

Kanye has allegedly dropped his god complex and is now promoting the gospel.

Over the decades of Kanye West’s career, he has been many things. It was perhaps inevitable that this would create some contradictions. Recently, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, West lectured a Gucci-wearing black lottery winner about the importance of eschewing luxury consumer goods, even though West purchased his eldest daughter a $62,000 tiara when she was barely a year old.

Now he preaches the prosperity gospel.

He appeared at the megachurch of the prosperity pastor Joel Osteen, who was caught in controversy for reportedly waiting days to open his church doors to Hurricane Harvey victims.

Over the weekend, he appeared at the Astroworld festival with Travis Scott and Marylin Manson. While Manson is an avowed Satanist, there have been many questions about Scott and some of the things he does that seems to be under the spell of the devil.

So is Kanye’s new salvation push nothing more than bootstrap virtue signaling?

Again, it is easy and cheap to feign your virtue.

Virtue signaling drives most of partisan politics, especially on social media. It drives the demands to censor, fire, cancel and ostracize people who express the wrong opinions. It drives moral panic about satanic ritual abuse, “rape culture” and “porn addiction.”

It drives white nationalists to run over protesters. It drives Antifa to beat up journalists. It drives social-justice warriors to take over media, academia and corporate life, and to impose their ideology of “diversity, equity and inclusion” on everyone through enforced conformity of thought.

Virtue signaling is a display of value-following in order to gain social status and resources, however, it is difficult to identify what is genuine and what isn’t.

Many use it as a form of resistance, or rebellion telling people what they are against hoping that you will join their victim club.

It is kind of like that old movie from 1953 called, the Wild One. It was like the film Rebel Without a Cause but with Marlon Brando. Someone asks Brando in the film “What are you rebelling against? He replies, “What have you got?”

It looks like we have a rebel without a clue.

Written by Clyde Lewis




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