Democrats Want Amen AND Awoman!

[CJD]

(01-05-2021, 01:55 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I wish I could agree with you that virtue signaling is only annoying.  But seeing how it is encouraging and condoning lawlessness, excoriating the nation as irredeemably racist/evil and promoting violence against their political opponents then I'd have to say that it's far more than that.

EDIT:  I will add that they are not alone in condoning violence, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be called out for it as well.

I have not read through the thread you made that was disparaging the statistic that 93% of the BLM protests were peaceful (and among the 7% that were not it is indeterminate how many were made violent by the police violating the protesters' rights rather than the protesters looting/rioting etc to begin with), but suffice it to say we disagree on both the volume of lawlessness that has occurred under the banner of America's left and their protesting AND the extent to which supporting those protests is tantamount to condoning said lawlessness. Condoning rioting/looting is not the same as saying "Rioting is wrong, but we must address the root of this unrest [police violence], rather than sweeping everything under the rug."

Martin Luther King Jr was quoted saying essentially the same thing back in the civil rights movement era.

Quote:Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way.

But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

But you're a generally well informed person, so I know you know about that quote already.

Beyond all that, I still think we're disagreeing on what "virtue signaling" is. It is a connotative difference only at this point but I don't think supporting the protests is virtue signaling. 

When I think virtue signaling, I think of meaningless bullshit like wearing kente cloths and kneeling, or saying "awoman" or any other meaningless gesture that has no power or intention behind it other than "I'm one of you guys." Especially coming from corporatists that don't really have the people's best interests at heart (this is 99% of politicians, not just Democrats or Republicans). I don't think supporting protests that are aiming to result in meaningful and lasting change/improvement to the way we police this country is without power or intention, so I don't classify those as virtue signaling.

From a denotative stance, basically every word out of anyone's mouth is virtue signaling (i.e. it is virtue signaling to reveal your virtues, like I am to you right now and how you did to me in the above post), so I would disregard that literal definition of the term in this context.