"Virtue signalling" is such a GOP made up word

[applegrove]

Last edited Thu Jan 29, 2026, 04:36 PM - Edit history (2)

to have an insult to launch when liberals show their values (which you expect in politics by the way). Total tool to be used by right wingers.

This Scott Bessent is part of the problem.

— Marilyn 🇨🇦 (@mlauriat.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T22:59:51.197Z

[senseandsensibility]

1. Dems really need to start slinging this back in their faces

How about something like this: Hey, at least it's better than ______signalling. Fill in the blank. I'm not big on profanity so maybe idiot, creep, jerk, weirdo, stupidity, etc.

[applegrove]

3. "Nihilist signalling".

[AZJonnie]

2. I'd accept that "virtual signaling" is a thing on the left if they'll accept that "dickhead signaling" is also a thing

And that's what people on the right do

[unblock]

4. They prefer to signal vices

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Dates from 2013

2013
Corporate social responsibility as competitive virtue signalling: ethical implications.
Vancouver Sun 7 January c9/2 (title of presentation)

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/virtue-signalling_n?tab=meaning_and_use#1316247440

Though a RW British writer claims he invented it in 2015:

I invented ‘virtue signalling’. Now it’s taking over the world

James Bartholomew
10 October 2015 9:00 AM

To my astonishment and delight, the phrase ‘virtue signalling’ has become part of the English language. I coined the phrase in an article here in The Spectator (18 April) in which I described the way in which many people say or write things to indicate that they are virtuous.
...
Since April, I have watched with pleasure and then incredulity how the phrase has leapt from appearing in a single article into the everyday language of political discourse. One of the first journalists to pick up on the phrase was Liz Jones in the Mail on Sunday on 3 May. Not long after, Libby Purves used it in the Times (11 May). Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times (20 July) wrote about Labour party leaders for whom ‘Europeanism is just a virtue-signalling gesture like wearing a charity ribbon’. Two days later, Helen Lewis used it in the New Statesman, saying ‘a lot of what happens on Facebook, as with Twitter, is “virtue signalling” — showing off how right on you are’.

https://archive.ph/TckMq

[applegrove]

7. Well the right wing gave it life.

[Solly Mack]

6. and saying things like "family values", the "traditional" family, and "Christian" isn't how they express what they see

as virtues?

Please.

Shut up, Bessent.

[LearnedHand]

8. Oh not at all! It's a very useful term for liberals

For instance, we saw mega virtue signaling from corporations after the January 6 insurrection.