From: fedora@fea.st   
      
   On Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:34:03 -0500, Noah Sombrero    
   wrote:   
      
   >   
   >Over the last 10 years, the terms of political debate have changed   
   >completely – and week by week they seem to get worse   
   >   
   >Zoe Williams   
   >Wed 11 Feb 2026 10.57 GMT   
   >   
   >"The notion of virtue-signalling – the act of performing progressive   
   >stances that don’t cost you anything in order to burnish your own   
   >moral credentials – has been around since at least the 00s. In a   
   >political sense, it meant always being the one who reminded others to   
   >say “chairperson” not “chairman”; always manning the barricades for   
   >signs of bigotry, always being on the right demo. If its values were   
   >sound – all we’re talking about, really, is trying to systematise   
   >courtesy to others – it was often easy to lampoon, because it felt   
   >performative and had a hair-trigger.   
   >   
   >But what has risen in its wake – vice-signalling – cannot be seen as   
   >its mirror or answer, any more than dehumanisation could be seen as   
   >the equal and opposite of decency. They’re not in the same rhetorical   
   >category. The term doesn’t bring itself to life; for that you need the   
   >US president. Cast your mind back to 2015; although Donald Trump had   
   >said he might run for election to the highest office in every cycle   
   >this century, his speech in Trump Tower was his first campaign launch,   
   >and it was where he announced that he would build a wall between the   
   >US and Mexico. In seemingly unplanned remarks – the grammar was off,   
   >the structure meandered, the vocabulary was vague and repetitive – he   
   >said “[Mexico] are sending people that have lots of problems, and they   
   >are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs, and   
   >bringing crime, and they’re rapists.”   
   >   
   >   
   >This is classic vice-signalling, breaking taboos in this case both   
   >general (against hate speech) and more specific (against falsely   
   >associating base or criminal traits with a race or ethnic group). He   
   >was signalling that he was prepared to go there – say what the   
   >establishment would not allow, and therefore assert himself as a   
   >politician who is authentic and courageous, who cannot be muzzled. The   
   >video he posted last Thursday of the Obamas depicted as apes, a trope   
   >so racist it was breathtaking, did not come out of nowhere. Trump and   
   >his allies have been signalling the vice of racial hatred for more   
   >than a decade, and each new event punches out the space for the next,   
   >worse signal."   
      
   Unanswered question a while ago, "what is immorality?"  Maybe vice   
   signaling can give us a clue.   
   --   
   Noah Sombrero mustachioed villain   
   Don't get political with me young man   
   or I'll tie you to a railroad track and   
   <<>> to <<>>   
   Who dares to talk to El Sombrero?   
   dares: Ned   
   does not dare: Julian  shrinks in horror and warns others away   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)