Virtue Signalling Becomes "bad" When It Becomes Weaponised Or Used In Place Of Actual Activism. There's

Virtue signalling becomes "bad" when it becomes weaponised or used in place of actual activism. There's absolutely nothing wrong with signalling your stances, virtues and morals to other people or expressing support for something or someone.

Unfortunately, a lot of people use virtue signalling as a means of pressure, targeting, and other unpleasant behaviors.

For example; "if you don't use this Facebook profile frame you're clearly a horrible person who doesn't give a fuck about veterans and can't be bothered to do one tiny thing to show support!"

Or; "if you're too lazy to tell everyone all the time that you're not a pedophile I'm going to automatically assume you're a pedophile."

When people use virtue signalling to harass others, apply pressure to them to conform to expectations or to be awarded basic decency is when virtue signalling becomes something that is harmful rather than something that is beneficial.

Virtue signalling in terms of things like profile frames and window stickers is a fun, sweet way of showing support and raising awareness, but it isn't a moral obligation nor is it paramount activism. Especially when it becomes a consistent expectation that you absolutely must participate in every single public signalling trend or be condemned.

Am I the only person who doesn’t think ‘virtue signaling’ is inherently bad/useless? That post talking about FB frames is so bizarre to me because to me that’s like. Walking past a business with a rainbow flag flying. That was genuinely incredibly important to me as a terrified closeted teen! And someone having a Facebook frame for the same reasons is like - hey that’s one person who doesn’t want me to change or die! I don’t think that’s ’doing nothing’.

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@through-thick-and-quinn

That's so many words for; "I didn't read a fucking thing this person said and aren't capable of media literacy and critical thinking!"

I love that no matter what social website you go on (except Facebook fuck you) has a Haiku bot. Its just universal. Your website is not worthy of its internet presence until you have one.

https://www.tumblr.com/myfandomrealitea/753178319105687552/pick-your-autistic-hollywood-stereotype-explosive?source=share

I am all of these depending on the day

I am the autistic person where the cast breaks out in a sweat and stammers that everyone has their quirks and the character is open to interpretation whenever its brought up.

Gun to their heads their last words would be;

"I'd never tell anyone who sees themselves in my character that they're wrong...."

Or. Y'know. You can just let people rest without also turning their need for emotional and mental respite into a massive guilt trip about activism. Again.

Its a nice sentiment, it really is, but that isn't actually rest. Reducing people's privilege and right to rest and enjoyment back down to activism and the horrors of the world literally just voids the entire purpose and nature of rest and enjoyment.

I can assure you that when I'm in those political spaces I'm already thinking about people's rights and the things I have that others do not. I do not need you dangling my respite over my head like an unreachable carrot just to make me keep running on the wheel.

I am actually begging some people to just let some spaces exist untouched by real-world issues and horrors.

Like I've lost count of the amount of times peaceful game or fandom servers have been ruined by people stampeding in with political rants, bitching about world issues, demanding internal activism, demanding vent channels so they can whine about their shitty parents, ect.

Like. Respectfully. Not every single space has to be inclusive of and welcoming of outside topics. The real world sucks. We don't needed to be reminded of that absolutely everywhere.

“ao3 was our site” the site of scamming people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars to host child porn on a broken shit site? yeah what an epic hill to die and kill for