Virtue Signaling: Liberal Sanctimony ‘Conservatives’ Have Embraced

Ethics, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Political Correctness, Psychology & Pop-Psychology

Chilton Williamson Jr, editor at Chronicles Magazine, provides a definition of what the British call “virtue signaling,” in the November 3 issue of the magazine. The article is “The Easiness of Being Liberal”:

Virtue signaling is an act of affirmation of some liberal value or shibboleth, intended to establish or reaffirm the sender’s reputation as a socialized, politically correct, and tolerant person. Even the strongest political conservatives—people who believe in the free market and resist statism, support a strong military defense, and go to church every Sunday—participate in virtue signaling to display their generous intentions, maintain social harmony, and compensate for their illiberal opinions regarding fundamental political, economic, and social issues. In this way they unconsciously grow acclimated to liberal society until they are no more aware of it than of the natural atmosphere they breathe—even if the reality of liberal social dominance breaks in upon them occasionally, like a bad-tasting, bad-smelling, choking smog.
Virtue signaling is one aspect of the urgent exhortative tone characteristic of modern liberal society—the “OK, guys—let’s all go out today and do our ethical thing!” society.

A Christmas Snuff Story

Christianity, Family, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Religion

“A Christmas Snuff Story” is the current column, now on The Daily Caller. An excerpt:

“We’re going to be saying Merry Christmas a lot more. And we’re going to have fewer criminal aliens to contend with,” promised President-elect Donald Trump on separate occasions.

Alas, Christmas and a criminal alien coalesced tragically, when Bob Clark, director of “A Christmas Story,” was killed by a drunk illegal alien in 2007. Clark’s son, age 22, also died on that day in April.

Like the director of that enchanting film, the family depicted in “A Christmas Story” is all but dead and buried, too—killed by Uncle Sam, the patron saint of social disorder.

Described by a critic as “one of those rare movies you can say is perfect in every way,” “A Christmas Story” debuted in 1983. Set in the 1940s, the film depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun.

This was boyhood before “bang-bang you’re dead” was banned; family life prior to “One Dad Two Dads Brown Dad Blue Dads,” and Christmas before Saint Nicholas was denounced for his whiteness and “Merry Christmas” condemned for its exclusivity.

If children could choose the family into which they were born, most would opt for the kind depicted in “A Christmas Story,” where mom is a happy homemaker, dad a devoted working stiff, and between them, they have no repertoire of psychobabble to rub together.

Although clearly adored, Ralphie is not encouraged to share his feelings at every turn. Nor is he, in the spirit of gender-neutral parenting, circa 2016, urged to act out like a girl if he’s feeling … girlie. Instead, Ralphie is taught restraint and self-control. And horrors: The little boy even has his mouth washed out with soap and water for uttering the “F” expletive. “My personal preference was for Lux,” reveals Ralphie, “but I found Palmolive had a nice piquant after-dinner flavor—heady but with just a touch of mellow smoothness.” Ralphie is, of course, guilt-tripped with stories about starving Biafrans when he refuses to finish his food.

The parenting practiced so successfully by Mr. and Mrs. Parker fails every progressive commandment. By today’s standards, the delightful, un-precocious protagonist of “A Christmas Story” would be doomed to a lifetime on the therapist’s chaise lounge—and certainly to daily doses of Ritalin, as punishment for unbridled boyishness and daydreaming in class …

… Read the rest and share. “A Christmas Snuff Story” is now on The Daily Caller.

Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to all.

ilana

UPDATED (1/9): The Unbearable Banality Of Fox News (Tucker Carlson Excepted)

America, Conservatism, Intelligence, Media, Politics, Pop-Culture, Republicans

“Tocqueville in the 19th century, and Solzhenitsyn in the 20th, noted that conformity of thought is powerfully prevalent among Americans.” Thus, the possibility that a lonely voice telling an unwanted, original truth might be heard on Fox News is small.

With this in mind, I couldn’t resist bringing you the “mind-blowing” Fox headlines for December 22, 2016, the kind of insights that are off-the-charts brilliant (cynicism alert):

“Germany’s Refugee Policy Has Been a ‘Complete Disaster.'” [You don’t say!]

“Gutfeld Slams ‘Divisive, Alienating’ YouTuber Who Claimed Racism on Plane.” [Yawn.]

Meghan McCain, one of the dumbest women on TV: “‘I’m So Blown Away’ That Some Dems Want a 3rd Hillary Run.”

“‘Russia Didn’t Elect Trump, America Did'” [OMG!]

Prepare for the clincher: “‘Tolerance Is One-Sided’ on the Left.” [The truly brilliant Christopher Hitchens must be tossing in his grave. His brilliance has finally been bested.]

Mediocrity.

UPDATE (1/9):

What About Donald Trump’s Security Detail? Has IT Been Infiltrated?

Affirmative Action, Donald Trump, Homeland Security, Islam, Middle East, Terrorism

The shooter who assassinated the Russian envoy to Turkey, Andrey G. Karlov, is “described by Turkish officials as a 22-year-old off-duty police officer.”

Off duty or on duty, does the security detail of President-elect Donald Trump include Muslims who may be similarly “awakened”? These budding Jihadis are being flooded with images of Syrians dying in a civil war between the American-backed ISIS rebels, as against Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin. Eric Margolis:

[T]he US has long aided ISIS and still sees it as a potent weapon against the Assad government. Why else would it take the US and its Arab and Kurdish foot soldiers so long to move against ISIS strongholds at Raqqa and Mosul– which are, as this writer knows, only a taxi-ride away? ISIS is a rag-tag bunch of 20-something amateur Rambos, not the Wehrmacht.
One likely answer is that imperial Washington is totally confused over whom to support and how to do it. The bewildering fracas between Sunnis, Shia, Kurds, Arabs, Yazidis, assorted Christians, ISIS wildmen, egged on the US, Israel, Turkey, Russia, France, Britain, Lebanon, Jordan, the oil Arabs is just too much for Washington’s ill-educated, or often downright dim policy makers. …

Backing ISIS.


Be careful.


No place for Prince of Peace.


BHO goes a golfing:


Merkel must go.


Be a good dhimmi:


Fake News?


RELATED: Islamic Infiltration: How Deep, How Wide?