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Thursday 26 August 2021

Virtue-signalling: a rant.

 You know that thing where some poor fool accidentally uses an unfortunate word on Twitter and a whole mob descends upon him, (or her, or whomever) to tear him (or her, or whomever) apart for being racist, sexist, transphobic, or otherwise revealing of some inner evil?

Yes, that is very often called virtue-signalling.

But consider: if virtue comes down to honesty and kindness (not that I'm saying that it's always easy to manage both at once) then I'm afraid that whatever the mob is signalling, it certainly isn't virtue.

Word To Consider Today: virtue. In the circumstances I find it particularly hilarious that this word comes from the Latin word vir, meaning man. The Latin word virtūs means manliness or courage.

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