TOXIC VIRTUE

Virtue Signalling (Courtesy of the Urban Dictionary)

"To take a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a good cause but actually to show off how much more moral you are than everybody else.

Fred: I see George has changed his profile picture to show his support for refugees.

Karen: Has he donated money or time? Is he giving English lessons? Is he making a room available?

Fred: No, no, he's just virtue signaling."

We often read about the ‘liberal bias” of traditional media. It's been a major theme of Republican politics since at least Richard Nixon's "Final Press Conference in 1962. 

In a world where cable news ratings are usually dominated by FOX News, and AM radio is owned by Rush Limbaugh and his countless imitators, it’s difficult to argue conservative points of view are being silenced if they have ever been.  One of the primary reasons cited why ratings are higher than the "Mainstream Media", is the public's impatience with the center-left sanctimony they are bombarded with daily. 

Democratic Party figures often deliver their message in a manner that pisses people off. A similarly sanctimonious approach seems to affect the major content providers based in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles. Perhaps that is why the Clintonesque term "Basket of Deplorables" was so damaging to its author in 2016. 

I have been the most rational person in a room full of hostile local 'NIMBYs', and have experienced a similar brand of overwhelming arrogance amongst people most loudly claiming to be "progressive" in my local Democratic Party. A case in point is the odd dynamic I have experienced interacting with some of our local "fauxgressives".  

Even before my wife ran for local office in defiance of a certain local surfer/politician and her attendant personality cult, I was put off by the spiritual price that alignment with those elements required. Even more offensive is hearing how progressive these false prophets are from both conservatives and their own false testimony. 

As an example, Can you believe somebody had the nerve, to burn Mr. Rogers?

One question comes up each day on social media: What is the difference between a 'Democrat' and a 'Progressive'? This insidious question is being asked because the term "progressive" has been sapped of its vigor and meaning. We should never confuse what the 'Corporate Democrats' are selling as anything but the same tired narrative the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party has produced for nearly thirty years.

Those commonly known as 'New Democrats' or 'Third Way Democrats' are often misidentified as 'centrists'. Though these Democrats will seemingly espouse socially liberal views, they support crony capitalism. They also manage to balance budgets better than many Republicans. While their fiscal views are moderate as compared to the right wing, they are far from centrist or liberal. 

On foreign policy, they are interventionist, like most Republicans were Pre-Trump. It is no wonder that liberal and progressive Democrats and independents often refer to the Corporate Democrat as Republican-lite. I prefer the term prostitutes. 

One thing I've observed traveling around the country is that the people who believe the media is biased tend to live in dynamics where they're immersed in their own culture. Much of the time when people perceive the media is spreading 'biased messages,' what they're actually referring to is the media taking a position that acknowledges other cultural dynamics than their own.

Most big cities and universities do tend to "lean left." It's not because they're all crazy liberals. Many are not. When we live around diverse groups of people, we are forced to learn how to live peacefully together. Conservatives will say they already do, but from what I've seen, they're usually referring to people who look different but believe the same things. That's the power of assimilation. 

Pre Trump Conservatism used to be the voice of sanity that kept America in line. Liberals pushed the boundaries, and conservatives kept the worst ideas in check. Conservatives usually were the ones saying "stick to your principles, above all else." They advocated good sense, fairness, responsibility. and most of all they stood for protecting the country. 

One reason why the deaths of George H. W. Bush and John McCain bothered many Democratic-leaning 'baby boomers" more than they expected was the sense that we are witnessing the final passage of our parents' generation from the scene. And it seems as if the values they left behind are rapidly being forgotten. 

To those looking in from the outside, the Republican Party has seemed to have abandoned their values in order to satisfy Trump's base, which often seems to be the rich, the fundamentalist religious, or the racist. Here are some examples of the rhetoric feeding this perception: 

• "Nobody deserves a handout. But if you're affluent and avoid taxes then you're just 'outsmarting the system.'" (If taxes are really theft, then why are we having to pay them?
  
• "We have the right to defend ourselves from governmental tyranny, even with violence if that is what it takes."
  
• "If it's the police assaulting black people, the cops probably are justified" (Last time I checked black people are still Americans )"
  
• "In America, everyone has a right to live and let live - unless it's not how fundamentalist Christians think we should live. Then we need Congress to make laws to enforce morality, upheld by our own set of 'judicial activists.
  
• "We must preserve the right to religious expression, even in public spaces and at public events - unless it's Muslims or atheists. That is what separation of church and state is for".
  
• "We MUST support the troops - just not with money enough to keep their families off of food stamps, much less decent health care." (There's always money for war but not enough for the soldiers?)
  
• "If you commit a petty theft we need to be tough on crime - but if you steal millions, it's just a white-collar crime - who was hurt?"
  "Individual rights should always take precedence - unless you're a woman, then the federal government should be able to dictate what happens inside your body.  

What we do not see anymore are enough conservatives standing by their values when it's hard on them. If we are to believe there is always going to be an objective right and wrong in this world, why should it take near political suicide to point out when things are going wrong? 

But the same thing can be said about Democrats.  One of the myths we have seen exposed in recent weeks is the concept that NIMBY-ism is a progressive pro-earth impulse. In too many cases it's interesting to watch those promulgating the fiction grapple with racial issues.

In my neck of the woods, it was an alleged Democratic "progressive" who opposed peaceful protests, lied about the organizers to boot, while enjoying the acclaim of a privileged hyper affluent army of trolls.  

Why is that? One reason is noted earlier, that it is true residents of traditionally "blue states". feel that living in density in a more diverse environment equates to being "woke" on matters of racial justice". But as we have seen of late, there is a gulf between "Fauxgressive" lip service to LGBTQ rights and Women's Rights and support of justice for people of color or compassion for the dispossessed.

 

I loved this quote from the "Gothamist" from their column "Ask a New Yorker". It's a piece entitled "Are all NIMBY's Racist Assholes? It seems to apply iin Carlsbad, California...

"It's my experience that any letter that contains the phrase 'I'm not a racist" is usually sent by someone who is actually kind of racist. I'm not saying you are a virulent racist, in the way a KKK member is racist—I'm just saying that your distress is based primarily on the fear of black teenagers walking through your white neighborhood, as opposed to a justified concern based on actual crimes being committed by these kids." 

No kidding.  

It is no secret that the social media dialogue in many communities has been hijacked by a dedicated few with political or personal agendas. To those who are living in Carlsbad and its environs, it has taken a sinister turn, as the examples appended above indicate. It is easy to see the blatant signs of malignant narcissism such as the smear campaigns, character assassination, and incessant lies we see each day on Nextdoor and on Facebook, usually in the service of Carlsbad's resident demagogues. 

But in the process, we lost sight of the more subtle nuanced and stealth ways these narcissists maneuver. Desperate to align with kind people of character, many fell for a false narrative of "kind, necessary, and true" public unctuousness. Little did we suspect that behind the aura of conspicuous ‘goodness’ and moral superiority, we would collide with covert narcissists and ambient abusers.

Like magnets, many have gravitated towards those who strategically behaved altruistically and morally so as to gain the upper hand. Only to learn later that those exceptionally magnanimous people, so highly adept at virtue signaling and grandstanding, were more toxic to the community than the nuclear waste at the reactor up the highway.  

MANY BLESSINGS- NOEL