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Mary Catelli's avatar

The irony is that "virtue signaling" is not only not virtue, it's not signaling -- which term means putting something on the line to show you mean something. To take an example from comics, when Power Man tracked down Doctor Doom to Latveria to say, "Where's my money, honey?" it would act as signaling: any other would-be deadbeats would know that if Doom didn't get away with it, they were just wasting their time.

L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

I don't think this is like signally to a potential victim.

This is like signaling to a potential bully. They are "signalling" to each other that they are wearing the gang colors and should not be picked on.

Mary Catelli's avatar

Hmm, yeah, in the broader definition of signaling.

Which makes it vice signaling, actually: cowardice.

Nancy Frye's avatar

My spouse has been calling the Left the "new Puritans" for years. It’s all about browbeating or shunning to get you to agree with their increasingly deranged world view.

L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

He and I are in complete agreement.

Kenneth Hall's avatar

Mencius Moldbug argues in a related vein when he talks about the "clerisy," I think.

INFAMOUS REVIEWER GIO's avatar

LGBTQ is the new government-backed religion

William H Stoddard's avatar

Fischer's book Albion's Seed has the New Englanders as one of the four groups that brought a regional British folk culture to the United States—one a lot of whose elements are still present, even though the ideologies have changed. A predilection for witch hunts seems to be part of theirs, though their "witches" are a different group.

RAD's avatar

To add insult to injury, the sins today aren’t even fun. I can’t imagine anyone actually enjoying the types of vice being pushed now. I remember seeing posts claiming the lack of (heterosexual) sexual depictions in movies and the reduced promiscuity are conservative “victories.” Those aren’t victories. Those aren’t signs of virtue. They’re the signs of a population so damaged, so messed up and lacking in vitality that it can’t even recognize and pursue something good (albeit a good thing in excess or pursued in the wrong way).

L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

That idea is worth an article of its own.

Codex redux's avatar

Agreed. Severian at FQ blog argues the the gorillion pronouns of bespoke sexualities are designed to prevent sex (you do not match my increasingly arcane subtype) while acting / signalling aggressively hyper-sexual.

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Aug 15, 2025
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L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

That is blatant nonsense.

Do not try to excuse Henry. He had no such clever motive.

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Aug 15, 2025
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L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

But that has nothing to do with what Henry was up to. There were plenty of letters and speeches written down.. He was not concerned about some other group assassinating him. He wanted a divorce.

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Aug 15, 2025
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L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

If hr'd been afraid of one group of people he would have joined the Lutherans to have another group of people on his side. He started a church exactly like the one he left except that he could get a divorce. And then he grabbed all the stuff of the people the previous church.

If you want to look for a deeper reasons, look at all the money he got when he sacked the abbies.

L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright's avatar

I've done a lot of research on that period over the years. There's absolutely no evidence for what you're saying. There's no evidence at all that he had any problem with people outside of England bothering him. There's lots and lots of evidence for his troubles with women and his wanting a son.