[BaronVonSteuben]

Yes but pointing out that the emperor has no clothes is mean, so we need to pretend not to notice. Despite our modern day knowledge that most human behavior is almost entirely incentive-based (the hard part is identifying the incentive), we're still supposed to pretend that it's altrusim.

[blueflow]

The good news, these people are easy to identify because their signalling is always in a very visible way. They want to be seen. And when you can identify them, you can avoid them.

[Brotkrumen]

Is you public signaling that youre cancelling virtue signalers virtue signaling?

"This is virtue signaling" is more of a dog whistle ingratiating yourself with a certain crowd instead of an argument. Don't know what youre trying to achieve besides that.

[blueflow]

> is more of a dog whistle ingratiating yourself with a certain crowd

Genius move. Any concept that can be used to criticize you is implicitly outing me as part of your out-group. Now you can judge me not on my own merits, but on the merits of people you associate me with. And my posts can well-formulated and thought-out, you disregard them for factors i cannot possibly control.

This is the partisan thinking that i don't want to have business with. This is what i ghost people for. Call it cancelling if you want to, fact is, if you are walking through the world looking for friends, my place is the wrong address.

[leaflets2]

Seems you're doing the same thing, when you claim that others who try to do sth about something are just virtue signaling.

[Brotkrumen]

You just said "I'm cancelling virtue signalers", you didn't make any arguments I could judge based on their merit. Ergo, you're just whistling for your crowd to cheer you on. Pure virtue signaling.

[blueflow]

What the fuck are you talking about? Who is my "crowd" you are talking of?

Judge me by my own merits, not by some other random people you picked.

Edit: After showing this to her, my wife straight out told me that you are psychotic ("einen an der Dattel haben") and that I should not argue with random internet people. Thinking about it, she is right.

[Brotkrumen]

So you need validation for your virtue signaling? Besides, it's "einen an der Waffel haben". Not the most brainy crowd you virtue signal towards.

[mrtranscendence]

I've experienced too much altruistic, generous, kind behavior to support this cynical view, unless you're defining "incentive" so widely as to be meaningless (sure, some people are incentivized to help others partially because they get good feelings by doing so -- I suppose Ayn Rand was right all along).

[BaronVonSteuben]

I don't think it's cynical at all, I think it's just accepting reality. Our advanced consciousness is just a very thin layer of abstraction on top of the same brain/mind that powers many other animals. Some of the best minds who study this, question if there's even any such thing as "free will" at all.

I don't think recognizing that is conflicting at all with a positive outlook, or the choice to be optimistic, or a humanist, etc. You can choose to believe it or choose not to believe it, and still value human life and try to progress humanity forward.

Also don't underestimate the value/incentive of following your conscience, acting out your beliefs etc. Cognitive dissonance (which results from not doing so) is deeply uncomfortable and a good motivator for being "altruistic."