I don’t know about you, but I am feeling pretty mellow this post-Christmas week. As such, it is tempting to stick to lighter fare. However, a thought occurred to me a couple of Christmases ago that I never really fleshed out, and I would like to so, briefly, here.
You may remember—especially if you are of an older generation—that classic line from It's a Wonderful Life: “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” It occurred to me one day that this line is appropriate to modern wokeness culture.
Background…
Have you noticed that virtue-signaling has become a substitute for actually doing good things? (Virtue signaling is not exclusively a left-wing phenomenon; it has taken many forms in past centuries. However, in the modern era, it is largely an outgrowth and activity of ideological leftism, so we will proceed with that in mind.)
According to multiple studies, people who identify as being on the left are the least personally charitable cohort in America. They are generous with other people’s money, not their own.
Notice also that many prominent figures of the left do and say terrible things, engaging in behaviors for which the typical conservative would be publicly ruined. (The charge of “hypocrisy” is rarely leveled at people on the left because you have to have personal standards in order to be a hypocrite, and leftism is more likely to eschew such standards.)
Doing good things and living good lives are bourgeois values, apparently.
Today, an entire apparatus has formed to confer virtue simply by saying things in public forums. All the virtue-signaler has to do is profess the Correct™ positions and they are granted virtue points by the tribe.
One of the things that virtue-signalers have figured out—and that this apparatus generously rewards—is that attacking someone else is even better than saying something good. Taking a good position is worth one virtue point. Telling a person else how horrible they are is worth two: paint someone as a monster and you stand all the taller upon the carcass of your vanquished foe.
A couple of years ago, I realized that it is all just noise. Each calumniation (almost literally) began to sound like a bell in my head:
“You're a racist.” Ding.
“He's a fascist.” Ding.
“She’s a transphobe.” Ding.
“Your infant child is guilty of white privilege.” Ding.
“Your face is a micro-aggression." Ding.
“Putting spices on your food is cultural appropriation.” “NOT putting spices on your food is racist.”
Ding ding ding ding ding.
In order to climb in the Hierarchy of Virtue, all one has to do apply the approved calumniations. Every time a bell rings, a wokester gets his wings. And normal people scramble to defend themselves, like rats in the left's ideological maze.
Our culture has devolved into a cacophony of these little bells constantly ringing. Fortunately, normal people are starting to see it for what it is.
Baseless Arguments
can't defend with facts
so they hurl insults and scream
let's all clip their wings
Once again, incisive. You're a nail-head hitter. Contributing to the madness is the fact that the NAZIS were occultists, deep into black magic, and the Project Paperclip brought into various areas of the U.S. Government technologists AND occultists to contribute their evil to the U.S., which has had hegemony over most of the planet for the last 80-100 years, and is now the muscle of the NWO. There is nowhere to run, or hide, can't outrun microwaves!