Comment by evocatus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by evocatus | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> No one actually has to do anything. Virtue comes from mere words or even from silently held beliefs. There was a time in the distant past when people thought you could only be virtuous by doing things: by helping the blind man across the road; looking after your elderly parents instead of dumping them in a home; staying in a not-wholly-perfect marriage for the sake of the children. These things involve effort and self-sacrifice. That sounds hard! Much more convenient to achieve virtue by expressing hatred of those who think the health service could be improved by introducing competition.

Here's an experiment - the next time you're out (if you still do that), take a look around and see how many people are wearing masks. Of that sample, how many of them have long hair?

The thing that typifies white liberals most to me is their desire to be adorned with an aura of virtue while still doing the absolute bare minimum in order to be seen as such. Conspicuous displays such as mask wearing are low-effort, low-cost, require little to no compromise or change in one's lifestyle and behavior, and signal to fellow whites or allied tribespeople that you are on the same side.

But when it comes to making an actual sacrifice - not even a significant one, I would posit! - suddenly all those lambasting the "alt right" are nowhere to be found. Short hair, fades, crew cuts abound - what happened? Weren't we just shaming our neighbors on social media for wanting to get haircuts? For having outdoor barbecues in the park? Where were you, when society called for your sacrifice?

At the barber's, it seems.

Now think - if there are this many people willing to skirt quarantine and stay-at-home orders while making outward displays of conformity... how many more of these self-proclaimed progressives actually secretly harbor racist beliefs while still reciting the common refrains of diversity and inclusion?

I've developed tactics for unmasking the fakers and pretend-quarantiners. I am working to develop social technologies to unmask the pretend anti-racists now.

I think I should be a conservative, apparently they can read people's minds. At least you seem to have that capability that you know all the masked people are just wearing them to signal to others.

And what is this moan about hair all about? Are you trying to refer to the Nancy Pelosi getting a haircut "incident"? Or are you one of those folks going around telling long-haired people to, "get a job, hippie!"?

For what other purpose? I've met people who are vocally on this end of the political spectrum that don their masks, sit in close proximity to one another, remove them, and remain in each others' presence for an hour or more.

Does COVID not strike at the dinner table? Or is there some other purpose to this theater?

If people really practiced the virtues of true self-isolation and quarantine, out of concern for how the virus actually spreads (which is _through human contact_) there wouldn't be nearly this many people with immaculate short haircuts. One wonders how barbers pay the rent otherwise.

Well, humans aren't necessarily logical and consistent, are they? Obviously you don't see the people who are isolating at home trying to avoid this virus, because well, they're at home and not out and about being judged by you. What if they know that the people they're dining with are healthy, vaccinated (less chances of catching the virus and being infectious) and/or were recently tested?

Aren't the people who defiantly enter places with mask mandates without their masks also signalling their virtue of being "free thinkers" and "not a government sheeple"? But if I can guess, that's OK for you because they're the ones doing the right thing.

I'd tell you you suffer from confirmation bias, but hey, I guess you've heard that too. But no! You're right and everyone else are morons!

It's really just like you Europeans to constantly project attributes of your perceived enemy unto others. Anti-Pelosi, straight-laced anti-hippy conservative types, people defying mask mandates.

No mind reading required. Simply observing the whites.

> displays such as mask wearing are low-effort, low-cost, require little to no compromise or change in one's lifestyle and behavior

If only we could have convinced more of the rabid anti-maskers of this. Sadly they were too busy virtue-signalling about how the tyrannical government was stripping away their essential liberties.

Of course. The problem doesn't (in fact, never) lies with you - it's always the _others_ who are incapable of practicing virtuous acts that are at fault.

I don’t understand how wearing personal protective equipment is a signal of a virtue other than self preservation? It struck me as a strange statement in a pandemic that taking safety measures is a political statement. I’m sure that some were trying to make a political statement but in my personal experience folks were just worried about their elderly, sick, and selves and doing their best to use the only tool provided to feel safe. This doesn’t sound like virtue signaling as described in the article.

The people intentionally flouting public health mandates in some cases I’m sure genuinely had medical reasons to not. But most didn’t do it because they simply didn’t want to, and found comrades in others that denounced the mandates. This side was most certainly political and the lack of a mask was a public and obvious way to signal their beliefs against what they felt was oppression. And public health mandates are genuinely oppressive, which is why Supreme Court law has had to be settled (over a hundred years ago) that they’re allowed in a country with liberty at its core.

But I don’t think the two sides are symmetric. One is complying with the law of the land and acting in self preservation which requires only acquiesce, the other is resisting it and trying to build a consolidated movement around their cause. The first can’t reasonably be a form of virtue signaling, while the second may very well be.

You sure are making a lot of assumptions about me. I'm not even sure what the problem you're referring to here is. I was just impressed by what a concise, convincing argument in favor of masks you inadvertently made!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com