In its purest form, virtue signaling:
- signals one's tribal loyalty
- signals one's tribal pride
- signals one's conformity to tribal culture
- asserts that those outside the tribe are bad/inferior
- pretends to try to change the minds in other tribes
- pretends to help one's tribe but is actually safe, meaningless, ineffective, and devoid of courage
- feels good
Virtue signaling is thus an act of pure tribalism (an animal behavior). It is the darkness in one allying with the darkness in all.
Virtue signaling is often an addiction, and because it is devoid of courage, it is most often done by those for whom the establishment has their back (e.g. the so-called left/liberals/progressives).