The real problem, of course, isn't the signaling part: Everyone is signaling all the time, whether it's about social justice or their commitment to Second Amendment rights or their concerns about immigration law. Those who accuse others of virtue signaling seem angry about the supposed virtues themselves -- angry that someone, anyone, appears to care about something they do not. Another Twitter user, defending Donald Trump after the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, wrote: "Stop virtue signaling. It doesn't work. Are you saying you never talked dirty in a [private] conversation?" The logic here is not that Trump or his actions were morally correct, but that no one else is, either, and anyone who claims otherwise is lying.

Those who cry "virtue signaling," though? At least, they claim, they're honest about it. They are, of course, trying to signal something about their own values: that they are pragmatic, appropriately cynical, in touch with the painful facts of everyday life. Virtue signaling can be a way of staking out a position in an argument -- not just the high ground, but the highest ground. (You may be against racism, but I am more against racism than you.) But calling out virtue signaling is a useful position in itself.