Climbing the Face of Moral Superiority
The Role of Virtue Signalling in Lengthening Acronyms
One thing missing from most analyses of the left is the inflation that comes with moral superiority. Once someone who is juiced with this feeling discovers that others also pretend to her level of empathy and tolerance (along with, ironically, a hefty dose of intolerance for those in opposition), her jones for more and better moral-sup kicks in. This need for higher ground is unremitting, and requires new groups for our virtue-signaling junkie to champion. In effect, she must find a way to be morally superior to those who see themselves as unsurpassingly so.
(OK. I’ll lay off the feminine pronoun; but that doesn’t mean you’re going to like the rest of what I have to say.)
I’m not claiming that all these people are insincere, most aren’t, and I won’t mention Lenin’s take on the utility of “idiots”; but indifferent to the suffering she pretends to deplore, and caring only about the personal virtue she proclaims, our Potemkin revolutionary is engaging in the familiar act of being holier-than-thou. Think of a sexually-fluid Cotton Mather dressed up in a pussy hat and Palestinian scarf. She started life out (and remains) a biological male, has adopted the African-sounding name of Abeke-Zuriah Tubbs, and just happens to live in an all-white neighborhood. As she shouts and agitates her hand-lettered sign, the raw-material of parties worthy of its protected status are fed into LBGTQ+’s hungry maw. The only trouble is that, unlike sexual differentiation, the law of supply-and-demand is immutable. As such, the oppressed nature of each new group tends to be less valuable even as it becomes more risible.1 Thus, sillier causes and more obscure cliques join the ranks as INCELS, beagles (actually, I’m all for anything that can be done to improve their lot), the hopelessly uni-browed and those who were bullied for being too tall in high school join some of the most privileged people to come along since creation, and conga with the LGBTQ+ elite.
Meanwhile, Mehgan Markle and other Wokesters are on the alert. They discover new causes for their revulsion as the patriarchicical subjugation of each freshman group is proclaimed and the first letter of its brand added to LGBTQ+’s alphabet. As this goes on, the search for others among these downtrodden assumes a level of difficulty comparable to a successful ascent on the face of Annapurna (pardon me for reveling in the sexist tone of that one); and it will not end until the last troupe to come along -- namely those who proclaim their sexual attraction to children -- get their own stripe on the rainbow flag.
Signaling that the end of civilization is near — so is this group. A sign of its approach is Allyn Walker, who, as a professor at Johns Hopkins, requires pedophiles to be called “minor-attracted persons.” Look for him at next year’s “Summer of Pride” (it used to be “Pride Month” but everything since Biden seems to incorporate its own rampant inflation). But whether they sport a more acceptable name or not, one imagines that the pedophiles’ elevation into LGBTQ+ ranks would result in a volta face of revulsion. You’d think that the whole multi-lettered ediface would then tremble and sway before the world’s scorn. You’d think so — but watch what you say.
I could say that those who drive gas-powered cars will one day be called before a Tribunal for the Enforcement of Approved Ideologies, but then, I’m speculating. There’s no telling how things will go. For all we know, AI could be running the show by the forthcoming Pride summers, and we’ll have to live by what it thinks. Still, affected moral superiority — like stuff in general — tends to flow in a sinus curve. So while I, your devoted Substack blogger, am more knave than Nostradamus, we all may be forgiven the hope that better times will soon appear.
Shortly after posting this I turned on NPR which was broadcasting a program about the healthful benefits of walking. To my disappointment but not surprise, it soon became clear that the program’s focus was that not enough has been written about women who’ve walked. Wait. What? I suppose this program’s preening will in time be upended by one featuring a discussion of all the uncelebrated black women who’ve, y’know — walked.