The other side of the coin to virtue signalling; rather than angling for praise by performatively proclaiming their support for certain causes, vice signalling involves attempting to show off their good person credentials by performatively approving of harm or other bad things that have befallen others.
Like virtue signalling, vice signalling is a largely tribal act; a
way for the speaker to associate themselves with certain other groups, causes or ideals. Also like virtue signalling, vice signalling is a means of doing this without actually showing any follow-through or doing
anything tangible for the cause it apparently supports; much like adding a filter to your
Facebook profile to support Group X doesn't actually accomplish
anything, tweeting your support for violence against Group Y serves to gain edgy clout without actually taking any meaningful action. Finally and also like virtue signalling, it is not so much the morals behind it as the smug and performative nature of vice signalling that make it irritating: a reasonable person might for instance agree that at times, the use of
force has been necessary to
stop people from committing terrible acts, but when someone makes a great deal of effort to be
seen revelling in physical harm
done to someone else however necessary it may have been, it ceases to be about the morals and becomes instead an exercise of preachy autofellatio.
