Post: #1

Virtue signalling is often mentioned on this board as a concept that drives SJW behaviour. I believe in order to really understand SJW behaviour it should be complemented by another concept I would like to call 'power signalling'. For an example, let's look at false rape accusations:

• Mattress Girl Emma Sulkowicz
• Sabrina Rubin Erdely's Jackie
• USC's Brian Banks
• Duke Lacrosse boys
• etc.
  

There are so many more that have fallen apart spectacularly that one might think feminists/journalist/politicians/university administrators would be more careful when new cases spill up that already smell phony...

Of course it might be that virtue signalling, the chance to come to the aid of a damsel in distress and show one's good character, just gets the better of people so that they are willing to overlook anything that runs counter to the victim's narrative (or due process).

But I think supporting a rape accusation can make sense to people aside from virtue signalling, even if they think it is false and that it will fall apart - just because somebody will suffer:

• the falsely accused, like Brian Banks who spent years in prison
• an organization, like Duke that has to settle for 60 million USD
• a white knight, like Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong getting disbarred
• a journalist, like Sabrina Rubin Erdely getting fired
• etc.
  

... this ability to greatly impact the lifes of people in a negative way projects power, and that has an allure in its own right - especially to people who are powerless in other respects.

Whether it helps the general 'rape culture' narrative or feminist goals is secondary. Just like a virtue signaller overlooks the truth in order to display his most excellent character, the power signaller overlooks long term consequences in order to feel powerful.

I think it's also not clear whether rape accusations that turn out to be false actually hurt the feminist narrative - just by the strength of their destructive fallout, no matter in which direction it goes, it ensures that any future grievances will be given great importance - compared to, for example, MRA issues that do not project any power at all and thus can be ignored.

The allure of signalling power is not limited to feminist issues of course - other SJW causes like BLM can provide participants with the feeling of being powerful, no matter whether their reasoning or long term consequences make sense or not.

Just another term for our vocabulary so we can describe more exactly what is going on when we call blue pilled thinking out.

Post: #2

In Germany, power is being signalled by state.... what about Kachelmann case.....? Bundesverfassungsgericht (constitutional court of Germany) has stated that the accuser is in her full right to uphold her accusations even after his acquittal, hasn't it? It is just free speech....I wonder why Kachelmann is not taking it to Strassburg....
'

Post: #3

Yes absolutely. It makes a lot of sense for governments to even lock up innocent people just to project power - most people will fall just in line then.

In Bavaria we had the case of Gustl Mollath who was convicted in 2006 of trumped up charges, and in spite of the case against him essentially falling apart in 2011, he was still made to wait another 3 years until his release - and then, in spite of his innocence being proven, never received an apology.
This seems like people within the justice system being ineffective or acting on personal grievances, but actually I can imagine this being done on purpose, because it says to the citizens: "If you try to go against us - the government - it doesn't matter whether you are right or not. We have the power and will use it against you."
Much easier to control the population this way.

Post: #4

I am happy for Mollath that he finally got out....even though he wasn't a sharpest knife in the drawer (I had read his initial Anzeige; it was a bit bizarre reading)... but it is kind of strange - and maybe sinister - that there is no public outrage in Germany because of that with all the ideology of Rechtstaat; it seems that at least procuratora/prosecutor office (Staatsanwaltschaft), which is supposed to be "objective", is an institution which is beyond any real control and without any conscience. Since not every German can be a Beamte (an untouchable life-long public servant in practice) what stake do peopel have in this system? Germany still seems to be a society based on hierarchy and loving hierarchy, it is now simply a kind of "deep state".
Is this outcome - complacency with Mollath, Kachelmann and Duisburg Love Parade cases - a resolute defence of German moral superiority (read: superiority of German state and its servants) and Korrektheit....? Do oridnary Germans, no Beamtentum, have such a (moral?) stake in their state? Or do they simply do not believe that bad things can ever happen again due to actions of German state? I have an impression, that whenever soemthing bad happens in Germany, bad workings of German state namely, they close their ears and eyes... But do they not notice the incredible contempt Beamtentum, Justiz etc are showing for them...?!
However, this peculiar obsession with corectness breeds as its reverse a kind of hypocrisy, and there is a fine German word for it: Hochstaplerismus. I think the last novel of Thomas Mann was about it... maybe that's the best way to live in this society and that is the way the German society does function, I sometimes wonder.

Post: #5

(08-25-2016 01:42 PM)Kaligula Wrote:  I am happy for Mollath that he finally got out....even though he wasn't a sharpest knife in the drawer (I had read his initial Anzeige; it was a bit bizarre reading)... but it is kind of strange - and maybe sinister - that there is no public outrage in Germany because of that with all the ideology of Rechtstaat; it seems that at least procuratora/prosecutor office (Staatsanwaltschaft), which is supposed to be "objective", is an institution which is beyond any real control and without any conscience. Since not every German can be a Beamte (an untouchable life-long public servant in practice) what stake do peopel have in this system? Germany still seems to be a society based on hierarchy and loving hierarchy, it is now simply a kind of "deep state".
Is this outcome - complacency with Mollath, Kachelmann and Duisburg Love Parade cases - a resolute defence of German moral superiority (read: superiority of German state and its servants) and Korrektheit....? Do oridnary Germans, no Beamtentum, have such a (moral?) stake in their state? Or do they simply do not believe that bad things can ever happen again due to actions of German state? I have an impression, that whenever soemthing bad happens in Germany, bad workings of German state namely, they close their ears and eyes... But do they not notice the incredible contempt Beamtentum, Justiz etc are showing for them...?!
However, this peculiar obsession with corectness breeds as its reverse a kind of hypocrisy, and there is a fine German word for it: Hochstaplerismus. I think the last novel of Thomas Mann was about it... maybe that's the best way to live in this society and that is the way the German society does function, I sometimes wonder.

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Maybe Hochstaplerismus is just another name for German concept of Sonderweg (since this last one is inherently rooted in German self-doubt), a concept trying to explain why Germany is such a different/special (sonder) nation in European (benchmark) civilization/road (Weg).
All in all, I think that power signalling is much more important in Germany than virtue signalling. The latter has never really got off here, as Puritan brahmins could have got their spirits broken during the only German -as far as I know - attempt to build a new Jersualem. Anyone curious may read Marguerite Yourcenar's novel about Zeno 'L'Œuvre au noir' to get a feel for the atmosphere of that event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster_Rebellion
Since then, German focus on purity shifted from a concern for an indvidual soul, to some kind collective soul, state-soul maybe. So, power singalling is a kind of important here, and may explain some peculiariteis of German foreign politics too, which still has,however, much more virtue signalling than German internal politics. All that is fully understandable if we come back to the concept of Korrektheit/correctness: abroad it is easier to achieve this feeling with virtue signalling than power signalling... Still, Germany is again and again criticized for conducting quite heavy-handed politics, especially in EU...