I’d agree that that is the case a lot of the time, especially in the online popularity contests, but a big percentage - I’d say probably a majority - of the time it is simply sheep behaviour that has become ingrained
I felt this pull at university, when I spent a brief time flirting with the art society. everyone there had these kinds of values, and it would have made fitting in significantly easier if I had vocally agreed with them. this would have been especially tempting if I was (more) lonely and desperate for company, as many people are
as it was I mostly just kept quiet or carefully found points of agreement. I suspect if I was the type of person to give in to this zeitgeist, and not particularly question my beliefs, it could easily have developed into something real without any need for narcissistic tendencies
Re:The Big [Censored] Theory
by philistine on Monday August 29, 2022 @03:57PM
(#32642783)
Yeah, when you're part of a culture that suffers from cultural appropriation, you understand it. Although my culture suffers a very benign culinary example (poutine), it allows me to understand the power play, and how I wouldn't want others decrying the appropriation my people are living.
Re:The Big [Censored] Theory
by umanwizard on Thursday September 01, 2022 @04:00PM
(#32682265)
Poutine is actually a pretty classic example of the bad kind of cultural appropriation. I wouldn't call it benign. Non-Quebecker Canadians are happy to claim Poutine as a "typically Canadian" dish (erasing its connection with Quebec specifically) despite many of them holding Quebec culture in extreme contempt.
In many ways the virtue signaling is doing the thing they are accusing others of - using a culture (that isn't theirs) as a weapon for social status.
[0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-36804155