Well, you certainly make yourself look like a swell guy. I feel like you're supporting my conclusion: the only reason you think others "virtue signal" is that you extrapolate from your own behavior, not because you have any insight into theirs.

(P.S. you’ll note that I never characterized my nonjudgemental attitude as “good.” Quite the contrary, I think it was often enabling for people, and it certainly wasn’t good for me.)

You're so used to your own behavior that you literally cannot fathom the concept that others might not work like you ("you’re fully guilty of the behavior I described").

I hope you can see that your opinion of others only tells us something about you, not about others. You see "virtue signaling" everywhere because you do it constantly, not because others lack a moral compass and only try to behave well to "signal" something to others. That's you.

I swear it’s like I’m talking to a brick wall here. You’re so dense that you can’t understand that “virtue signaling” and hypocrisy are the same thing, and that hypocrisy is so common that there’s been a word for it for centuries.

Are you really claiming that hypocrisy isn’t common? Or that there’s a significant difference between hypocrisy and “virtue signaling”? What do you call the behavior of the preacher who publicly calls for morals and decency, and privately carries out affairs? What about the person who makes public, performative “anti-racist” statements while privately acting exactly as if they’re terrified of black people? Or the person who nibbles on their organic salad while putting down others’ food choices as unhealthy, and then secretly eats a bucket of ice cream in shame? I refuse to believe that you haven’t met anyone like this.