I was just watching a congressman from
the US today claiming that the critics
of Biden after the last debate are
ablest yeah I mean well I I don't even
know what to think about that it's like
I see so now here's your theory your
theory is that it doesn't matter whether
the president of the United States is
able because all discrimination between
being able and unable is a form of
prejudice and that even applies
with regards to the president of the
United States and so that means that all
the people who are concerned that there
might be something astray with him
cognitively that we're being lied to
about at a at a level that's almost
inconceivable are now equivalent to like
KKK racists from the 1940s that's your
argument and by the way in relation to
the same critique of his vice president
should you dare to criticize Kamala
Harris you are de facto a racist that
the only
reason yeah the only reason that you
would feel the need to criticize this
black woman who's vice president is not
that she's been completely incompetent
in her job which any impartial Observer
would conclude but it has to be because
of her skin color and her gender and
even though that's why she was put in
the damn position to begin with Joe
Biden said publicly I want a black woman
right and then he gets a black woman who
is massively underperformed which hasn't
helped him at at all but no one's
allowed to criticize her because if you
do you'll be called a racist and I find
I find that one of the laziest tropes
out there in modern society it's a way
of I think we've discussed it before but
it's a way of stifling honest debate
it's a way of sensoring legitimate
criticism a way of asserting moral
superiority that's unearned that's a and
actually none of them really mean it I
mean it is the it is the genuine epitome
of virtue signaling what they're really
I mean I remember the you know for
example I remember um when the George
Floyd uh murder happened and it was a
horrific incident of course but I
remember that soon after that there was
a black Square day announced on
Instagram where everybody had to Signal
their virtue about this by doing a black
Square now I'd spent the entire morning
on Good Morning Britain hosting a
debates about the George Floyd killing
and showing enormous empathy and support
for black lives matter and what happened
this was very early stages before a lot
of stuff came out about the organization
black lives matter which put a rather
different gloss on them but the
principle that you know this had been a
terrible uh killing that this man should
never have been killed that it was
possibly racially motivated all that
kind of stuff I I was debating this with
a absolutely open mind and being very
empathetic to all these arguments but I
didn't do my black Square on Instagram
and my son got in touch with me and said
dad you got to do your black Square
Square I went why we're getting
criticized because you haven't done it
and I actually had posted a
picture of uh a bottle of rosé wine
because I was having one in my local
square and I hadn't given any thought to
the rule that I had to Signal my virtue
about this thing and I then got
absolutely annihilated by people saying
how dare you do this where is your black
square and I remember thinking but all
of you are going to go right back toor
morning to posting inan
self-aggrandizing photographs of
yourselves on beaches or in nightclubs
or in Ferraris or whatever none of this
means anything to you whereas tomorrow
morning I'll be back on air doing
another three hours of debate about this
to try and get the society in uh in the
world in relation to this issue back to
a place of better racial Justice now
which one is going to have a better
effect on influencing people go be an
ableist again right and that's the point
is that I found it such a TR and kind of
pointless example of this this Cult of
virtue signal it's worse than that so I
just finished a book which is going to
be published in November and I walked
through a a sequence of biblical stories
trying to explain what they meant
psychologically and I spent some time on
the book of Exodus for obvious reasons
and there's a commandment in there that
people
misapprehend so I think it's the third
commandment um don't use God's name Thou
shalt not use the lord's name in vain
and people think that means don't swear
or curse and it sort of means that
there's peripheral meaning that is
associated with that c casual use of the
Sacred let's say but that isn't what it
means it
means don't
claim Divine virtue when you're working
for your own purposes and the same thing
happens in the gospel accounts he
because the Pharisees who are Christ's
primary enemy me are the people he
accuses of utilizing the sacred the
deepest so you could say compassion even
given its proper place for their own
self-aggrandisement they're praying in
public they're trying to occupy the best
seats in the marketplace they want the
best seats in the synagogues Etc that's
the accusation and so that virtue
signaling it's not it's not merely it's
it's an expression of an unbelievably
deep and ignorant narcissism right it's
part of the victim victimizer narrative
first of all which explains all of
history with no cognitive effort and
then it's these performative gestures
that make you morally virtuous right and
and one of the consequences of that too
is as soon as you're morally virtuous
like that you get to specify the
victimizer who's your enemy and tear
them into shreds and that's actually a
moral act and I mean you saw a bit of
that said with the black Square yeah but
it's it's an unbelievably pathological
but it was fascinating to me that my own
children all in their 20s at the time
that they were being contacted by
friends saying why has your dad done
this picture of a bottle of wine where's
his black square and they were kind of
damned by association yeah and and were
Keen for me to rectify this problem and
I had to say there's a tribal signaling
there yeah and I say guys I'm not going
to do it I'm sorry I'm just not going to
feel bullied into doing something that I
think actually is pointless and trite
and that all the people doing it don't
really care much about this cause and
will be very quickly back to their
normal work on Instagram which is
pumping themselves up and showing off
and all the things people do on
Instagram I said I'm just not going to
play this game well there's no cost to
doing it right to putting up a black
Square you can indicate commitment
that's exactly right there's no
sacrifice there's no hard why you use
sacrifice is that well because I think
that to really support a cause whatever
that cause may be at some point you have
to show a bit of sacrifice to that cause
you have to you have to commit time or
money or resources or whatever it may be
to support reputation put your head over
the parit there has to be an element of
risk and an element of sacrifice now if
all you're doing is following the
hashtag trend of the day there's no
sacrifice There's No risk-taking in fact
it's the opposite it's actually more
courageous to say I'm not going to do
that what I'm going to do is I'm going
to do this and it's a far more tangible
and effective way of trying to get
racial Injustice to a better place which
everybody should share that desire and I
I just feel that it's that it comes back
to what you said earlier about the the
victimhood generation the one common
theme of the people who play that victim
card all the time is they almost never
show any sacrifice for anything it's all
about themselves
it's all about how can I get pity how
can I be showered in sympathy how can I
come become Almost Famous for failure
and celebrated for it rather than the
way I was brought up which is you
celebrated success you drowned your
sorrows with failure and you didn't let
it take you down or destroy you and you
dusted yourself down and got back on
with it but the idea of celebrating
failure the idea of celebrating coming
last at the school sports day you know
the idea that everyone had to get a
particip ation prize even if they were
terrible at something no you know I
wasn't very good at Athletics at school
I was very good at Cricket I was one of
the best cricket players age 12 in the
country and my dream was to be a
professional cricketer I never made it
um my other dream was to be a journalist
I made that but I was terrible at
Athletics my two brothers were brilliant
at Athletics they used to win everything
but I used to always win the
non-finalist race and I was very happy
about that because what it I said to my
what is that well so everyone who didn't
win a race got put in the non-finalist
race so you were the kind of lepers with
the most fingers right for one of a of a
crash phrase and the point was that you
you were competing against other losers
but you could still win something and I
was thought yeah I'm going to be the
best loser because I'm I'm crap at this
I can't really run or hurdle or throw
javelins or anything like that but I can
beat this lot and I was proud of that um
but I never mistook it for actual Glory
or winning and I think people that you
know I see people on on social media
they say I'm so proud of myself I just
passed my driving test at the 11th
attempt and I'm like why would you want
anybody to know that why would you want
anyone to know that you're so completely
clueless at driving it took you 11
attempts to pass your driving test and
what do you want me to do do you want me
to to send you champagne do you want to
you know do you want to be trending
number one around the world for being
the worst driver in the world what are
you celebrating here if you passed your
driving test 11th attempt I'm pleased
for you but I'm not proud of you this is
not something that should instill pride
in you um and I think that that's that's
where Society is so warped now we
celebrate failure we we also celebrate
pride and and pride like formally right
exactly and we also um we've we've
started to feel bad about Winners we
don't really feel comfortable with
winers anymore you know especially if
they're a little bit self-confident and
yet I think they're the best possible
Role Models out there people that can
perform in The Cauldron of great sport
or entertainment whatever it may be you
know I watched all the sort of jealous
sniping about Taylor Swift for example
and then I went to her concert at
Wembley absolutely mindblowing
experience it's not because she's the
best singer in the world or the best
dancer or the best actress or the best
pianist or the best guitarist even
though she does all those things it's
just I've never seen an audience so what
one with the performer where she gave
them what they wanted 3 and 1 half hours
of banging hits on a massive stage with
huge theatrics every kid there including
my 12-year-old daughter had a fantastic
time but the sniping she doesn't sing
every song Live she's this she's that
she's written all these songs herself
she's grossing $2 billion dollar on this
tour pra the biggest tour in the history
of Music bigger than the Beatles when
they played Shay stadium and yet the
natural reaction of a lot of people is
to snipe whilst pretending you can
almost bet they all have hash beind in
their ex bios in other words I'm a
really kind person I'm a tolerant person
I'm a nice person and I'll destroy any
of you fascists who deviate from my woke
world view but when it comes to Taylor
Swift I'm going to all over her
I'm going to trash
I'm going to be envious and resentful
and jealous and all these things which
flies completely in the face of what
they're pretending to be and it's that
complete double standard that I see with
so many of the what better phras the
woke Brigade as I call them but it is is
a as Elon mus said it's a it's a mind
virus and they are actually leading
lives and behaving in a way that is
completely the opposite of what they are
masquerading guys
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