Virtue Signalling

Being a bossy know-it-all. Forcing one's opinion.

“Humble bragging”
Of the “we were so poor….” variety!

People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

People who relate how caring they are and hint that everyone should behave like them leaving you guilty (ps NOT viewed on Gransnet)

I know someone who's an expert in the art of humble bragging and it's very irritating to see her posts!

Oh, I assumed gaga meant a class(ic) signifier not yer actual class.

eazybee

^People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier^.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

You missed out totally the 2nd part of my post.

but never read

Just insulation. I don't keep millions of books and I'm an English teacher.

kittylester

Oh, I assumed gaga meant a class(ic) signifier not yer actual class.

Hahahahaha!

eazybee

^People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier^.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

Gaga can answer for herself but I got the impression that she could be referring to since Covid and interviewees/politicians/ commentators working from home rather than being in the TV studio you often see carefully curated bookshelves in the background!

Thanks Riverwalk.

Talking of books - listening to the The Rest is Politics podcast, Alistair Campbell upbraided Rory Stewart for saying when asked what he was reading "I'm currently re-reading War and Peace" (or something similar).

Campbell said he was always 're-reading' some great tome and it was just a way of showing off!

Mrs Sparkle, who I have mentioned before, who tells us all about her good deeds in the community which she carries out all day, everyday, in every type of weather and season.

My friends upbraid me for being a literature snob. My cleverest friend reads pulp fiction and tells me to 'f**k off' when I sneer. Quite right too.

Well there's class signalling and virtue signalling.
I'm currently rereading Ulysses.

loopyloo

Well there's class signalling and virtue signalling.
I'm currently rereading Ulysses.

Or maybe you are really.

GagaJo

My friends upbraid me for being a literature snob. My cleverest friend reads pulp fiction and tells me to 'f**k off' when I sneer. Quite right too.

I once worked with a man in an office who considered himself to be intellectual?! He told us of his trip to Foyles in London and listed all the 20th century philosophy books he had bought and was reading. Methinks he 'boasted' too much.

No eazybee, I know of people that consider a wall of books more of a decorative feature than a source of knowledge. There’s even a nearby ‘emporium’ that’ll sell you a load.
My irritant - people with kitchens full of posh knives and microplane graters and the like when they eat microwave meals or takeaways.

GagaJo

eazybee

People who have walls / huge bookshelves full of books but never read. A class signifier.

This sort of silly remark.
People who have walls full of books buy them because they like books and they keep them on shelves because it as an ideal way to store them.
Nothing to do with class.

You missed out totally the 2nd part of my post.

but never read

Just insulation. I don't keep millions of books and I'm an English teacher.

How on earth do you know they've not been read?

Don't say you can tell, because you can't.

I worked in a bank just after leaving school with a young man who looked down his nose at the rest of us and loved to tell us about which operas he enjoyed.

Turned out he was siphoning off a lot of money from dead people’s accounts before they were frozen and he ended up with a lengthy jail sentence

A friend of mine was about to post a photo on Facebook of some flowers she had been given for her birthday.

After arranging them in an antique family heirloom jug, she decided to place it in front of her bookcase but not before swapping a couple of gardening books by Alan Titchmarsh for those of Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto.

When I laughed she pointed out that my coffee table books are by garden designers that nobody’s ever heard of. 😂

I happily admit to reading chi lit, when I am down and need a comfy blanket read I revert to Jilly Cooper (I have a not so secret crush on Rupert Campbell Black)

I am not sure I am 100% au-fait with virtual signalling is it not just boasting by another name?

I have an exceedingly well read friend who is also an author. She spent a whole couple of days colour coordinating all her (read!) books. It looks better in the promo photos or so her publisher told her.

GagaJo Your post has two meanings and I am not sure which you mean.

The word 'read' has 2 pronunciations and both make sense in the context you used that word. Which meaning did you mean?

I make no pretence about having a house full of books and using them. Both DH and I have interests that have led to us building up research libraries. Most books are bought secondhand. Few are novels.

If people label me as an intellectual, I do not give a toss. The word is generally used as an insult and I have been called much worse.

As to the other meanig of 'read'. I read all the time. In my childhood I was described, qute accurately, as a child who would read the back of a bus ticket. Nowadays I am never knowingly more than a few feet from a book, newspaper or magazine and have four books on the go at the moment. The one in the bathroom that i read while the bath runs (it is very slow), one by my bed, one on the living room and, of course, one on my kindle, for waits anywhere, I read it for 20 minutes in the Osteopath yesterday while DH was having treatment.

Is the above virtue signalling? I have no idea. It is how I like to lead my life.

It's not virtue signalling at all.