American flag waving with the Capitol Hill in the background

Disunity Is Dangerous, Now More Than Ever

 

American flag waving with the Capitol Hill in the background

Virtue signaling is saying things to demonstrate your moral correctness on a particular issue and often to show how much you hate something else. The problem is that parading how much more virtuous you are than your allies doesn’t lift you up. It only succeeds in dragging others down, and unfortunately, progressives have a particular penchant for virtue signaling without considering the consequences.

Social media’s detached nature invites performative behavior. In an echo chamber where you only hear your own voice or the voices of others who think exactly as you do, it is easy to peddle false virtue and sling insults. We no longer need to listen to others or respond to their ideas. We don’t need to engage in conversation.

The current state of our nation is fragile. We are facing an existential risk to our freedom and democracy the likes of which we have never seen before. Fascistic ideas once beyond the bounds of polite politics are now mainstream. QAnon no longer is isolated to a few fringe believers but is being embraced by a former president. Members of Congress are excusing violence as a legitimate means of political discourse. Some are pretending – and peddling – January 6th wasn’t a violent insurrection but rather a typical Capitol tour.

If we deny the threat, we leave ourselves increasingly vulnerable. Right wing politicians and their allies have made it very clear they want a white male supremacy to rule our country. When they say they want to take their country back, it means there will be no place for women’s freedom, LGBTQ or immigrant rights, Black studies, and more. They champion unrestricted access to firearms as a means of terror. They aim to roll back 70 years of progress and eliminate equal legal protection for all. They are not shy about their goals.

Now is not the time for division within our movement as progressives. We cannot afford to be fighting amongst ourselves when the external threat is so severe. We all have different priorities and often very different ideas on how to achieve our goals, and I am not asking us to pretend that’s not the case. I am not suggesting we bury our longstanding differences and start thinking in lockstep. I am asking, however, whether we can unite around the defense of democracy and freedom. I am asking whether we can come together as people who support everyone’s civil rights.

Can we place defeating the radical right-wing movement above criticizing each other? Can we focus on what we have in common in the name of strengthening ourselves for the critical battles ahead? Can we give grace to our allies, even when they may falter, as a commitment to defending our basic human rights and protecting our democracy?

If we keep cancelling each other, we will cancel our movement. We don’t have to like each other, but we can respect that we have more in common with each other than we do with crypto-fascists. Hitting pause on the detrimental trend of virtue signaling should be easy if we acknowledge what is happening to our nation now and how we are facing a very real threat to our basic human rights.

We are in a singular dangerous moment that requires extremely sober thinking. We need to pass every criticism or attack through the lens of our battle to defend democracy. We must restrain ourselves from creating more division because we cannot win without working together. In this moment, unity is the real virtue and the only one we should be signaling.

The opinions expressed here are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the LA Progressive.