Overdosing on Virtue Signaling

So I just got this email from the president of the National Association of Realtors,

The shocking, senseless death of George Floyd is tragic. Our deepest sympathies are with the Floyd family and other families who understand and feel this pain and grief. Our neighbors in the communities where we work and live across America should feel safe and free from discrimination.
 
As longtime champions of fair housing, equality and inclusion are among NAR’s most cherished values. NAR is committed to leading the way on policies that address racial injustice and that build safe and inclusive communities. Building the future begins with equal access to housing and opportunity for all.

OK, so what does George Floyd's death have to do with real estate? I mean, other than all the real estate that is currently on fire from the various riots.

Oh, and then this from GoFundMe (which I wasn't unaware I was on the email list of),

Over the last week, people across the country have stood up in the face of injustice and systemic racism plaguing the black community. We've seen an outpouring of global support on GoFundMe for George Floyd’s family, peaceful protesters demanding change, and organizations fighting for equality and accountability.

Yes, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer and that was terrible. The cop should go to prison. So was Walter Scott. So was the white man Daniel Shaver. We have a problem with policy brutality in this country that needs to be further addressed, although it's not as obviously racial as it would seem. (Black deaths by cops as a percentage of the total is less than both the percentage of cops killed by blacks and the  black murder rate as a percentage of the whole.) 

And then there's context. So far in 2020, nine unarmed black men have been killed by the police (as opposed to 19 whites). Chicago has had over 500 homicides, most of whom were black, in each of the last three years. Yes, whataboutism, I know. But still, priories people. 

Returning to the National Association of Realtors, they didn't send an email about Scott, Shaver, the cops murdered in Dallas in 2016 nor the Chicago murder rate. But they sure did about this. In fact, virtually every major corporation decided to go completely woke and do the same. Here, is how one of basically infinite examples begins, courtesy of the Citigroup blog written by its CFO Mark Mason,

I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.

Yes, just another rapacious, blood-sucking bank-that-helped-cause-the-2008-financial-crisis for justice!

I mean, just look at this collage I found on Twitter the other day:

Yes, you are truly "fighting the power" by agreeing with 100 percent of corporate America... OK.

Indeed, did anyone say anything like "silence is violence" or "being silent is siding with the oppressors" after the police spent over 20 years covering up the grooming gangs and mass-rape of young girls in Rotherham or Telford? I remember no such protests or chants. I guess silence wasn't violence in those cases. I mean, silence let those thousands of girls be raped for two decades, sure. But whatever. No one gives cares about that!

Right now our cities are burning. Two have died in Indianapolis and several more elsewhere. Cultural icons like the College Football Hall of Fame was looted and the St. John's Church set on fire. 

It sounds trite to say, but Martin Luther King Jr. got changes through without violence. On the other hand, the urban riots of the 1960s poisoned race relations and exacerbated an urban decline that lasted decades before finally reversing.

But perhaps things have changed. After all, in response to Rotherham, there were no riots and the British government did basically nothing in response. 

So all of this virtue signaling is just rewarding all of this violence and destruction while simultaneously driving the country even further apart. Rioters will take note. We should expect more of it in the near future.

​There might not be as many people speaking against it, but I sense a seething rage in much of the country as cities burn and politicians and corporate leaders basically cheer it on (while simultaneously putting in curfews and police lines and the like in a completely schizophrenic response). Things are going to get worse, not better folks.

It's really quite pathetic and embarrassing to watch.