The Dangers of Virtue Signalling - Once you're on the ride it becomes more difficult to get off of it.

I was reading various news articles today and oddly it was a Michael Moore piece that inspired today's thought. I started thinking about how he can be as far as I am concerned "way off base" yet people will eat it up because he is Michael Moore. This is an appeal to authority fallacy on the part of the audience. Yet I started thinking of this in terms of myself.

Those of us that go out on a limb to challenge establishment, perceived wrong doings, etc usually have good reasons for doing so. If you are aware of a problem and you do not speak up you can easily become part of the problem. That was not however, where my thought processes went on this one.

If you do challenge perceived authority or power players and for a long time you get pats on the back, "well done", etc is there perhaps a danger that we should be aware of. If people treat us as though we are always right can there become a danger in us losing our own personal objectivity as we are constantly applauded from the echo chamber and praise?

Should we perhaps remain vigilant on our own thought processes and not fall victim to our own successes? Over time I believe it may be possible that such success could lower our vigilance. Later on we may react to information or a specific perception on a topic and not do our due diligence in looking into that topic. If we then use our voice which people often praised to push a narrative without that due diligence do we not become a problem ourselves?

I look at Michael Moore and what he has done for awhile now and I think he has lost most of his objectivity. He now is a victim of his own virtue signalling drives. His stance is reinforced by those that continue to say or think "It is Michael Moore and he challenged establishment in the past, and was right on topic X, so he must be right on this as well". That is actually the person mentally generalizing the words of Michael Moore as being spot on without actually bothering to research and think about it. In this sense Michael Moore ends up being the THINKER for these people that won't take the time to think and research for themselves.

None of us should let other people do our thinking for us. We should listen to other people, but that should only be the seeds of inspiration upon which we can think and research.

My thought here was that with success in past efforts it can lead to over confidence and a loss of objectivity. A person can start to buy into their own celebrity status. We must remain vigilant against these changes within our own mind.

I guess the easiest thing to say here would be "Always remember humility".