Confusion As Virtue Signaler Displays Actual Virtue (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. 

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Tel Aviv, January 2 - Activists and media figures voiced bewilderment today following a display of real, verifiable moral fiber and character on the part of a person showcasing a public measure of care for the oppressed, social justice warriors are reporting.

Witnesses at a rally for the rights of migrant workers in the southern neighborhoods of this Mediterranean city  recalled a woman holding a sign that railed against the racism, xenophobia, and other ills plaguing the mostly-African group that arrived illegally over the last decade, who intervened with her body when a migrant attempted to assault a photojournalist who had captured images of other migrants assaulting an elderly woman. The incident shook them, the activists confessed, as they had rarely, if ever, encountered someone who defends the rights of the oppressed yet expects the oppressed to still behave with some sense of decency.

"I'm confused right now, and a little, a little shaken," stammered one demonstrator. "That's not what I'm used to. I still have to process what happened here today. I didn't think anyone was supposed to display any kind of moral consistency or courage in this milieu. My understanding has always been that ethical behavior was something you only demanded of others, and certainly not of the oppressed people with whom you're showing all-important solidarity and allyship."

"It's weird - I don't think I've seen this before," added a second. "Intersectionality's hierarchy implies that you can't require the oppressed to behave by the same standards as the class of oppressors, since those standards are just ways in which the oppressors cement their privilege. That's not what this woman - forgive me for assuming her gender, we just don't know - assumed, obviously, and that's a challenge to our paradigm that I'm having difficulty assimilating."

A third demonstrator contrasted the woman's behavior with the more typical model common in the progressive social justice realm. "Virtue is for signaling, not for practicing," she insisted. "That's why it was OK for Omar Barghouti to pursue a degree in ethics from Tel Aviv University while spearheading the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement against Israel. It's about the noise you make, not the life you lead. It's why Linda Sarsour led the Women's March and bellowed 'MeToo' even as she defended an accused sexual harasser on her staff and refused to believe the accuser. What I saw today made me profoundly uncomfortable, and some of us are going to have to sit down and hash out today's episode so we can decide whether we need to wreck this traitor's life and reputation for her treason."

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