Are Conservatives “Virtue Signalling” Too?

“Of course, virtue signaling from the Right regarding the protests has come in many forms other than writing.”

During the first few days of the protests over the killing of George Floyd, many monuments, particularly statues of historical leaders, were damaged. This happened in the United States and in other countries such as Belgium, where a statue of King Leopold II was brought down. Also, in the United Kingdom, several statues were spray painted or toppled. Most notable among these were statues of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill and philanthropist and slave trader Edward Colston, both of which I will discuss later in this piece. In response, many people took it upon themselves to clean up and repair the damages where possible. Several viral videos depicting these cleanup efforts circulated on social media, and they showed those doing the repairs or cleanings being confronted by protestors. In one of such videos, a few men and women are seen washing off spray paint from an equestrian statue of Lord Haig, an English nobleman who served in the British Army in several colonial conflicts and then went on to become a hero of the First World War. These youngsters are confronted by a woman who accuses them of racism for cleaning the statue. The video was watched over 3.5 million times, and it was widely popular among conservatives. The implication is clear: The Left has gone so mad that now even cleaning a statue is evidence of racism. Clearly, therefore, we cannot trust the judgement of many on the Left on anything.

This is just a bit of anecdotal evidence, but I think it perfectly captures many of the dynamics of this seemingly endless culture war. And, of course, cleaning statues is just one manifestation of the broader response from conservatives. The Right is clearly much better at messaging, and there is a small but loud portion of the Left that will give the Right endless material. Now, is cleaning a statue actually racist? I will unequivocally say no. That does not mean, however, that these acts are completely innocent. As much of a truism as this may be, context matters in order to understand in what ways they may or may not be innocent, however.

Let us look at a few other examples that, while different in nature, fit within the same trend of responses from the Right to the recent unrest. Another case that involves a visual display is a widely circulated photograph of British conservative journalist Peter Hitchens standing in the middle of a kneeling crowd. Conservative commentator Rod Dreher, editor of The American Conservative, praised Hitchens in a piece entitled “British Courage” in the aforementioned publication. The kneeling crowd in London was doing so as a gesture of solidarity towards George Floyd, whose death resulted from a police officer kneeling down on his neck. Dreher’s piece then goes on to describe other issues related to the reaction to the death of George Floyd in the United Kingdom. Among these include the destruction of a statue of British slave trader Edward Colston, as well as  the defacing of a statue of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill by labelling him as a racist, an adjective that even Dreher goes on to admit is undeniably accurate. In another article, Sohrab Ahmari, op-ed editor at the New York Post and First Things contributor, laments the fact that the iconoclasm and vandalism that he thought he left behind when he emigrated from the Middle East in the middle of the Arab Spring has now reached the United States.