I don't really believe in virtue signaling. It's something the rightwing made up to say they're offended without having to say they're offended.
I do however believe in the practicalities of politics.... And yes, sometimes a company is going to have a gay pride month logo everywhere but Saudi Arabia, but that's a Nationalist problem of culture, not something progressives are causing.
...yet apparently progressives are to blame for most virtue signaling?
I don't really believe in virtue signaling. It's something the rightwing made up
No. Like so many things, it's a real thing that right wing people twist into something it isn't to fit their narrative or to excuse their own vices.
An example of virtue signaling would be to for example arbitrarily avoid using words that start with an n to showcase how virtuous you are.
An example of the right wing definition of virtue signaling is just..doing anything virtuous. Like when someone is legitimately doing or saying the right things for the right reasons, right wing troglodytes will call THAT virtue signaling.
Examples of real things are usually specific and real instances of those things actually occuring, I notice neither of your examples are (obe is the fiction comedy sketch, the other is just a general description you've written).
So I'm going to continue to doubt the existence of "virtue signaling".
You want a genuine real world example? I'll give you two.
Remember in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea? Actress AnnaLynne McCord reacted via a textbook virtue signaling poem about being Putin's mom.
More recently, Nancy Pelosi reacted to all American women losing their constitutional right to bodily autonomy by reciting another poem that did not help anyone and then singing about how beautiful the country is on some stairs with the Washington Voices of Virtue (vote for us) Choir.
So people writing poetry to express themselves about issues they literally have no control over (No, Nancy Pelosi can't overturn Supreme Court decisions) is virtue signaling? So virtue signaling is just any time someone expresses that they would prefer a different world? I mean, come on, that's not virtue signaling. That's just self expression.
Didn't you say something about it being when you signal you want a virtuous act to happen rather than actually doing the act yourself? What's Nancy Pelosi gonna do? Assassinate Clarence Thomas? What control is that model lady supposed to be neglecting that she has over Putin? You're using this term to bitch about things you don't like. This is just how I said conservatives use the term - to express that they're offended without having to say they are.
P.S Saying goodbye in a conversation generally means the conversation is over, not that you're gonna come back and complain that "the darn leftist women are doing poetry I don't like"... Again, wowee we're really going after the important topics in life.
A very real and common place example of virtue signaling, and what the term was originally meant to show, would be going to church and asking for god's forgiveness on Sunday while being an absolute shit head the rest of the week. Now you see why right wingers co-opted and twisted it. It was originally meant to call out their bs, and they can't be having that.