Election campaigns are carnival times for dodgy words. Politicians and their hacks dog-whistle them out of their lairs, summon them from Shakespearian lexicons and haul them back from used-word graveyards. The most noxious of them slither noisesomely in, sleazing and sliming their handlers.
The slimy words are those that convict their targets of simulating virtue. They include the old favourite 'bleeding hearts', the perennial 'political correctness' and the most recently minted 'virtue signalling'. All these phrases began as commendation.
The original Bleeding Heart was Jesus' heart seen as a symbol for compassion: Bleeding Heart Tavern in London originally had a sign emblazoned with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The phrase was then applied to people who were compassionate and open-hearted. As such, of course, it was appropriated by politicians to describe themselves as genial and generous. That vanity provoked cynicism, leading the phrase to be used as an insult by acerbic journalists. In the United States, for example, Wesbrook Pegler described as bleeding hearts the supporters of a federal bill to impose penalties for lynching.
'Political correctness' was coined to commend people for acting consistently with their ideology. Their opponents, disagreeing with their ideology, then turned the phrase to imply that their actions were not based on reasoned argument but on party loyalty.
'Virtue signalling' was also first used to describe actions that expressed a religious faith or way of life. Convinced Christians, for example, who visited people in prison might be said to signal virtue through their actions. Critics then turned the phrase to describe the motivation of the action and not its effect, and further implied that it was done to look good or draw applause, not to be of service to the people visited.
When people speak of bleeding hearts, political correctness and virtue signalling today, they do so to attack their opponents and the opinions they commend. Bleeding hearts are soft-headed, sentimental and weak. Their arguments may be dismissed because they are driven by emotion, not by reason.
People who are politically correct are motivated by the desire for approval of the crowd, are self-regarding, lack an intellectual centre and are not serious seekers after truth. Their judgments may also be dismissed because they do not reflect intellectual argument but acceptance of majority opinion. People engaged in virtue signalling are driven by the desire to look good. Their positions may be dismissed because they do not arise out of