The problem is the discrepancy or the delay between the personal and political sphere.
Absolutely correct.
My opinion: This isnt so much an issue of virtue signaling (only a small part of it), this is actually the discrepancy between the abstract, and the concrete.
This isnt so bad, because you can still "tap into" peoples willingness to help via more indirect means - f.e. make them spend money, make them pay more taxes, make them volonteer work...
If you think about it, letting someone into your home, to live there for a while without an explicit social contract (Airbnb
) beforehand, is something almost no one would do. This is moreso what you are up against here.
You can see that in peoples reactions, as they show almost no signs of being "caught out" - they simply try to calmly get out of the situation.
In addition the bodylanguage and facial expressions of the Ali guy become hilarious, after the first few attempts, so there is that as well (Provokative smiling..
) .
But then, what drives people to say it is virtue signaling for sure - its just, that this time they probably mean it (in an abstract sense), but woulndt have publically promoted that opinion - which virtue signaling has become more infamous for.
(People trying to reap social benefits by showing off their 'value corset' - this time, its just an interview.
)