 We ignore it and we let people of color kind of, especially black women and black men, we let them kind of fend for themselves. And it's evil. Like I don't think we truly get how evil it is, how dark it is. Thomas Howard is getting a lot of backlash and this is like virtue signaling gone wrong. But the thing is, we all have that friend. And in some cases, we are that friend. Up everybody, this is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. So what I like to do is pull things from the YouTube community or pop culture to try to give you some context and teach you how you can improve your mental and emotional wellbeing. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring the notification bell because I make a ton of videos. So I made a Thomas Howard slash Jeffree Star video yesterday and I just gave a really brief statement about virtue signaling and I actually got quite a few comments about virtue signaling and they're like, hey, can you make a video or people wanted more of an explanation of it? And like, this is something that's actually a really important mental health topic. And it's something that I've had to work on over the years. So let's talk about what is virtue signaling? Thomas Howard, as well as some like real life examples of myself, what you might be doing and what we can do to improve our own mental health as well as our relationships. So I guess the first thing is what is virtue signaling? So virtue signaling is very subjective. I'll start off by saying that we all do it. We all do it in some way, shape or form. But in the society that we're in right now with like moral outrage and like mob mentality, we're like running rampant all over the internet. It's important that we talk about this. So what this is is when people are making statements, they're showing something to the public, basically saying what my little signback here says. Hey, everybody, look at me. I'm a good person. Look at me, look at me, look at me. Don't look over there. Do not look over there. I'm a good person. Look at me and the good things that I'm doing. So I'm gonna talk about something called self-seeking in a minute. But that's kind of the gist of what virtue signaling is. We're putting out things out there to say, oh, what a good person I am. But like I said, everybody is virtue signals in some way, shape or form. And we'll talk about the right ways to do it and the wrong ways to do it in a minute. But just to give you some examples about that, like think about you go out on your first date, right? When you go out on your first date, there's certain things that you might discuss. And because you're getting to know each other, you might say like what your job is or what your passions are. In a way, those are virtue signaling. Like we have to let other people know where we stand on certain things or who we are as a person. So that can be considered virtue signaling. But the problem is that you have people who go way outside of the lines with this thing and it causes this huge mess. So with Thomas Halbert, for example, he made this video yesterday and like, yeah, like the whole time I'm watching it, I'm like, oh my God, this is just brutal. And I mentioned in my last video that I'm actually half African-American and I'm somebody who hasn't experienced much racism but I have and it's a really interesting story. I might make a video about it at some point. But anyways, a lot of my family has. Like my entire dad's side of the family is African-American. And like, so I see what's going on, you know, with racism and cultural divides and things like that. But anyways, like for Thomas Halbert to like make this entire post or this entire video, just like talking about like white privilege and being like, do you understand? Do you understand the history of that word? And the reason why this word is evil is because of the mindset it takes to even say the word. And I honestly don't think I would have ever known the full context and the full meaning behind this word if I hadn't talked to my friend, who was a black woman. Like he was like putting up like a back signal of virtue signaling. Now, don't get me wrong. Like I do believe that people who have a platform should try to, you know, talk about their beliefs and things like that. But like there's so much that goes into it. And like I think one of the issues that we have in the world today is that a lot of people, even though they might be well-intentioned, they don't have the right way to go about it. Now, those of you who are new to my channel, I am not a tea channel, all right? I try to take these and give you examples so you can learn from it. But I will say this, if you go look around on Twitter, there's a lot of people saying that like Thomas's actions do not line up with his words. And they're saying that he is somebody who has done some racist things in the past. So I'll just say that. But that's something that we need to talk about real quick. Your virtue signaling can backfire. I've seen it happen so many times. And that's why we need to talk about this in when it comes to mental health. Like I'm gonna make a video right after this about Jeffree Star and how we cause our own problems. Like Thomas going out there and waving this huge thing like look at me, look at me. I'm an ally, look at me, right? What happened was he got a ton of backlash. People are digging up things from his past and we see that happening. Like there was a story a few months ago that I saw on Philip DeFranco. But a young woman at her high school prom wore an Asian inspired dress, right? And this guy, an Asian American guy says, oh, you know, like something along the lines of like, my culture is not here for you to appropriate, right? But then because he threw out that virtue signal, people started digging through his old tweets and he's dropping n-bombs and things like that. So you see how this gets people into trouble? You know what I mean? So don't tell me that you don't get emotionally hurt when you do this virtue signaling and it backfires right in your face. Like think about the issues that Thomas Halbert is having right now because of that video that he decided to make. Now there are some other videos out there like he issued an apology, which was absolute BS by the way. He talks about how he wasn't trying to like out Jeffree Star and that I might do another video on. We'll see, but I might put that in my playlist of how to apologize, all right? So anyways, let's talk about self-seeking. So self-seeking is something that I learned about six years ago when I got clean and sober and started working on my mental health. And it's something that keeps me on the right path and greatly improves my mental health. So a lot of us know what selfishness and self-centeredness is, but self-seeking, what is self-seeking? Self-seeking is doing something, expecting something in return. Now, typically what that means for most people, like if you're watching this, how many things do we do trying to get something in return, like a feeling or an emotion or we're trying to get people to see us in a certain light? And the problem with this is our motives are never good, our motives are never pure. For example, back in my single days before I was dating my wonderfully beautiful girlfriend, I used to be very self-seeking when dating. I'd be a perfect gentleman, I'd pay for dinner and all this other stuff, but I was expecting something in return. Either something physical or maybe I just wanted them to like me. Or you know what I mean? I wasn't just being a gentleman to be a gentleman. Does that make sense? So a lot of people who are virtue signaling, there's something that we call slactivist as well. And this is something that drives me absolutely bonkers about the mental health, not even the mental health community, but people acting like they're allies of the mental health advocacy movement, right? To try to increase awareness and decrease the stigma. I see so many people who only care about mental health awareness on like mental health awareness day, right? And then they never talk about it again. I've had a bunch of friends who say, like, oh, I'm gonna come to this mental health event that you're gonna be at or oh, I'm gonna listen to you speak at this mental health event. Or people are like, oh, I'm gonna watch your channel and I'm gonna share your channel with people. Oh, and this is a form of virtue signaling because they never do it. They don't show up to these events. They don't share my content. They don't have other people watch it. You know, and that used to really bug me because that in itself was virtue signaling. I hope that makes sense where people only care about something when it's convenient for them. And we call that slactivism because they're doing the bare minimum, bare minimum. Just like a retweet like, yeah, hashtag, you know, don't be mean about mental health. You know what I mean? Like that's just like not cool. So what's the cure for this? What's the answer for this? So something that I've had to work on quite a bit is checking my motives. I have to check my motives, check my motives, check my motives. Like, am I doing this because it's the right thing? Or am I doing this because I want attention, because I want love, because I want affection. Does that make sense? So like, I had to think about that all the time. And a great example of this, and I'll use one of my stories in a second, but I have a really good friend who I only hang out with every now and then. But anyways, he orders food from like DoorDash and you know, stuff like that, hashtag not sponsored. But anyways, we were hanging out and he says, you know, I got into this Reddit, I was on this Reddit post or this sub Reddit about delivery drivers, right? And I know like what really makes them mad because all these delivery drivers are complaining about stuff. And one of the things that irks them is how like people don't tip cash and how people don't, you know, come out to the car and they gotta carry all this food like upstairs, like my friend lives in an upstairs apartment. So my friend's told me this, so he's like, yeah, so two things I try to do now is I always meet them outside, I walk downstairs and meet them and I always tip them in cash. So that way they get the full tip and it doesn't, a cut of it doesn't go to the other place. And like, I know my buddy, my buddy and I, we talk and joke about virtue signaling and stuff. And I actually talked to him before making this video and I was giving him an example. I'm like, yeah, when you said this, like I knew you weren't virtue signaling. Your motivation behind it wasn't like, oh, I want Chris to think I'm a really good human being. He was just telling me a story, but in turn it actually inspired me. And I'm like, that's really cool. That's a really small thing you can do to help somebody else out. And those are the kind of things that inspire me. When I see people doing small acts of kindness. So like, we all have those friends who are on Facebook or Instagram, like, hey, look at me, I'm feeding a homeless person. Ha, ha, ha, right? Like, this is a form of virtue signaling. Like, would these people do the right thing if nobody was looking? Like, I like to do this challenge and all of you can try this challenge. Like, see how many good deeds you can do over the next week and don't tell anybody. I think I mentioned this in an older video. Like, there's some times where I do a good deed and I just want to tell my girlfriend, I just want to text her and say, hey, I just give this homeless guy some money or I bought him some food. Right? Like, I want to do it so bad, but I stop, I pause and I check my motives behind it. Like, why am I telling her that? But anyways, here's a good example of some, you know, internal conflict I had. Like, am I being self-seeking or am I doing it for a different motive? So I live in the hood, not for long, my girlfriend and I are moving, but I live in the hood and every morning around like four or five o'clock, people would come and dig through the dumpsters and pick out, you know, cans and plastics so they can go recycle them. I drink a ton of rock stars. So what I started doing was I would save these and then when I would hear them rummaging in the dumpsters outside in the morning before I went to work, I would take that bag out to them, I'd be like, here you go, right? And I would do that and I did this for a couple of months and I remember one morning I was like sitting there, I'm like, man, this is such an easy thing that I'm doing. It's such a small, easy thing that I'm doing. They're really grateful that I'm doing it for them. I wanna like tell people about it. I wanna post this on Facebook, but I took a pause, I took a step back and I checked my motives, right? Like, was I posting it on Facebook so everybody would think I'm a good person? No, I wasn't. I asked myself that question and in all honesty, I was posting it on Facebook just to inspire people and say, hey, this is a very small thing that you can do to help out somebody in need. You see what I mean? So as long as you're checking your motives behind things, like you're in a good place. So like I was saying earlier, like virtue signaling is subjective. So just always be true to yourself. That's what it is. Know your motives, know your intentions behind doing things. Like I do not think, in my opinion, I do not think Thomas Halbert's motives were pure when he made that video, all right? And that's the issue that I have. But karma is a B word and now he's getting a ton of backlash about it. But anyways, let's do this down in the comments below. I would love if you guys share personal stories, but if you would like, share stories about someone you know who does this thing. The thing where they're always posting about the good deeds they did. Like, oh, I helped a homeless person. Oh, I helped an old lady across the street or they're always doing stuff like that. Like let's talk about it down below because I think this is an important subject. So we kind of see like, oh wait, do I do that too? You know what I mean? So anyways, that's all I got for you with this video. I'm making another video right after this. So make sure that you stay tuned, all right? So hit that subscribe button, ring that notification bell, all that kind of good stuff. And tomorrow I'll be making some Shane Dawson videos for the new episode, all right? And a huge thank you to all of the people supporting us over on Patreon. Look, there's some new names up there. So if you would like to help support me spread a message of hope about mental health, click or tap on that Patreon icon for as little as a dollar a month, baby. All right, thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.