Virtue signaling is not virtuous

There’s something deeply wrong with modern left-wing politics, not just in Australia, but across the West. Greg Sheridan nailed it in The Australian today: well-meaning, feel-good policies — dressed up as virtuous — are hurting the very people they’re supposed to help.
Here’s the thing: good intentions aren’t enough. A bad policy is still a bad policy, even if it’s wrapped in compassion and hashtag virtue. You can’t pay your power bill with vibes. And voters eventually wake up.
Yes, Albanese has a big majority. But so did Biden. So did Starmer. So did Whitlam. And look how that turned out.

The Feel-Good Fantasy That Fails the Poor
Sheridan argues that the modern Left is driven by ideology rather than practicality. They dream up grand schemes that sound noble — but don’t survive contact with reality. 

For example, consider these policies popular with the Left.

• Education reforms that ruined literacy:

Phonics worked. But “whole language” felt more enlightened. The result? A collapse in literacy standards. Affluent families got tutors. Poor kids got left behind.

• Open border chaos sold as compassion:

Saying “everyone is welcome” sounds kind. But uncontrolled immigration floods low-income suburbs, not leafy ones. Working-class people wear the consequences — in housing, services, and jobs.

• Endless spending justified by ‘care’:

Social programs sound generous. But they’re often ineffective or downright harmful. Inflation? That’s not just economic theory — it’s dinner prices, rent, petrol. And the poor feel it first.

• The Net Zero mirage:

Net Zero is the ultimate virtue signal. A policy built on optics, not physics. The result? Soaring energy prices, collapsing industries, and fewer jobs for non-uni grads. Meanwhile, climate activists continue to tweet from air-conditioned cafes.

• Cancelling student debt:

Sold as justice. But in reality, it’s a taxpayer-funded handout to the middle class. Uni grads earn more — yet working-class taxpayers foot the bill.

Nice Doesn’t Equal Right

The Left no longer works with human nature — it tries to override it. And when theory fails, the poor are the first to suffer.
You can win elections with slogans and selfies. But governing? That takes ideas that work. Not just ideas that sound noble.
The truth is simple: bad policy, no matter how well-intentioned, remains bad policy. And in the end, the public always catches on.

Saving the Planet, Screwing the Poor

Let’s talk about something that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime: the human cost of climate activism. Not the imagined future harm from a changing climate — I’m talking about the very real, very immediate harm done right now to the world’s poorest people in the name of “saving the planet.”

Robert Bryce hits this point square on in his powerful talk, “The People Climate Activists Leave Behind.” It’s not just about energy. It’s about morality — or more precisely, the complete inversion of it.

Here’s the harsh truth: the policies pushed by elite climate activists almost always lead to higher energy prices. That’s a burden easily absorbed in wealthy cities with Teslas, solar panels, and virtue-signalling yard signs. But for billions of people who live on a few dollars a day, higher electricity costs are not an inconvenience — they’re a life sentence to darkness, cold, and poverty.

Bryce makes a few key points worth repeating:

• Energy poverty is real. More than 3 billion people today still live without reliable electricity.

• Cheap, reliable energy is the foundation of human development. Without it, nothing improves: not education, not health care, not economic opportunity.

• Climate activists oppose the very technologies (like gas and nuclear) that can lift people out of poverty — all in the name of fighting an abstract global threat 30 years from now.

Bryce isn’t saying the climate doesn’t matter. He’s saying that people matter too, especially the poor. And if our solutions to climate change make their lives harder, colder, darker — then we’re not saving the planet. We’re just shifting the suffering.

And let’s be blunt: There is no virtue in making electricity more expensive. None. It doesn’t make you righteous. It makes you blind to the consequences of your own beliefs.

It’s time we stop applauding climate “solutions” that ignore the basic needs of billions of our fellow humans. Any real climate plan must include — not exclude — the poor.

Otherwise, we’re just building a greener world for the rich — and leaving everyone else behind in the dark.

Here is Bryce's full presentation.