Why do people embrace virtue signaling?

Uploaded on December 29, 2022.  Created by Charles Eisenstein.  Find his YouTube channel here.  Find his book titles @ Amazon.

Signaling their conformity to in-group norms and values.  You display the appropriate opinions.  You abide by the accepted taboos, and then you identify as a member of the group.  You belong.  What makes people susceptible to that is a pre-existing condition of insecurity; of not belonging; of having no community; of having no identity in relation to the world, in relation to your own purpose; not knowing, "Who am I?"  If you don't have a strong sense of "Who am I?" then you will be insecure.  If you don't have strong connections to community, or other people who know who you are, then you'll feel insecure and you'll be susceptible to substitutes or other offerings of a sense of belonging and identity which could be through virtue signaling membership in various opinion tribes, political affiliations.  Also, the same underlying insecurity and poverty, to return to that, is a kind of poverty, a poverty of relationship.  Also makes people susceptible to cults, and conspiracy theories, including the cult that we call the mainstream.  That's very much a cult as well, and during COVID really acted like a cult.