Truth Signaling Is the Real Virtue

What if we’ve been getting it backwards this whole time? Virtue signaling doesn’t make you virtuous. But truth signaling? That’s the real virtue.

Archived tweet

Truth signaling is more important than virtue signaling

Garry Tan @garrytan January 29, 2026

This isn’t just a pithy observation—it’s the core insight that explains why San Francisco nearly collapsed under the weight of performative politics, and why citizens finally revolted against it.

The Science of Signaling: Why Cheap Talk Activates Our Alarm Bells

There’s a reason virtue signaling feels wrong to us, and it goes deeper than politics. Signaling theory from biology and economics explains why costly signals are reliable—peacock tails, college degrees, expensive flowers for a romantic interest. These are honest because they’re hard to fake. A diseased peacock can’t afford an extravagant tail. A lazy person won’t finish a degree.

We evolved over millions of years to detect fair-weather friends from true allies. Getting this wrong could mean life or death. So when someone gains social status by posting the right opinion without paying any meaningful cost, our internal “hypocrisy detector” fires up.

This is the key insight: what convinces people you’re virtuous is often disconnected from what actually helps anyone.

When Virtue Signaling Replaces Intelligence: The Warning From History

LessWrong’s analysis argues that civilization is built on the positive side effects of both intelligence AND virtue signaling. When virtue signaling dominates at the expense of intelligence signaling, things go “horribly wrong"—the Cultural Revolution is cited as the ultimate cautionary tale.

Intelligence signaling is valued more when society feels threatened by an outside force. The US policy changes after Sputnik are a perfect example—suddenly competence mattered more than who could most loudly proclaim the right beliefs.

Social media and shorter attention spans may have made virtue signaling easier relative to intelligence signaling. Twitter’s character limit rewards the hot take over the thoughtful analysis. But this is only part of the story.

San Francisco’s Case Study: When Virtue Signaling Became Policy

San Francisco became the laboratory for what happens when virtue signaling replaces practical governance.

Archived tweet

San Francisco almost died because everyone got so Trump deranged they spent all their time making virtue signal resolutions and the worst policies that hurt Asian elders and stopped Algebra from being taught in schools Can we please just take care of our own city and citizens? https://t.co/V4VZGLXUXm [Quoting @KelseyTuoc]: @garrytan people don't tend to realize how important local elections are, even though they affect our lives enormously.

Garry Tan @garrytan January 28, 2026

SFUSD stripped algebra from 8th grade curriculum under the framing that it was racist—that tracking students into advanced math "perpetuated inequality.” The result? Only 47% of San Francisco students are now proficient in math. Deferring algebra to 9th grade delays the path to AP Calculus, which is considered critical for STEM admissions. The policy meant to help disadvantaged kids ended up hurting everyone.

Chesa Boudin implemented lenient policies that sent criminals right back onto the streets. Crime rose 11% in 2021—more than double New York City’s increase. When 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee was brutally murdered by being body-slammed onto the sidewalk, Boudin dismissed it as “some sort of a temper tantrum.”

And the media? They covered it up.

Archived tweet

If we can’t say the obvious thing in the legacy media, what is the point of the legacy media? Cover up the mistakes of the state? https://t.co/rj225VssqW [Quoting @Twolfrecovery]: You left out the rampant shoplifting and open drug use right outside that scared away all the shoppers. 🤷‍♂️ @rolandlisf @sfchronicle https://t.co/uU92bdWYqy

Garry Tan @garrytan January 06, 2026

The SF Chronicle covered the death of San Francisco Centre mall without mentioning the rampant shoplifting and open drug use that scared shoppers away. If legacy media can’t say the obvious thing, what is its purpose? Cover up the mistakes of the state?

Paul Graham’s Insight: Why Intellectual Honesty Is the Foundation of Everything

Paul Graham’s essay “How to Do Great Work” offers the intellectual foundation for why truth matters more than performance:

Affectation and virtue signaling are forms of pretending. As Paul puts it, “it’s in effect to pretend that someone other than you is doing the work.” You adopt an impressive but fake persona, and while you’re pleased with the impressiveness, the fakeness is what shows.

Great work requires earnestness. “I doubt it would be possible to do great work without being earnest,” Paul writes. “It’s so hard to do even if you are. You don’t have enough margin for error to accommodate the distortions introduced by being affected, intellectually dishonest, orthodox, fashionable, or cool.”

This is why tech founders must be truth-seekers or their companies fail. The market doesn’t care about your virtue signals—it cares about whether your product actually works.

The Revolt of the Center: When Citizens Chose Truth Over Virtue

Something remarkable happened in San Francisco. Regular citizens—not professional activists—revolted against virtue signaling.

Asian parents started showing up to school board meetings on Zoom to find out when their kids would return to in-person learning. As American Affairs Journal documented:

While kids were stuck in virtual learning, the school board was consumed by renaming schools after disfavored historical figures—Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt. When the board moved to eliminate merit-based admissions at Lowell High School, calling it “white supremacy,” the message to Asian families was clear: there are too many of your kids at the best school.

Three school board members were recalled in a landslide. Boudin was recalled with 60% support—two-thirds of Asian voters backed it. Even in Bayview-Hunter’s Point, home to the highest concentration of Black residents in San Francisco, 60% supported the recall.

This wasn’t a partisan movement. It was parents afraid for their children’s education. Asian families afraid for their elderly relatives. People sick of walking through gauntlets of meth smokers. Regular citizens choosing truth over virtue.

Truth Signaling IS the Virtue

Media institutions have to re-learn that truth signaling is more important than virtue signaling. If legacy media can’t say the obvious thing, what is its purpose?

Local elections matter enormously—"people don’t tend to realize how important local elections are, even though they affect our lives enormously,“ as Kelsey Piper noted.

The answer isn’t just to criticize virtue signaling. It’s to actively signal truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially when it’s uncomfortable.

The lesson from San Francisco’s near-death experience is clear: when we optimize for appearing virtuous rather than being truthful, real people get hurt—elderly Asian Americans attacked, kids denied algebra, cities hollowed out by crime.

Virtue signaling is easy. Truth signaling requires courage.

But here’s the beautiful inversion: virtue signaling isn’t actually virtuous. Truth signaling is.

Every time you speak an uncomfortable truth, every time you show up to a local meeting and ask the obvious question, every time you refuse to let media or politicians gaslight you about what’s happening in your own city—you’re not just being honest.

You’re being good.

That’s the real virtue.

Follow @garrytan for more.