alt Hacker News> I have a credit card with HSBC: you know, the bank with virtue-signalling multiculturalism in their ads.
Was this opening sentence necessary? It is not germane at all to the rest of the article. Ironically, it is itself virtue-signalling (for some definition of virtue), just to a different audience.
Replies
I took the use of "virtue signalling" to be an intentional jab at HSBC given everything
My first instinct was to close the article as I didn't want to read a Republican virtue signaling to his audience. I wonder if they were trying to sound Republican?
The article itself is a nice, well interesting, dive into the topic; kinda unfortunate.
> just to a different audience
And apparently not targeted all that well, since half the comments here think it is a right-wing (anti-multiculturalism) sentiment, and the other half a left-wing (anti-corporate-reputation-laundering) sentiment.
Not only a distraction, but also fails to distinguish HSBC from pretty much any other bank, so the "the" comes off as crankish and aggrieved.
People used to bank with Barclays to register their support for Apartheid in South Africa.
precisely this. it sort of put me off an otherwise excellent article
It doesn't even link to an ad, it links to a weird parody attempt of the ad on the same site as the article. Which makes little sense for people unfamiliar with the original ad it parodies.