Social Justice Warrior

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About

Social Justice Warrior is a pejorative label applied to bloggers, activists and commentators who are prone to engage in lengthy and hostile debates against others on a range of issues concerning social injustice, identity politics and political correctness. In contrast to the social justice blogosphere at large, the stereotype of a social justice warrior is distinguished by the use of overzealous and self-righteous rhetorics, as well as appealing to emotions over logic and reason.

Origin

The earliest known use of the term "social justice warrior" as a pejorative comes from the Blogspot blog Social Justice Warriors: Do Not Engage,^[2] launched on November 6th, 2009, which identifies SJWs as people who "rage, mob and dox in the belief that promoting identitarianism will make a better world."

Precursor

On September 27th, 2006, Urban Dictionary^[13] user Chi Z submitted an entry for the term "Keyboard Warrior," defining it as an Internet user who expresses their anger by writing aggressive messages online.

Spread

On April 21st, 2011, Urban Dictionary^[1] user poopem submitted an entry for "social justice warrior," defining it as a derogatory term for those who loudly engage in arguments on the Internet to earn favor in social justice circles.

"A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most popular blogger or commenter of the moment, hoping that they will "get SJ points" and become popular in return. They are very sure to adopt stances that are "correct" in their social circle."

On May 26th, the Tumblr^[11] blog "Fuck No Tumblr SJW" was launched, which describes itself as being "dedicated to exposing Tumblr's most heinous social justice warriors." On December 23rd, 2012, the "Social Justice Warriors of OKCupid" Tumblr^[12] blog was created, highlighting screenshots mocking the OKCupid dating profiles of perceived SJWs (shown below).

On November 18th, 2013, Something Awful Forums^[7] member Bo-Pepper submitted a thread titled "Hey What Does SJW Mean?" On March 3rd, 2014, the book How to Make a Social Justice Warrior^[6] by Will Shetterly was released, which outlines the history of social justice warriors on the Internet. On May 1st, YouTuber That Guy T uploaded a video titled "My beef with the (SJW) transgender community," in which he discussed his arguments with the social justice community held on Twitter (shown below).

On June 29th, Redditor bluedude14 submitted a post titled "Social justice warriors and feminists ganged up on Richard Dawkins", featuring a screenshot of a Twitter exchange between Dawkins and those who criticized him for listing "white guys" as his favorite poet, composer and scientist (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post garnered upwards of 4,500 votes (93% upvoted) and 1,400 comments on the /r/TumblrInAction^[3] subreddit.

Following the launch of GamerGate in August of that year, the usage of the label saw a significant spike as supporters of the online movement began referring to its critics as "social justice warriors." On August 27th, YouTuber Jonathan Mann uploaded a video titled "Fuck Yes, I'm a Social Justice Warrior," in which he sings a song proudly identifying himself as a social justice warrior (shown below).

On September 14th, YouTuber KasparovBBQ uploaded a monologue by YouTuber Internet Aristocrat explaining his opinion of "how SJW's work" (shown below, left). On September 20th, YouTuber Half Hast Gaming uploaded a video titled "SJW vs John Carmack," featuring a question from a audience member who asks Oculus CTO John Carmack what the company is willing to do about their "gender gap" (shown below, right).

On December 31st, The Huffington Post^[5] published an op-ed written by LGBT activist Tile Wolfe titled "In Defense of the 'Social Justice Warrior'," which argued that SJWs should be respected as legitimate online activists. On January 9th, 2015, The Daily Beast published an article titled "How the PC Police Threaten Free Speech," which asserted that "today's threats to free speech are more likely to come from 'social justice warriors'." On January 23rd, a page titled "Social Justice Warrior" was created on the GamerGate wiki.^[10]

Check Your Privilege

"Check Your Privilege" is an online expression often associated with social justice warriors which is used to remind others that the body and life they are born into comes with specific privileges that do not apply to all arguments or situations. The phrase also suggests that when considering another person’s plight, one must acknowledge one’s own inherent privileges and put them aside in order to gain a better understanding of his or her situation.

False Flag Operations

Numerous false flag operations and campaigns have been employed against the online SJW and feminist communities with the intention of satirizing or trolling them, or damaging their credibility. Throughout mid-2014, 4chan users launched Operation: Lollipop,^[14] an anti-SJW campaign with the aim of dividing online feminism along racial lines.^[15] Among the most notable projects orchestrated by the campaign was the hashtag #EndFathersDay, in which participants attempted to discredit activists in the eyes of the general public by posing as feminists and demanding that Father's Day be denounced.^[16] On September 10th, 2014, technology blog arstechnica published an article^[17] accusing the GamerGate anti-SJW hashtag campaign #NotYourShield of being a false flag operation started, sustained, and promoted by a small handful of 4chan users.