A short essay on why you should stop calling people SJW

[Mikeybb]

*snipped for space* The biggest point I have in this short essay is this. Stop calling people Social Justice Warriors because you disagree with them. It makes you sound unintelligent. Social Justice is a good thing. Justice in all forms is something as a society that we aspire to. Injustice is one things people hate most in the world. When you call someone a Social Justice Warrior, you are implicitly saying that they have good intent and are trying to do the right thing

It's a side note as there's a lot that I agree with in your post, but worth mentioning.

It always seemed the term evolved from the phrase 'keyboard warrior', an amalgamation of the two.
The 'keyboard warrior' being someone who fights their battles exclusively on the internet, often seeking the most trivial battle grounds on which to do battle.

Kind of like what I'm doing here by pointing it out, without the added component of dragging the discussion out to epic length.

Anyway.

I've been trying to curtail my usage of the term for a while now.
Mostly, I'm succeeding.
Primarily because it struck me as hypocritical to resist the propagation of gamer as a negative stereotype, while simultaneously propagating one of my own.

I will add that while there are plenty of people who do act in the way you describe, there are a significant number who only save that term for individuals who fit a set criteria of their own and others who do not use it at all.
There are even some who support GamerGate while still self identifying as a SJW.

Again I'll say, I'm in agreement that the term should not be used in a negative sense, though my reasons for this agreement are my own.

 

[QuicklyAcross]

We should not stop calling anything by its own definition or make up new words to substitute.
Call things for what they are and if people have a problem with it then too bad, tough luck i guess

 

[jthwilliams]

I did title it short essay, you had to know what you were getting into when you clicked on the title. but Agreed TLDR is definitely an acceptable response to my post.

 

[redlemon]

In MS word, 12 point font, Times New Roman, your short essay took up a little over 4 pages.

 

[jthwilliams]

In MS word, 12 point font, Times New Roman, your short essay took up a little over 4 pages.

In college I learned that if it is less than 3000 words, it is a short essay. My professors wouldn't call it a paper until it had at least 50 pages including citing and appendix.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Harassment is a crime. It is mean spirited. When you do it, it makes you a bad human being.

When I do it, it's not harassment. It's legitimate criticism, for some reason...perhaps I'll acknowledge that I'm loud and passionate, but very few people are going to hold their hands up and say they are the problem.

 

[Nirallus]

I agree. Social Justice Warrior shouldn't be the term du jour. "Warrior" implies far too much courage, admirable aggression, and fighting spirit. I'll second the suggestion of Social Justice Clown.

"Justice" implies a sound set of principles, including objectivity and fairness. While a lot of the people who are "for" social justice would support those things, the methods and goals of the movement are anything but.

 

[Furbyz]

ITT: A surprising amount of discussion about the hatred of marriage. These issues are warping faster than I can keep up.


misogamy
noun
1.
hatred of marriage

snip

Really? This tactic seems to be working pretty well for the SJWs. If anyone so much as disagrees with you, call them a misogamist. It works even if you misapply the label.

Oh man, the irony here is just great. I don't mean to be a grammar nazi (the party and I had a falling out). I just honestly found all these thrown about accusations of hating the institution of marriage funny. The spelling you're looking for is "misogynist." Just for future reference.

OT: The fact that Social Justice Warrior is a term that denotes someone with good intentions has always seemed to be a part of the point to me. Their intentions are good, but the methods employed are often atrocious levels of direct ad hominem attacks and simply shouting down people that disagree with them. Intentions only count for so much especially if the person uses their goal to excuse any means to that end.

However, I don't pretend to be well versed in the methods of the average person on the side of Social Justice. I've only noticed outliers for the most part. Though I am something of a lurker who has tried to stay out of the whole Gamergate thing for a month now. Doesn't seem to be going away though.

 

[redlemon]

Oh man, the irony here is just great. I don't mean to be a grammar nazi (the party and I had a falling out). I just honestly found all these thrown about accusations of hating the institution of marriage funny. The spelling you're looking for is "misogynist." Just for future reference.

I'm... going to blame my spell checker for that. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with using the term, OP.

The term doesn't besmirch Social Justice itself. It derides keyboard warriors marching under a perverted version of that particular banner; that's who it's labeling.

I also don't see a parallel between forcing "Gamer," a term that hasn't been used in such a way previous to these events, to denote an entire subset of people as being racist misogynists and using "Social Justice Warrior" to denote a particularly vitriolic subset of a particular movement.

It's being overused, I'll give that much to you, since people are throwing it around all willy nilly, but it's always meant what's it currently means. Gamer? No. They're trying to change the definition into something awful and, frankly, it isn't comparable.

A hereby vote to refer to them as "Social Justice Clowns" instead.

Sec-on-DED.

 

[JohnFei]

Hey OP, maybe you can lead by example. Stop calling us misogynists and harassers. That kind of slander and name calling is unhelpful to discussion, and makes it harder for anyone to take you seriously.

Just my 2c.

 

[clippen05]

Yeah, we shouldn't call them social justice warriors. We should call them social justice barbarians because they use tribal logic and barbaric tactics 'in the name of justice.'

This is so one-sided. If you are going to tell me that their is only one party at fault, you are sorely mistaken.

 

[Dizchu]

Stop calling people Social Justice Warriors because you disagree with them. It makes you sound unintelligent. Social Justice is a good thing.

The term is sarcastic. I think it's funny, because the people that get called SJWs really think they have the interests of large groups of people in mind when actually they only care about themselves. They literally believe they are valiantly fighting for a good cause.

It's like the term "white knight". It's used to refer to socially inept heterosexual men that think coming to the defense of a woman under criticism will make them look good. It's probably subconscious but these men think they are impressing women by doing these things. They're not called white knights because they're heroic defenders, they're called white knights because it sarcastically ridicules their motives.

A hereby vote to refer to them as "Social Justice Clowns" instead.

I like calling them "Social Justice Saboteurs" because they actively spread misconceptions about certain groups while claiming to be in favour of tolerance.

An example of this is the extreme degree many of them wish to label every insignificant thing about them. Check Tumblr, a good chunk of the blogs have "about me" sections like "I am a 19 year-old demisexual, neuro-atypical polygender that uses the pronouns do re mi fa so la ti do". It screams attention-seeking. Someone with so few talents, hobbies or genuine personality traits that they wish to pigeonhole themselves to feel special.

This kind of behaviour has given transgender people a bad name. Most trans people don't have problems with cisgender people (doesn't everyone want to be cisgender? To have their biological sex and gender match?) and they would prefer masculine, feminine or neutral pronouns like "they" or "them" rather than getting everyone else to use obscure words that are useful to them only. But if your only experience with the trans community were Tumblr blogs run by teenage hipsters, you'd think transgender people just want to be special and want everyone to adhere to their ridiculous rules.

I'm transgender and I really don't care what pronouns are used for me as long as the person calling me he/she/they aren't being malicious. I know I'm more lax than many but even most transgender people wouldn't insist people bend over backwards to give them special treatment. They'd rather just be treated like normal human beings.

That's my personal problem with "Social Justice Warriors".

 

[Phasmal]

I'll give you a smaller essay-

1- It doesn't mean anything.
2- Anyone can be it.
3- It's not really something you identify as, but a label people stick on you because they disagree with you.

There we go.

It's still dumb.

 

[TheSpyIsASpyWDZ]

Normalization Theory has very strong evidence.

To your other point being offended doesn't make you right. It is just a way to react. As long as we give people the benefit of the doubt we are generally ok. But there is a pretty easy way to tell if a joke is crude or harassment. The intent of the person who said it. Sure you can't control if people are offended by anything you say, only they can control that, but if you doing it to offend then you've answered your own question. If you aren't doing to offend and someone tells you that they are then you'll probably feel sorry about offending them. You'll may not change your behavior because that one person may just be very easily offended. Some people are just looking to be offended, but if another person tells you they were offended and then another and another and if it really isn't what you are trying to do then you will eventually change because you realize it is in fact offensive and not just that one person.

That is social normalization and it works on just about everyone who isn't a sociopath. In fact the failure of it to work is one of the possible indicators of sociopathic tendencies.

Quick analogy to prove your point in my personal experience. Growing up I used jew as a verb. Basically it meant stiff someone or be swindled. I never noticed it because I did not know any jewish folks. Until I did in the army. Then I used the statement without even thinking and was called out for it by my friend. I apologised and he told me he actually thought it was kind of funny. But I chose to change it and worked to drop it from my vocabulary.

To disprove your point go to 8chan (4chan seems to have become PC) and post for awhile. There they have stripped all meaning from racial slurs because they have become so common in the parlance that fag means person. Like a lawyer will start a post "lawfag here yada yada..." Which seems a better solution to you? Letting the words keep their power to offend, or just everyone using them so much that they lose all meaning?

I wish there was a highlight function, but counterpoint to your counterpoint and just by quoting you

(4chan seems to have become PC)

because Social normalization works.

Yeah, I'm sorry pal, but 4chan becoming PC has nothing to do with "Social Normalization", it has to do with stricter, and I'm going to say it, "SJW" mods who have started permabanning things that wouldn't get a second look a month ago. I can assure you, the people who use 4chan are just as vile as before. Hell, up until a week ago every 5th post was about mods being absolute shit.

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

Stop calling people Social Justice Warriors because you disagree with them. It makes you sound unintelligent. Social Justice is a good thing.

The term is sarcastic. I think it's funny, because the people that get called SJWs really think they have the interests of large groups of people in mind when actually they only care about themselves. They literally believe they are valiantly fighting for a good cause.

It's like the term "white knight". It's used to refer to socially inept heterosexual men that think coming to the defense of a woman under criticism will make them look good. It's probably subconscious but these men think they are impressing women by doing these things. They're not called white knights because they're heroic defenders, they're called white knights because it sarcastically ridicules their motives.

A hereby vote to refer to them as "Social Justice Clowns" instead.

I like calling them "Social Justice Saboteurs" because they actively spread misconceptions about certain groups while claiming to be in favour of tolerance.

An example of this is the extreme degree many of them wish to label every insignificant thing about them. Check Tumblr, a good chunk of the blogs have "about me" sections like "I am a 19 year-old demisexual, neuro-atypical polygender that uses the pronouns do re mi fa so la ti do". It screams attention-seeking. Someone with so few talents, hobbies or genuine personality traits that they wish to pigeonhole themselves to feel special.

This kind of behaviour has given transgender people a bad name. Most trans people don't have problems with cisgender people (doesn't everyone want to be cisgender? To have their biological sex and gender match?) and they would prefer masculine, feminine or neutral pronouns like "they" or "them" rather than getting everyone else to use obscure words that are useful to them only. But if your only experience with the trans community were Tumblr blogs run by teenage hipsters, you'd think transgender people just want to be special and want everyone to adhere to their ridiculous rules.

I'm transgender and I really don't care what pronouns are used for me as long as the person calling me he/she/they aren't being malicious. I know I'm more lax than many but even most transgender people wouldn't insist people bend over backwards to give them special treatment. They'd rather just be treated like normal human beings.

That's my personal problem with "Social Justice Warriors".

These so called "SJW" do more harm to the term Social Justice then any other hate group. Because all those antics and petty complaints a tumblr poster sipping on their nonfat latte at the starbuck in the Barnes & Nobles are turning the concept of ACTUALLY helping women into a damn joke. Why dont these tublr and SJW turn all their righteousness and fury on ISIS who are actively kidnapping women and putting them in rape camps for their members or criminal organization like in south east asian who not only sell drugs (golden triangle) but have been know to attack remote villages and kidnap people children to sell into the slave market. Why dont they Doxx them or is it too much trouble to actually help women in need?? Oh thats right those girls arent blonde haired blue eyed Caucasian so screw them right?!?!

 

[JohnFei]

Stop calling people Social Justice Warriors because you disagree with them. It makes you sound unintelligent. Social Justice is a good thing.

The term is sarcastic. I think it's funny, because the people that get called SJWs really think they have the interests of large groups of people in mind when actually they only care about themselves. They literally believe they are valiantly fighting for a good cause.

It's like the term "white knight". It's used to refer to socially inept heterosexual men that think coming to the defense of a woman under criticism will make them look good. It's probably subconscious but these men think they are impressing women by doing these things. They're not called white knights because they're heroic defenders, they're called white knights because it sarcastically ridicules their motives.

A hereby vote to refer to them as "Social Justice Clowns" instead.

I like calling them "Social Justice Saboteurs" because they actively spread misconceptions about certain groups while claiming to be in favour of tolerance.

An example of this is the extreme degree many of them wish to label every insignificant thing about them. Check Tumblr, a good chunk of the blogs have "about me" sections like "I am a 19 year-old demisexual, neuro-atypical polygender that uses the pronouns do re mi fa so la ti do". It screams attention-seeking. Someone with so few talents, hobbies or genuine personality traits that they wish to pigeonhole themselves to feel special.

This kind of behaviour has given transgender people a bad name. Most trans people don't have problems with cisgender people (doesn't everyone want to be cisgender? To have their biological sex and gender match?) and they would prefer masculine, feminine or neutral pronouns like "they" or "them" rather than getting everyone else to use obscure words that are useful to them only. But if your only experience with the trans community were Tumblr blogs run by teenage hipsters, you'd think transgender people just want to be special and want everyone to adhere to their ridiculous rules.

I'm transgender and I really don't care what pronouns are used for me as long as the person calling me he/she/they aren't being malicious. I know I'm more lax than many but even most transgender people wouldn't insist people bend over backwards to give them special treatment. They'd rather just be treated like normal human beings.

That's my personal problem with "Social Justice Warriors".

Quoted for truth. Let's see how hard they try to ignore this.

And we call em GMF and GTP here anyways. None-Issue: the Thread.

 

[Fox12]

Oh lord, we're already talking about logical fallicies, and the thread just started. I thought this was supposed to be short? Look, here's how you do it:

I have game experiance.
Harassment is wrong because you infringing on someone's privacy/rights.
SJW is an empty term, and shouldn't be used any more.

Anyway, I'm not sure who you're talking too. The people committing the harassment are a minority group not really represented on the escapist. The actions of antes trolls don't represent a larger movement. Not every Zoe Quinn supporter was a hacker, so it wouldn't be fair to judge them all either. Look, this is an ugly issue with no real winner. The media handled this in just about the most unprofessional way humanly possible, and thus sacrificed the moral high ground a long time ago. As for SJW, half these people call themselves that. I think it's a pretentious name, and now it has an overwhelmingly negative connotation. It's inevitable when the term gets associated with people like Phil Fish.

I agree with your bit about Anita, I don't understand the hate she gets. Even if she's guilty of the awful crime of not always having the best arguments ever, I somehow don't think she deserves harassment. I actually agree with most of her views.

Basically this has become hipsters vs. trolls, with a lot of normal people thrown in too. But just like not all SJW aren't like Phil, not all gaters(heh) are trolls.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Why dont these tublr and SJW turn all their righteousness and fury on ISIS who are actively kidnapping women and putting them in rape camps for their members or criminal organization like in south east asian who not only sell drugs (golden triangle) but have been know to attack remote villages and kidnap people children to sell into the slave market.

Probably because there is nothing whatsoever they can do about it? ISIS is being fought by the military forces of various nations, SJWs on the other side of the world aren't going to make any impression.