I'd like to start by saying that this is just my personal opinion as to what a SJW is. I've come to notice that I have used SJW quite a bit on this spot and a few people don't know exactly what I mean by that. So I kind of thought it'd be useful to make this article explaining exactly what I mean when I use the term social justice warrior.
Before anything else; I intend no offense to anyone at all with this article. I don't hate social justice (not by any means), I think social justice is awesome. What I don't like is what some people turned the movement into.
First and foremost when I use SJW I am referring to the over the top an (usually) uninformed tumblr groups. I think there are two (very broad) types of social justice; there's social justice and social justice warriors.
Social justice is positive. It's progressive, these are your people who do feminism and such right; they fight for woman's rights without ripping on the male gender. They fight for women's rights without belittling a woman for actually liking the homemaker role. They're the ones who actually fight for racial equality as opposed to one race being superior to another. Social justice warriors[/i on the other hand are the exact opposite;
Social justice warriors do a lot of yelling and trash-talking. I have seen someone on tumblr who simply didn't understand what trans was. Instead of explaining it to him/her the person got a swarm of people accusing him/her of being "trasphobic cis scum". Similarly I've seen a user accidentally use incorrect pronouns he/she apologized and said he/she intended no offense and didn't really know that what he/she said was offensive. Even after a good apology they were still attacking him/her. This isn't just for transgender matters either. I've seen them verbally harass a user and tell him/her to kill him/herself for not understanding what was going on with Ferguson.
My point is; positive social justice aims to educate and inform. Social justice warriors just attack and insult without helping the person to understand.
A good number of people I've seen the SJW jump on weren't trying to be offensive...they were simply ignorant and needed someone to explain why what they said was hurtful. But instead the SJW's make them feel like complete crap and they kind of want nothing to do with the issue anymore either way around.
Another thing gets to me is the hypocrisy. SJW's demonize people who make hurtful, racist POC jokes but as soon as they see a racist white joke they hit the reblog button and its suddenly okay to make racist jokes. People who support positive social justice realize that racist jokes of any kind are terrible. Likewise gender jokes; making fun of males is (apparently) okay but if it's a female the joke is made about they go nuts. As a female I get frustrated with seeing that. Same goes for jokes about heterosexual couples. I'm not even heterosexual (I'm an ace) and it really bothers me to see SJW say "I support all sexuality" and then turn around and make a rude remark about being straight.
Positive social justice argues the rights of POC, women, homosexuals, etc. they target the correct people (like Memories Pizza that refused to serve homosexuals). Social Justice Warriors go at people who can only do as much as the SJW's themselves. I remember on the night of the whole Ferguson issue I actually had to log off tumblr because they were becoming so hostile. My dash was filled with 'white people suck' 'white people are scum' and so on. Hell there was even a whole 'if you even remain neutral then just unfollow me because you're just as disgusting as them #pleasedo #you'resupportingtheenemy'. And that's word for word. There I though staying neutral was the best way to go. I've seen "i’m sick of white people asking people to tag all their ferguson posts because it makes them “uncomfortable'” and "if you think black people are being too mean. If you think hate only breeds hate. If you think Darren was right. If you are neutral to the issue. If you are anything other than disgusted or outraged by this please unfollow me. Just do it right now." Literally every other post that night was like that. What they essentially did was push myself and others to ignore the problem--they managed to do the opposite of what they aimed to do, I'll get to that later. Guess not, guess I'm still sick trash. I can't count the number of times I've seen a person on tumblr say that all whites are racist and when someone speaks up they respond with 'omg u poor oppressed white person'. I can't count the number of times I've seen that picture of someone drinking from a mug that says 'white male tears' reblogged. My point is that SJW's take it out on the wrong people. They take it out on innocent people who would otherwise be on their sides. Social justice on the other hand doesn't make innocent people feel like they did something wrong.
Which leads me to the next point SJW's are not progressive. These are your people who reblog those stupid 'white male tears' images. They don't do anything to help and/or support the causes they claim to stand for they just sit behind their computers complaining and bashing majority groups. Instead of actually going out and doing something useful for their cause they reblog images. Social justice is the opposite, these are the people who get off their bums and actually support the causes they are vocal about. They don't just complain and reblog.
With Social Justice Warriors, everything seems to be offensive. To be frank; on tumblr I'm almost weary to post anything that isn't nature or animal related because odds are someone's going to be offended and go off on me. I've actually been accused of 'supporting male rape' because I like the character, Regina Mills and reblog images of her. I don't even know where that came from--it's like I can't even like a character without someone saying that I'm sexist or something. That's a Social Justice Warrior thing; taking something that isn't meant to be offensive in any way and turning it into something it is--sometimes a chair is just a chair.
Which leads me to 'triggers'. Okay, fair enough, I understand how this is a huge issue. I, myself have been triggered by something some one reblogged; I have something of paranoia issues when I see 'reblog in 5 minutes or your mom will die' I get sick to my stomach and feel like I have to reblog it or it'll happen. Screamers and jump scares (often done in YouTube vidoes) get me. Sometimes I used tumblr when I can't sleep to take my mind off--say--a scary movie and then someone will reblog a scene from a scary movie. Those things have in a sense triggered my problems. I can see why people get mad when others don't use trigger warnings.
[i]But don't take it out on the wrong person. If someone reblogs a chain letter don't yell at them, odds are they were just as afraid of the what if's as you--if you must, go find the original poster.
Anyways here's where the SJW's come in. Yes trigger warnings are important but I've had someone freak out on me for saying 'I had to drive on an icy road this morning' because 'icy' was their trigger word. This person accused me of 'trying to trigger' him/her. It's like no, I wasn't trying to trigger you. How the hell was I supposed to know that one of my 500+ followers is triggered by the word 'icy'. That said, people can be triggered by literally anything.
Social Justice Warriors also use 'triggers' so loosely. A trigger (for me anyways) is something that leads to an all out-panic attack, heart thumping, breathing erratic, etc. Or in my case something that leads to a person staying up all night...a few nights in a row...dreading that something is going to come and kill them. SJW's tend to call something a trigger if it makes them feel slightly uncomfortable.
Similarly to 'everything is offensive', Social Justice Wariors create problems where there are none. Positive social justice combats and raises awareness where there are genuine issues. SJW's (for example) turned that 'is the dress blue and black or white and gold' thing into a mental health issue. They claimed that it 'triggered people who have problems separating fantasy from reality'. I highly doubt that, that was the aim of the whole dress issue. SJW's take something that has nothing to do with race and turn it into a racial issues; I saw this image in which someone changed all the backgrounds in the school's computer lab to a meme face. Some user came in and commented 'white people aren't that creative, can't you do something more original?' (Ironically the original poster revealed that he/she was Asian). My point here is that the original image had nothing at all to do with race in any way, shape, or form--and somehow it became a racial issue. Progressive social justice doesn't do things like that.
Perhaps the funniest thing about SJW's is that SJW's hate on other SJW's who do it differently then they. For example one SJW states that it's positive and a sign of confindence for a woman to pose nude or wear more revealing outfits. A different SJW then tells her that 'you're giving feminists a bad name'. Another example is a woman stating that she supports feminism but is okay with fulfilling the classical feminine role--cooking and cleaning whilst the husband works. The next SJW comments and tells her she's 'not a real feminist' and that she's 'giving into gender roles'. SJW's basically have this 'my shade of purple is better then your shade of purple' attitude. SJW's don't really even support each other. Social justice is accepting of all different view points; if a woman is okay with fulfilling a classic gender role she can still be a feminist. If a woman is against gender roles she's still a feminist.
All of the above is off putting and pushes people away. Which is probably my main issue with SJW's and probably the main thing that separates SJW's from social justice. Social justice is awesome, it helps educate and inform people. It helps society progress forward in a positive way. Women's suffrage and the legalization of homosexual marriage is the product of well done social justice done right. Social justice works with the majority to gain change and it works. SJW's actually kind of make people want to do the opposite of what they say or at the very least ignore it because they don't want to deal with the aggression. In the case of Ferguson...I was one of many who simply logged off due to the hostility when I otherwise would have supported them. People are way more inclined to listen to you when you aren't guilt-tripping them and insulting them for things they didn't do. SJW's have done their causes more harm than good because making people feel uncomfortable enough to just ignore the issue is exactly what they do. Whereas social justice does the opposite; they make majority groups feel welcomed and willing to help.
All of this said; I hope this article makes sense and helped clear up what I mean when I use 'SJW' or 'Social Justice Warrior'.
Before anything else; I intend no offense to anyone at all with this article. I don't hate social justice (not by any means), I think social justice is awesome. What I don't like is what some people turned the movement into.
First and foremost when I use SJW I am referring to the over the top an (usually) uninformed tumblr groups. I think there are two (very broad) types of social justice; there's social justice and social justice warriors.
Social justice is positive. It's progressive, these are your people who do feminism and such right; they fight for woman's rights without ripping on the male gender. They fight for women's rights without belittling a woman for actually liking the homemaker role. They're the ones who actually fight for racial equality as opposed to one race being superior to another. Social justice warriors[/i on the other hand are the exact opposite;
Social justice warriors do a lot of yelling and trash-talking. I have seen someone on tumblr who simply didn't understand what trans was. Instead of explaining it to him/her the person got a swarm of people accusing him/her of being "trasphobic cis scum". Similarly I've seen a user accidentally use incorrect pronouns he/she apologized and said he/she intended no offense and didn't really know that what he/she said was offensive. Even after a good apology they were still attacking him/her. This isn't just for transgender matters either. I've seen them verbally harass a user and tell him/her to kill him/herself for not understanding what was going on with Ferguson.
My point is; positive social justice aims to educate and inform. Social justice warriors just attack and insult without helping the person to understand.
A good number of people I've seen the SJW jump on weren't trying to be offensive...they were simply ignorant and needed someone to explain why what they said was hurtful. But instead the SJW's make them feel like complete crap and they kind of want nothing to do with the issue anymore either way around.
Another thing gets to me is the hypocrisy. SJW's demonize people who make hurtful, racist POC jokes but as soon as they see a racist white joke they hit the reblog button and its suddenly okay to make racist jokes. People who support positive social justice realize that racist jokes of any kind are terrible. Likewise gender jokes; making fun of males is (apparently) okay but if it's a female the joke is made about they go nuts. As a female I get frustrated with seeing that. Same goes for jokes about heterosexual couples. I'm not even heterosexual (I'm an ace) and it really bothers me to see SJW say "I support all sexuality" and then turn around and make a rude remark about being straight.
Positive social justice argues the rights of POC, women, homosexuals, etc. they target the correct people (like Memories Pizza that refused to serve homosexuals). Social Justice Warriors go at people who can only do as much as the SJW's themselves. I remember on the night of the whole Ferguson issue I actually had to log off tumblr because they were becoming so hostile. My dash was filled with 'white people suck' 'white people are scum' and so on. Hell there was even a whole 'if you even remain neutral then just unfollow me because you're just as disgusting as them #pleasedo #you'resupportingtheenemy'. And that's word for word. There I though staying neutral was the best way to go. I've seen "i’m sick of white people asking people to tag all their ferguson posts because it makes them “uncomfortable'” and "if you think black people are being too mean. If you think hate only breeds hate. If you think Darren was right. If you are neutral to the issue. If you are anything other than disgusted or outraged by this please unfollow me. Just do it right now." Literally every other post that night was like that. What they essentially did was push myself and others to ignore the problem--they managed to do the opposite of what they aimed to do, I'll get to that later. Guess not, guess I'm still sick trash. I can't count the number of times I've seen a person on tumblr say that all whites are racist and when someone speaks up they respond with 'omg u poor oppressed white person'. I can't count the number of times I've seen that picture of someone drinking from a mug that says 'white male tears' reblogged. My point is that SJW's take it out on the wrong people. They take it out on innocent people who would otherwise be on their sides. Social justice on the other hand doesn't make innocent people feel like they did something wrong.
Which leads me to the next point SJW's are not progressive. These are your people who reblog those stupid 'white male tears' images. They don't do anything to help and/or support the causes they claim to stand for they just sit behind their computers complaining and bashing majority groups. Instead of actually going out and doing something useful for their cause they reblog images. Social justice is the opposite, these are the people who get off their bums and actually support the causes they are vocal about. They don't just complain and reblog.
With Social Justice Warriors, everything seems to be offensive. To be frank; on tumblr I'm almost weary to post anything that isn't nature or animal related because odds are someone's going to be offended and go off on me. I've actually been accused of 'supporting male rape' because I like the character, Regina Mills and reblog images of her. I don't even know where that came from--it's like I can't even like a character without someone saying that I'm sexist or something. That's a Social Justice Warrior thing; taking something that isn't meant to be offensive in any way and turning it into something it is--sometimes a chair is just a chair.
Which leads me to 'triggers'. Okay, fair enough, I understand how this is a huge issue. I, myself have been triggered by something some one reblogged; I have something of paranoia issues when I see 'reblog in 5 minutes or your mom will die' I get sick to my stomach and feel like I have to reblog it or it'll happen. Screamers and jump scares (often done in YouTube vidoes) get me. Sometimes I used tumblr when I can't sleep to take my mind off--say--a scary movie and then someone will reblog a scene from a scary movie. Those things have in a sense triggered my problems. I can see why people get mad when others don't use trigger warnings.
[i]But don't take it out on the wrong person. If someone reblogs a chain letter don't yell at them, odds are they were just as afraid of the what if's as you--if you must, go find the original poster.
Anyways here's where the SJW's come in. Yes trigger warnings are important but I've had someone freak out on me for saying 'I had to drive on an icy road this morning' because 'icy' was their trigger word. This person accused me of 'trying to trigger' him/her. It's like no, I wasn't trying to trigger you. How the hell was I supposed to know that one of my 500+ followers is triggered by the word 'icy'. That said, people can be triggered by literally anything.
Social Justice Warriors also use 'triggers' so loosely. A trigger (for me anyways) is something that leads to an all out-panic attack, heart thumping, breathing erratic, etc. Or in my case something that leads to a person staying up all night...a few nights in a row...dreading that something is going to come and kill them. SJW's tend to call something a trigger if it makes them feel slightly uncomfortable.
Similarly to 'everything is offensive', Social Justice Wariors create problems where there are none. Positive social justice combats and raises awareness where there are genuine issues. SJW's (for example) turned that 'is the dress blue and black or white and gold' thing into a mental health issue. They claimed that it 'triggered people who have problems separating fantasy from reality'. I highly doubt that, that was the aim of the whole dress issue. SJW's take something that has nothing to do with race and turn it into a racial issues; I saw this image in which someone changed all the backgrounds in the school's computer lab to a meme face. Some user came in and commented 'white people aren't that creative, can't you do something more original?' (Ironically the original poster revealed that he/she was Asian). My point here is that the original image had nothing at all to do with race in any way, shape, or form--and somehow it became a racial issue. Progressive social justice doesn't do things like that.
Perhaps the funniest thing about SJW's is that SJW's hate on other SJW's who do it differently then they. For example one SJW states that it's positive and a sign of confindence for a woman to pose nude or wear more revealing outfits. A different SJW then tells her that 'you're giving feminists a bad name'. Another example is a woman stating that she supports feminism but is okay with fulfilling the classical feminine role--cooking and cleaning whilst the husband works. The next SJW comments and tells her she's 'not a real feminist' and that she's 'giving into gender roles'. SJW's basically have this 'my shade of purple is better then your shade of purple' attitude. SJW's don't really even support each other. Social justice is accepting of all different view points; if a woman is okay with fulfilling a classic gender role she can still be a feminist. If a woman is against gender roles she's still a feminist.
All of the above is off putting and pushes people away. Which is probably my main issue with SJW's and probably the main thing that separates SJW's from social justice. Social justice is awesome, it helps educate and inform people. It helps society progress forward in a positive way. Women's suffrage and the legalization of homosexual marriage is the product of well done social justice done right. Social justice works with the majority to gain change and it works. SJW's actually kind of make people want to do the opposite of what they say or at the very least ignore it because they don't want to deal with the aggression. In the case of Ferguson...I was one of many who simply logged off due to the hostility when I otherwise would have supported them. People are way more inclined to listen to you when you aren't guilt-tripping them and insulting them for things they didn't do. SJW's have done their causes more harm than good because making people feel uncomfortable enough to just ignore the issue is exactly what they do. Whereas social justice does the opposite; they make majority groups feel welcomed and willing to help.
All of this said; I hope this article makes sense and helped clear up what I mean when I use 'SJW' or 'Social Justice Warrior'.