Social Justice Warrior: A Brief Definition

[rug]

August 12, 2015

The term social justice warrior is not easy to define in a concise way. Since it describes people who behave in certain characteristic ways (e.g., eagerly participating in online shaming, outrage, dogpiling, vigilantism) and is often confused with terms like social justice advocate or social justice activist that bear little overlap, lengthy definitions with lots of examples tend to be necessary to communicate the intended meaning and clear up the inevitable confusion.

But what if we wanted to come up with the briefest definition possible, one that captured the essence of what it means to be a social justice warrior without getting bogged down in all the details and behavioral examples. Such a brief definition might have utility, especially when responding to questions about what the term means. But what might such a definition look like?

This is merely a starting point for the purpose of generating discussion, but I think a brief definition might look something like this:

A social justice warrior is someone who actively condemns and seeks to harm those who express socio-political views contrary to his or her own while claiming to promote social justice.

http://www.atheistrev.com/2015/08/social-justice-warrior-brief-definition.html

[TygrBright]

1. So, the fact that I've already claimed that identity for myself...

...with a very different definition, does that mean people are going to feel free to ignore my definition and assume I'm worthy of their hate and dismissal?

Because my definition of Social Justice Warrior is "someone who actively seeks to increase awareness of the injustice of discrimination, and the abuse of power against those differentiated by an assigned 'them' status, and to redress those injustices through social evolution, frequently against opposition by those enjoying the privileges of their 'us' status."

I strive to live up to this identity, but you're free to believe my definition is wrong and/or hate me for it, if you wish.

bewilderedly,
Bright

[rug]

3. His definition clearlt decribes a distinct group of online posters.

It's a hijacking of the term.

It looks like the difference between those he describes and you is their sincerity.

[Igel]

11. I've only ever heard the term used ironically.

That is, somebody who looks to be what Bright says, but which is utterly hypocritical and whose only pretense to "justice" is easily understood to be "self-interest and self-image."

"We need due process to keep the innocent from being railroaded."--SJW at 10 a.m.

"Those cops needed to be arrested, tried, and sentenced for what they did--and if not, we'll take matters into our own hands."--SJW at 10:03 a.m.

[Maedhros]

2. Maybe use a different term?

Injustice Collector

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200611/injustice-collecting

We have a complicated relationship with the grudges we hold. We get obsessed and aggravated by the many slights that befall us, but we're ever reluctant to bury our pain and move on. Like an illicit affair, our beloved grudges usually end up creating misery for all involved.

The tendency to itemize every unfair knock we've ever suffered is known as injustice collecting. Sometimes the injustices are personal, as in, "My boss unfairly promoted Rick over me." This kind of self-talk leads to anger. At other times, the catalogued outrages lead to overwrought generalizations, such as, "Nothing ever goes well; this is too unfair." This type of thinking leads to hopelessness and rage.

Enough grudge holding and soon you'll see more iniquity than actually exists. The injustice collector becomes a trigger-happy perceiver. If you walk down the street recounting the affronts you've suffered lately, you'll kick up quite a cloud of dejection.

Injustice collecting springs from a sensible motive: the monitoring of fairness as a form of self-protection, an impulse that evolved among social creatures who depended on one another. Nursing grudges may have raised our odds of survival and reproduction, however unconsciously.

[rug]

4. I'm not sure about that.

Those he describes are among the most privileged.

[Maedhros]

5. But it gets to the heart of the matter:

finding outrage in every interaction, and using it as an opportunity to boost one's self esteem by attacking the source of the outrage as a means to elevate one's perceived position above that of the target.

[rug]

6. I see your point.

[MisterP]

7. "someone who wants Victorian gender norms and strict separation between the races, in the name

of radicalism"? it fits well with "Protestantism minus the Christianity" types in theology

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Atheist Rev seems largely to serve as his own linkbait

Most of the links he prvoides to explain what he counts as a the actions of a 'social justice warrior' are to his own blog, so you have to read more and more of it to get some explanation. There's one to a Vox piece, but that's about the guy who killed Cecil the Lion, so I don't see what that has to do with 'social justice', let alone where the dividing line between activism and war about it is, that AR wants to say is very distinct.

Following the trail through his blog, I find he points to the actions of Greta Christina as as example of a 'social justice warrior'. Now, this is odd, because that blogger said "I’ve always respected Greta Christina immensely as a social justice warrior", so to him, the phrase is not a bad one. This is not helpful in working out if AR's definition is going to be of any use outside the AR blog alone.

And the action that Christina took was to block people (on Facebook, I think, though it appears to have applied to her blog too) if they tried to put any argument against her about the Ferguson shooting (she is adamant it should have been an indictment for murder). She warned people she would do this, and would tell them to 'go fuck themselves' at the same time.

Now, you might argue it's a bad move on her part, and since the blogger who noted it is black, you might say it's 'whitesplaining'; but it's not 'seeking to harm' anyone. So I think that AR's definition of 'social justice warrior' is, in practice, going to be "people who say they want social justice but with whom I disagree, on either tactics or outcome". And it's useless to pay attention to AR's definition unless you're on his blog.

[rug]

9. I think Jack Vance has the better insight on this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. He undoubtedly knows his own mind; I just don't think he's useful to the rest of us

If you look at who uses 'SJW' and how, it's normally a term of abuse by conservatives. You'll get the true meaning right far more often by replacing it with 'bleeding heart liberal' than with Vance's idea.