Social Justice has recently become a quite fancy term around certain websites, but what does it actually mean? According to Business Dictionary, it is the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally without prejudice. It’s also a concept used to describe the movement towards a so called socially just world. Doesn’t it sound half bad, right? Maybe quite noble even. But somewhere something went terribly wrong and Social Justice Warrior became a pejorative label applied to some bloggers and activists.
It all goes back to 2006 when an Urban Dictionary user submitted an entry for the term Keyboard Warrior which defines an internet user expressing their anger by writing aggressive messages online. And even though the original idea behind social justice was indeed noble, unfortunately that’s what it has become on the Internet.
The biggest spread of Social Justice Warrior happened via a blogging platform Tumblr where we can find a whole lot of such bloggers. What are some issues they fight for so viciously? There’s a lot of those, some can be considered important concerns (approached in a wrong way by said warriors), some are absolutely ridiculous. For example, there’s a big fuss about cultural appropriation - sociological concept which views the adoption or the use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon, people of colour right - which is self-explanatory: fighting racism while using a racist term, transgender people’s right, women’s right and so on.
Still some, maybe most of those, seem like a behaviour of a decent human being, what is so wrong about social justice warriors then? The problem lies in taking things too far and not listening to logical arguments. There’s a thin line between defending cultural appropriation and the pursuit of cultural purity, between facing racism and a being racist, between encouraging people to be tolerant and shoving other lifestyles down their throats.
What’s quite funny is that the issues that SJWs are so willing to fight for often aren’t really found offensive by people they concern.
Here are my favourite posts made by social justice warriors and their theories getting busted. Caution, may contain inappropriate language.
http://vvteam.tumblr.com/post/130367447466/tuhmblr-logic-the-voiceofsanity
http://vvteam.tumblr.com/post/132162849841/kuroba101-vvteam-kuroba101-vvteam
What are your opinions on the Internet social justice? Have you ever come across the term before? What do you think of such a behaviour?
Sources:
http://www.tumblr.com
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-justice.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice
It all goes back to 2006 when an Urban Dictionary user submitted an entry for the term Keyboard Warrior which defines an internet user expressing their anger by writing aggressive messages online. And even though the original idea behind social justice was indeed noble, unfortunately that’s what it has become on the Internet.
The biggest spread of Social Justice Warrior happened via a blogging platform Tumblr where we can find a whole lot of such bloggers. What are some issues they fight for so viciously? There’s a lot of those, some can be considered important concerns (approached in a wrong way by said warriors), some are absolutely ridiculous. For example, there’s a big fuss about cultural appropriation - sociological concept which views the adoption or the use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon, people of colour right - which is self-explanatory: fighting racism while using a racist term, transgender people’s right, women’s right and so on.
Still some, maybe most of those, seem like a behaviour of a decent human being, what is so wrong about social justice warriors then? The problem lies in taking things too far and not listening to logical arguments. There’s a thin line between defending cultural appropriation and the pursuit of cultural purity, between facing racism and a being racist, between encouraging people to be tolerant and shoving other lifestyles down their throats.
What’s quite funny is that the issues that SJWs are so willing to fight for often aren’t really found offensive by people they concern.
Here are my favourite posts made by social justice warriors and their theories getting busted. Caution, may contain inappropriate language.
http://vvteam.tumblr.com/post/130367447466/tuhmblr-logic-the-voiceofsanity
http://vvteam.tumblr.com/post/132162849841/kuroba101-vvteam-kuroba101-vvteam
What are your opinions on the Internet social justice? Have you ever come across the term before? What do you think of such a behaviour?
Sources:
http://www.tumblr.com
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-justice.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice
Comments
And it is, that ridiculous social warriors exists mostly on memes posted by some trolls for the lulz or haters to justify their hate towards feminists for example.
If someone remembers, not so long time ago an Internet wide hate-fest happed. codename GamersGate. I barely remember what happened at first, but afterwards it just became an anti SJW campaign hating on all women on the Internet, because they profane the sacred grounds of gaming or something. Or it was just another troll stunt. Hard to say how many non-trolls were involved, cause some of the 'feminists' side were 4chan trolls and the opposite side were also trolls and some 12-years-old kids. Keyboard wars on the Internet. So exciting.
Now, keep in mind I'm not saying anything about people who actually do something, but those spitting venom on the internet. There are trolls everywhere on the Internet, so partly I agree with you on the haters-just-for-hating part. On the other hand I've seriously seen people who believe you shouldn't eat national dishes of other countries or learn their languages because it's cultural appropriation - which is quite ridiculous.
As far as GamersGate is concerned I'm not quite sure but I'd rather stand with the gamers. I'm not 100% familiar with the details - I don't it has something to do with hrassement and women in games and game industry. I'm not the one to judge about harassement issue, but the second part I couldn't agree with women concerned even if I tried really hard because they're absolutely incopmetent.
So to be brief - there are trolls on both sides, SJW and anti-SJW, but there is a whole lot of people who believe what they write.
I am a user of tumblr and even though I agree there are some people there making mountains out of molehills, or trying to defend the rights of women / homosexuals / non-white people by attacking men / heterosexuals / white people, I still think there's MUCH more hate online than unjust SJWs. If I could stop either hate online or ridiculous SJW, I'd definately choose the first option.
Unjustified hate is my pet peeve. I'm sick of all the comments online. Every time I see a photo of a cosplay - there are comments like "omg she's so ugly", "with that face, you shouldn't make cosplays"; every time I see an article about Muslims, there are comments like "I would kill every one of them" etc. It really makes me lose my faith in humanity :P
The only problem with ridiculous SJWs is that they worsen the reputation of all SJWs. That's why people think that feminists, for example, are a bunch of frustrated silly women hating men.
Also I agree with you about comments on cosplay as for me it's nearly art and cosplayers' physical appearance shouldn't be really taken into account - just appreciate their work instead of hating.
Here is a video of an Asian girl in a "safe space" being silenced because she said that black people can be racist and that she personally experienced that.
So much for safe space
Here is a video I shared a few weeks back. It’s a bit over the top but it’s an interesting idea to show the way in which our society is supposedly heading:
Link
And another in a similar manner:
Link
And a "funny" story about "oppressing" others at the pool:
Link
Well, maybe sometimes. Not long ago I had a good laugh while reading this little verbal skirmish (inappropriate language warning). It caught my attention because it mentioned Poland, but the whole "discussion" is about cultural appropriation and flower crowns.
That example is pretty ridiculous, but there are thousands much worse than this - walls of text full of rage, contempt and self-righteous mottos, where opinions are being mistaken for facts (intentionally or not), where facts aren't even taken into account. Sometimes when I look at such posts I feel like I'm reading an insane person's ramblings.. and to be honest I think that some of SJWs have to be insane, in one way or another.
Anyway people care way to much about what other people write on their personal blogs. If I ever stumble upon a post like this you mentioned above I'd probably assumed it's some kind of inside-joke or some drug-trip inspired quote. But hey, lets assume the worst and pass on our assumption as truth, what could possibly go wrong.
On the other hand media learns people to be conformists. It isn't good. Everyone has different views and we should respect it.
But I completely agree with your second sentence, social justice is hell of a click-bait. And the Internet is this one rare medium, where negative or controversial fame is basically good enough to make the same profit as the good one. Because what counts are the viewers, not their support.
And yes, the pointless rants that do absolutely nothing drive me crazy. Although my favourite type of post go along these lines (just an example)
A: It's possible to be racist towards white people
B: shut up you cracker
A: I'm black
boom.
They think that if they find something offensive then everyone should.
I think it all comes down to the most negative aspects of internet discussion - lack of actuall contact, lack of empathy and anonimity. Most of those conversations and agression just wouldn't happen between two people actually talking.