“SJW,” The Bigot Bleep™

Created by leftists to mock insincerity; co-opted by ultraconservative bigots as a catch-all slur stand-in.

I had never been called an SJW before 2014. I’d known the term, for sure, but people didn’t deem it appropriate to use it in reference to me. I was raised in a conservative household and was considered a rebel for being a centrist in my late-teens-to-mid 20s and veered hard-left after 2011, when I experienced some ridiculous events I’ve referenced in other essays of mine that opened my eyes to the nature of hatred.

Even so, it took around 3 years of (very clumsy) full-leftist stuff (sure, I voted for Obama but that doesn’t make you automatically leftist— at least not as much as I wanted to congratulate myself over in 2008) coming from my mouth before anyone called me that. It was my opposition to GamerGate in 2014 that finally warranted that insult, apparently. Reactionaries like to claim to use “social justice warrior” to describe liberals, progressives, feminists, and supporters of “political correctness.” It’s fitting that one of the primary “SJW” targets of the reactionary hate group I mentioned knows the term significantly better than many of them do:

“SJW is a term that was originally used from within socially conscious communities to describe the people who would use shallow at best knowledge of social issues to try to curry favor and popularity within aforementioned socially conscious communities, like a parrot reciting talking points instead of doing the harder work of listening, learning, and making space for other people. The crux of the insult lies in the accusation of insincerity” -Zoe Quinn

When it started getting lobbed my way, I did not assume this to be the definition. My understood definition of the term was the one generally still accepted today: a pejorative for someone who is progressive in some way and does not keep it to themselves.

It didn’t really make me too upset to be called that; I understood pretty well that it was an insult I would eventually encounter as I said the things I said. Since then, as I have been exposed to reactionary thinking more than I ever have in my life, I no longer believe it to mean “a shitty thing to call a progressive person.” In fact, I’d like to assert that in these reactionary circles — which “mainstream” conservatives are gradually having more and more in common with — “SJW” has taken on a far more insidious, incendiary function.