Meaning
What does Social Justice Warrior mean?
Social Justice Warrior, abbreviated as SJW is a derogatory term used to refer to bloggers, influencers and other online personas, who are engaging in long and emotional debates concerning political correctness and social injustice.
“Social Justice Warriors” are prone to be blindly following the ideology of political correctness and placing the emphasis on emotions instead of logic in an argument.
Origin
What's the origin of Social Justice Warrior?
A precursor expression to SJW appeared on Urban Dictionary in 2006, describing keyboard warriors as users, who partake in hateful arguments on the internet, fueled by their rage.
The first use of “Social Justice Warrior” appeared on the Blogspot blog Social Justice Warriors: Do Not Engage, which was started on November 6th, 2009.
Spread & Usage
How did Social Justice Warrior spread?
The phrase was first defined on Urban Dictionary in 2011.
The trope of “Social Justice Warriors” had appeared on numerous sites throughout the 2010’s, including Tumblr, Reddit as well as Something Awful where users would write blogs and argue in threads and comment sections over SJWs.
The discussion would appear all over the internet, including tweets and videos and songs on YouTube not to mention South Park’s take on the phenomenon.
External resources
- Medium.com – Why I’m Not A Social Justice Warrior
- The Washington Post – Why ‘social justice warrior,’ a Gamergate insult, is now a dictionary entry