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Paraphrasing an article by Time Magazine's Joel Stein:
The Internet's personality has changed -- once it was like a geek with lofty ideals about the free flow of information. Now the web is a sociopath with Asperger's. [ Submitter's note: the "Sociopath with Asperger's" comment is not my addition, but a verbatim phrase in the source article ]
The people who relish their online freedom to act under influence of the online disinhibition effect are called "trolls." Trolling is, overtly, a political fight; but it has become the main tool of the alt-right, an Internet-grown reactionary movement that works for men's rights and against immigration. They derisively call their adversaries "social justice warriors" and believe that liberal interest groups purposely exploit their weaknesses to gain pity, which allows them to control the leverage of political power.
When sites are overrun by trolls, they drown out the voices of women, ethic and religious minorities, gays -- anyone who might feel vulnerable. The alt-right argues that if you can't handle opprobrium, you should just turn off your computer. But that's arguing against self-expression, something antithetical to the original values of the Internet.
The article closes with a description of an exchange between Stein and a detractor. In meeting the detractor in real-life, he was surprised by her lack of bravado, to which she responds, "The Internet is the realm of the coward. These are people who are all sound and no fury."
Stein ruminates in response, "Maybe. But maybe, in the information age, sound is as destructive as fury."
(Score: 3, Informative) by JNCF on Saturday August 20 2016, @04:48AM
I cannot read your link. You used the "SJW" thing, and so all rational people know two things immediately: you are not reliable, and you are probably not really a hacker.
This is actually an interesting ball of yarn to unravel. Keep in mind that I'm strictly discussing word-use here. The Washington Post [washingtonpost.com] cites positive uses of the term "social-justice warrior" going back to 1991, which predates any known derogatory uses that I've seen:
More than 20 years ago, the term was generally used as a neutral or even complimentary describer. Here’s a clip from a 1991 write-up of a Montreal jazz festival, from the Montreal Gazette:
[Quebec guitarist Rene] Lussier will present the world premiere of his ambitious Quebecois mood piece Le Tresor de la Langue, which juxtaposes the spoken word — including sound bites from Charles de Gaulle and Quebec nationalist and social-justice warrior Michel Chartrand — with new- music noodlings.
“All of the examples I’ve seen until quite recently are lionizing the person,” Katherine Martin, the head of U.S. dictionaries at the Oxford University Press, said in an interview last month. Because “Social Justice Warrior” is currently only in Oxford Dictionaries — and not in the Oxford English Dictionary itself — lexicographers there haven’t done a full search for its earliest citation. But a cursory search for the phrase turns up several positive uses, spanning from the early ’90s through the early ’00s.
Which raises the question, is "SJW" a different term than "social-justice warrior?" Or is this a term that started with a positive connotation, and only very recently became negative? If the latter, it seems odd to write off a statement based on the use of this term. If the former, merely unabbreviating the phrase would make the statement readable again (or at least nullify your original objection) -- and while I can't find the link now, I'm pretty sure I've seen a "This Is What A SJW Looks Like" shirt which uses the abbreviation itself in a positive manner.
I'm legitimately interested in whether or not this information changes your mind about dismissing statements based on the use of the term alone, ancient chatbot philosopher.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday August 20 2016, @05:06AM
Hey, JNCF, (if that is your real login name), only an actual SJW can call another SJW a SJW!! We own the moniker, we take what our enemies call us, stick in our hat, and call it macaroni! With cheese!
But, yes, it would be interesting to know where this first arose. With a colossal lack of evidence, I suspect Brietbart. What with all the new stuff that has come to light, man, it only makes sense. But I could be wrong. We should research this more, so we can help our fellow Soylentils who seem to have been infected. I have heard that "SJW appelation syndrome" can cause microcephaly in otherwise healthy adult males.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday August 20 2016, @10:28AM
words are neither good nor bad, but thinking makes them so...
(with 'thinking' meaning 'it is what our brains do', not 'reasoned logic'...)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Kell on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:11AM
I think there are really two concepts here that are being wrongly conflated. On one hand, there is the person who strives to bring about social equity and change (a laudible goal to many people) - the 'social justice warrior'. On the other hand is the person who uses feminism and race politics as a sort of weapon to promote a political agenda - what I would call an 'identity politics zealot'. There's a Venn diagram: not all SJWs are IPZs and not all IPZs genuinely fight for social justice... in fact, most of them seem hell-bent on promoting a culture of inequity based on historical slights and wrongdoings, real or imagined. IPZs seem to dominate the online discourse, and I think we rarely hear from the "real" SJWs because they're too busy actually doing that things that help build communities.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:59AM
Oh, great! The solution is another TLA? WTF? NNR? Whatever happened to the Anti-social Injustice Quibblers? AIG, opps, AIQ. Suspiciously like al Quaeda, doncha think?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NCommander on Saturday August 20 2016, @08:31AM
The problem is that when you have a label of any type, the loudest tend to create the stereotype of that label, and those stereotypes then get distorted over time. 20 years ago, the definition of what a Republican was is very different that what it is now. The same can be said for SFW, or troll, or even hacker.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Kell on Sunday August 21 2016, @12:21AM
You're perfectly right - this is merely my own internal way of thinking, and not what I'd propose for others. We all label people, consciously or subconsciously. I prefer to consciously separate these two concepts, which others may tacitly not. YMMV.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Francis on Saturday August 20 2016, @02:19PM
It hasn't meant that in a very long time. The main reason why SJW is a pejorative is that they live in bubbles. They usually mean well, when they're not actually trolls, but they're so divorced from reality that they're a danger to the republic. They don't respect free speech or equality as it exists and are regularly tilting at windmills and trying to right past wrongs by screwing over people who had nothing to do with it.
I personally think it's rather offensive to lump the anti-immigration people in with the men's rights people as those are two very different groups. In America it's difficult to find a measure by which men aren't behind. And the list is pretty much limited to sexual offenses. Even there, the women seem to be catching up.
But, life expectancy, prison terms, conviction rates, homicide, suicide, work conditions, divorce rates and child care leave are all areas in which women are doing better than men and those are some pretty damn important things and hardly a comprehensive list. Hence why the SJW types have to silence the critics, they haven't got a leg to stand on when it comes to women's rights and as a result their only viable strategy is to silence the opposition before people notice the lies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @03:52PM
Nice to see the special snowflakes are out in force. I'd hate to think that they would ever be confronted with somebody elses opinion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:53PM
Shut up, Francis!