The Pejoration of The Insult “Social Justice Warrior”

The concept of pejoration is used by linguists to describe how some words go from having some respectable meaning into worse forms. That’s one definition. Amelioration is the opposite but that’s a topic for another day. The insult “Social Justice Warrior” obviously was not coined to describe some of the better parts of human nature. The insult was first introduced by leftists to describe someone who was insincere or possessing other shortcomings. Eventually, the word expanded beyond left wing blogs and into social media and started to get used by people that were to the right on the political spectrum. It was justifiably used to criticize what is known as the “regressive left”. Known for extreme political correctness, the regressive left is characterized by Yale students who want to ban free-speech, colleges who want PC Halloween costumes, and other examples of extreme leftism. Just recently, the word is now used to smear the opinions anyone considered to be slightly left of moderate on the political spectrum. The above post is from a youtube of video made by popular youtuber “Sargon of Akkad”. Notice how the comment in the middle advocates racial segregation and has 172 upvotes. At the very bottom is someone named “dh599” using the word in a far more fair and benign way. Personally, I”m excited to see if this word is still around in 5 years. I joke that it’s the way 20 year olds say “libtard”. There’s some truth to that. I used it a few times, but, since it is now accumulating so many mean connotations, I’m going to veer away from using it at all.

Thanks for reading. I’m planning on doings some articles on the new red-baiting, so follow me if you’re interested in reading about my research. I follow nearly everyone who follows me back. Have a good day.