social justice warrior

• social-justice warrior
• SJW (initialism)

social justice warrior (plural social justice warriors)

1. (neologism, politics) A person who advocates for progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.
   • 2021, Liat Kaplan, “I Was Your Fave Is Problematic”, in The New York Times‎:

     Looking back, I was more of a cop than a social justice warrior, as people on Tumblr had come to think of me.

2. (neologism, derogatory, politics) An advocate for social justice views whose actions are deemed overzealous, performative, or insincere.
   • 2014, Krista D. Ball, Hustlers, Harlots, and Heroes: A Regency and Steampunk Field Guide, Tyche Books Ltd., →ISBN:

     How will your upper class social justice warrior cope with men swearing and pushing each other? Will she faint at the first sight of blood from a split lip? Or will she hike up her skirts, grab a hot soup spoon, and brain the first aggressor she can find?

   • 2014, Joe Cooper, “It's Not 'Unwisdom', It's Hubris -- Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality.”, in soc.culture.usa‎ (Usenet):

     But the partisan liberals in the Obama adminstration think that the rules don't apply to them. They are blind to the dragon's teeth of division and mistrust that their social justice politics sows in the body politic. They honor and celebrate the "activist," the "community organizer" and the social justice warrior, whose proud life purpose is to "raise consciousness" of injustice and marginalization.

   • 2014, Thejendra B.S., Digital Wildfires: How to Become a Social Justice Warrior, Createspace Independent Pub, →ISBN:
   • 2015, Peggy Noonan, “The Trigger-Happy Generation”, in The Wall Street Journal‎, volume CCLXV, number 120:

     Finally, social justice warriors always portray themselves—and seem to experience themselves—as actively suffering victims who need protection.

   • 2016, Nick Adams, Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness:

     It's the time you realize your son's school has turned into Social Justice Warrior boot camp, where English is “Gender Studies” and History and Geography are “Global inequality and the failures of capitalism.”

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see social justice,‎ warrior; a social justice activist.
   • 1995, Tim Dugdale, I Couldn't Care Less: A Novel, Black Moss Press, →ISBN, page 33:

     Conny was a local painter who had achieved modest fame in the Canadian art scene with his experiments in New Age macho realism: the sensitive male writ large as compassionate lover, social justice warrior and loyal son to Mother Earth.

   • 1998, Daniel J. Faber, The Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States, Guilford Press, →ISBN:

     This book is dedicated to the memory of a great environmental and social justice warrior, mother, labor organizer, singer-songwriter, Earth Firstler activist, and much, much more Judi Bari (1949-1977)

   • 2014, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Con Job, Æclipse Press, →ISBN, page 101:

     Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Do you happen to have an expert handy on toxic pesticides in the food supply?” Jacob blew out his breath. “No, but — hold on, yes, I might.” He drew out his phone. “Let me text my favorite social justice warrior.” Jessica might not know much about arsenic and pesticides, but she would certainly know who would.

• Tumblrina
• wokeling, wokescold, wokester, woketard, wokie

• culture warrior
• purity spiral
• virtue signalling