I have used the SJW term to describe a certain form of radicalism, and it’s an incredibly interesting phenomenon to me because these are radicals who have taken ideas that I generally agree with to such an extreme that they became unpalatable to even me. As a result, I can’t imagine how much it might be alienating others who are less inclined to agree with even the more moderate view of social justice.
For example, a teenage artist on tumblr was recently bullied to the point of attempting suicide because of Steven Universe fan-art that she drew. I’m not super familiar with Steven Universe, but apparently the artist’s sins were that she drew one of the black characters with her hair in a different style than her usual afro, for which she got blasted for black-erasure, racism, etc. Similarly I think she drew one of the heavier characters skinny and got blasted for fat-erasure, fatphobia etc. She was literally getting hate mail every day telling her that she was a horrible person for her drawings, and the bullies thought they were doing something good on the behalf of traditionally subjugated groups.
One time I got some tumblr hate mail of my own because I had the audacity to suggest that we shouldn’t boycott the Red Cross on the behalf of gay men, who are currently barred from donating blood. This was an eye opening experience for me because I thought I was being a pretty good humanist by advocating for blood donation, since it helps the chronically ill. On that day I learned that SJWs might claim to be acting in the best interests of the subjugated, but some of them might have their own favorite group (in this case, LGBTQ folk), and might be willing to harm another group in order to benefit their golden child. I hated experiencing this incident because it actually made me feel bitter and doubt my social justice leanings for awhile. This kind of extremist behavior alienates people from the cause.
Another hallmark of the SJW is that they do a lot of slacktivism. They think they’re helping anybody by reblogging pro-social justice stuff on tumblr, or by starting flame wars with people who don’t agree with everything they say. But when given the opportunity to make an actual difference, you won’t find them making any personal sacrifices. I did a fundraiser for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America a little while ago, and I posted about it on tumblr, thinking a site with such strong social justice leanings would net me a lot of donations. In the end I got some 50 reblogs – plenty of people saw it and reblogged to “raise awareness” – but not a single dollar was actually donated by anybody on tumblr.
Yes, social justice, despite being a platform I generally agree with, does have the ability to be pushed to such an extreme that it is no longer beneficial. These are the people I reserve the SJW label for. It is a derogatory term in my eyes.