Fear and Loathing: Geeks and Social Justice Warriors
16th January 2018
Jacob Lloyd expands on a familiar topic.
I’m not going to get into an argument about what a social justice warrior actually is, because the very concept is a slippery one – and, in any case, it’s better to see them as social justice bullies. What I will say is that geeks are triggered by social justice bullies.
The core problem with SJWs is not that they are evil. They have good intentions. But they see people as groups, rather than individuals. There is no attempt to draw a line between two different people, not when they’re in the same group. SJWs see Sheldon Cooper and Warren Mears as being identical, even though they’re very different people. People who happen to be in the favored groups get better treatment than the unfavored. Worse, they are unable or unwilling to understand how their words scan to everyone outside their bubble. A reasonable argument (to them) may not seem quite so reasonable to everyone else.
SJW tactics are very well known to geeks – they faced them back in high school! Someone steps out of line – someone unpopular, someone with few true friends – and promptly gets blasted by the SJWs. (The internet makes this worse, as it is now possible to pour scorn on JK Rowling, George RR Martin and others who would be too popular to bully in high school.) The SJWs use ‘call-outs’ as weapons; instead of addressing matters privately, they humiliate their victims publicly. And anyone who apologizes only makes it worse for themselves.
This is similar to Cool Kids Syndrome that I discussed earlier in the context of the supposed Democrat boycott of the State of the Union Message.
(George R.R. Martin looks like a huge tick, anyway, so it’s impossible to see him as being ‘popular in high school’.)