Tuesday, July 31, 2018

SJW






I recently posted something I wrote here about libraries onto a relevant page on the Internet. I thought it would perhaps be of interest there to some people, and perhaps it was. But after a few hours all I got from it directly was an angry comment inspired, apparently, by a joke in it about Forbes being an Alt-Right magazine that was taken with an all too deadpan literalness. In the brief attack that followed I was called an SJW.

For those of you not versed fully on Internet acronyms, SJW means Single Jewish Woman. While I must assert that I am Jewish, I am most delightedly not Single, and I am also not a Woman, though because of my high voice I am occasionally mistaken for one on the phone, mostly by old men and telemarketers.

What's that?

SJW doesn't stand for Single Jewish Woman? It stands for Social Justice Warrior?

Oh. Okay. I'll take your word for it. But you could see my mistake. A person inclined to use the derisive and sarcastic term SJW, is likely to feel pretty much the same about both Single Jewish Women and Social Justice Warriors; bizarrely hostile, uncomfortable, and all... shadowy.

But fine, Social Justice Warrior. I have now been called a Social Justice Warrior.

Well... that's nice. I don't understand. That seems like a good thing to be. I mean, I can try. I want justice for and in society. And I guess I can try to be a Warrior for good.

But it's supposed to be a hostile criticism.

How am I supposed to respond to such a thing?

Say you're walking down the street and a cat comes along and you bend down and skirtch it. Someone nearby sees this and says derisively, in a mean tone of voice "Well aren't you an FTA?"

"What's an FTA?" You ask.

"Friend To Animals." But they say it like it's bad. So you kind of want to say

"I am not a Friend To Animals!"

 Except you are actually quite friendly with animals and are pretty happy and proud to be so, so you don't say anything while this jerkface just walks away. And you're kind of worked up now but you have no idea what to do.

But then all of the sudden the adorable but now angry cat goes running at jerkface in a fury and attacks him! He just scratches the jerkface guy to hell.  I mean he savages him so bad that this guy just bleeds to death right there!

It's horrible!

And then the kitty comes over to you, purring and with bloodied whiskers glowing like jewels in the sun,  and you give him a nice long skirtch on his head. "What a good kitty." You say in a baby voice. "What a nice little Social Justice Warrior you are!"

And (almost) everyone lives happily ever after.








6 comments:

  1. Neo-nazis were very successful and pushing that term as a bad thing they got the whole internet. Fact of the matter is anybody using that term got played by Neo-Nazi propaganda because that's where it originated I've been paying attention to this for a while

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, okay, and thank you for the comment, but I would like to add that SJW as an inherently pejorative term is a case of mainly getting people who want to be gotten; that is, anyone using the term is more or less in that camp to begin with.

      Delete
  2. Neo-nazis were very successful and pushing that term as a bad thing they got the whole internet. Fact of the matter is anybody using that term got played by Neo-Nazi propaganda because that's where it originated I've been paying attention to this for a while

    ReplyDelete
  3. mdnez here. I just wanna mention dat i very much enjoy the this "skirtch" term of yours. ;')

    ReplyDelete

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

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