Social Justice Warrior as a pejorative, in my experience, is the kind of person who will take every chance to unpack a person's behavior in search of privilege and cultural exploitation and everything else, to an excessive degree.

Where have you encountered these people? That's not accusatory; I'm genuinely curious, because I spend way too much time on the internet, and haven't come across people who are deliberately looking for chances to bust on people for privileged opinions/behavior.

(As an example, when K.T. Bradford brought up the idea of not reading straight white cis male authors for a year, the internet lost its damn mind. To my eye, all she was saying was, hey, there are a LOT of authors who don't get the kind of exposure that straight white cis male authors get, and making it a point to seek out those authors can be pretty rewarding. But people acted as though she was saying we should go kill Neil Gaiman and Jim Butcher, and she was going to personally show up at your house and burn all your Game of Thrones and Discworld books.)

Primarily I've run across them on Facebook, piling on in comments on various stories. They seemed eager to prove their activist street cred by criticizing things like any possible use of any pattern or design that could be interpreted as Native American or the native culture of any area, even a generic pattern on a generic shirt. I think the argument was If you're not descended from them, you shouldn't wear it. I didn't make a note of them, as I don't make a point of following those stories and I moved on.

Ah. I use FB to socialize with people I already know, so I do miss all of those sorts of comments.

I don't think those are bad conversations to have, but I also don't think FB is the best place for them, because FB really isn't ideal for what ought to be a nuanced conversation. It seems to turn everything into a soapbox rather than an actual discussion.

not really here because of deadlines and family, but Charlie Stross has some interesting extracurricular reading: [link]

ALL trigger warnings apply.

Where have you encountered these people? That's not accusatory; I'm genuinely curious, because I spend way too much time on the internet, and haven't come across people who are deliberately looking for chances to bust on people for privileged opinions/behavior.

I've run into it on Scans Daily, the Backlot (formerly AfterElton) and in Teen Wolf fandom. The basic intention of being more sensitive to minority issues is good, but some people take things too far and characterize any disagreement with a particular point they make as racist/misogynistic/homophobic oppression by the PatriarchyTM.

This is yet another time I really wish I had the magical power of dropping cartoon anvils on people's heads.

Where have you encountered these people? That's not accusatory; I'm genuinely curious, because I spend way too much time on the internet, and haven't come across people who are deliberately looking for chances to bust on people for privileged opinions/behavior.

Tumblr. My favorite was the one where you shouldn't cosplay with toe shoes because a) you'd probably turn an ankle if you didn't know how to walk in them* and b) because ballet dancers had spent years of practice earning them and how dare you mock their efforts and pain! You wouldn't wear a gi if you hadn't studied martial arts**! You wouldn't wear a military uniform if you hadn't served**! How dare you appropriate dance culture!

/*Probably valid. Although I've turned ankles while walking on a dry sidewalk in sneakers, so whatevs.

/**The poster has clearly never been to a Con. Or she/he/ze is making unwarranted assumptions about a quarter of the people there, especially ones that have a Stargate presence.

I think there's a lot of free floating outrage in these people, and they're looking for something to hook it too. Someone they admire comes out against something, so they decide to join them with outrage set to 11 and they make everyone else look bad.

It all depends on context. I've the pejoritive "Social Justice Warrior" more used by white males with their outrage set to 12. Of course, the context that I have seen it, is on Twitter where I follow a number of the protestors from Fergussen. So in my mind it is right up there with MRAs' use of "feminazi".

I've seen it used as a pejorative from all sorts.