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.

It's all pretty similar to what I experienced in the late 80s-early 90s. I originally heard the term "politically correct" as something that people on the left used to ironically comment on those more extreme than themselves, but then right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh started using it to bludgeon everyone on the left indiscriminately.

At least nine times out of 10 someone being called a SJW means I'll probably enjoy or at least learn from their feed. For example, the extent of extrajudicial killings of African American people in the US really isn't reflected on the news. SJWs made me aware of it (with cites). It matters. I'm glad I know, and I wish I could do more than hit "reblog".

And then there are the others. I remember a debate (as much as one can debate on Tumblr--I hate the conversation mechanism as much as I love the gifs) about a woman who dressed in traditional Indian (subcontinent) garb for a wedding. Someone saw the pictures and called her out for appropriating Indian culture. It turned out the bride in question was Indian, just with very light skin and eyes, and the person calling her out was a white American. The conversation grew pretty heated.

Kind of the way "feminist" was (still is) used to mean something horrible, instead of someone who would just like to be treated fairly?

Tom nails it. Social justice warrior is used the way 'politically correct" used to be used. Ugh.

Folks on the left are eejits for leaving themselves open for the same rhetorical maneuvers again and again.

Kind of the way "feminist" was (still is) used to mean something horrible, instead of someone who would just like to be treated fairly?

Except that's more like the way some folks use "liberal" like it's an insult when really it's just a designation. I feel like feminist and liberal are both completely valid terms and we just need to own them as actually being the correct terms and refuse to let the right define them away as useless insults that no good-thinking people would want to be associated with.

Except it's not just used by rightists, though they're the most common users. I think the phrase's appearance is worth at least a second or two's consideration that the target may be one of those over-the-top activists that always get put on the news to make the whole notion look bad. Just because they're a cliché does not mean they're not real and something to take into account. The audience is not just the people who think like you, it's the undecided folks in "middle America" who don't have the same resources for education.