Trashbin 2
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"The only way to win is to not read the crazy, and just fap and/or shlick to the pictures."
- /d/
Meaning
Skub's final form.
SJW stands for "Social Justice Warrior", a particular kind of individual known for attempts to police the internet and the culture of society as a whole by proxy. The term originated in the late 1990's to mid 2000's, where they were originally more neutral (as they were merely annoying advocates of social change).
They generally work by leading virtual witch-hunts to brand people who have run afoul of them as bigots, sending death threats and vitriol at the target. A big enough backlash on social media can permanently tar-and-feather an individual as irredeemably evil, thus turning them into a social pariah. Some even go so far as "doxxing", or hacking and illegally obtaining the personal information of an individual they dislike; said info is spread is spread throughout the internet in an attempt to humiliate or even financially devastate them. If they can't contact the person's employer, the person's real name will suffice.
The distinguishing features of actual SJWs are as follows:
- Generally somewhere on the far left of the political spectrum (or anywhere left of center far as some people are concerned).
- Heavily invested in Identity Politics
- Usually unable function outside of their echo chambers, like most people on the internet
Generally speaking, the term is thrown around to the point of near-meaninglessness, usually as a buzzword insult towards the left-minded or those who are exhibiting more restraint than the user feels is appropriate. In this context, it is interchangeable with the term "Tumblr", a site believed by many to be their origin and gathering location (which is far from untrue, even though the bulk of the site is what one would otherwise expect anything on the internet to be: cats, porn, and memes). Then again, even Tumblr itself has its own collective of right-wing tryhards who enjoy nothing more than having a crop of easy targets that aren't them ripe for the picking, like most people on the internet.
The recent rise of the "alt-right" has completed the vicious circle of stupidity and basically turned online discourse into a near-perfect mirror of the Democrat-Republican divide, except with more actual card-carrying fascists, creepy weeaboos, and each group playing tug-of-war with media representation and essentially accusing the other of polluting their online 'safe spaces'.
...wait, what's the big deal again?
Long story short, aside from assholes trying to shut up people they're being rude to or who are harmlessly being a bit more politically-correct than them, expect the term to start showing up anytime someone in popular media does or says something potentially offensive (whether legitimate or otherwise; this runs the gamut from your average politician proving how out of touch they are with everyone else to a show not being 'progressive' enough for them to live through). The end result is almost always several threads on any given forum(s) devolving into shitpost hell, which sounds commonplace enough, but it's also typically escalated to the point where rifts develop in several communities, creators (most often independent ones) face harassment and death threats, and any legitimate criticisms are sure to get lost in the mix of mob mentality.
Again, like most of the internet.
Relevance to /tg/
One of the first (serious) examples of SJW's in fantasy fiction would be the complaints over the all-white cast of Lord of the Rings movie (though there is precedent, as in the books non-evil humans were somewhat more diverse in skin color... and this was written when racial segregation was legally enforced).
While SJW discussions mostly focus on comics, movies and video games, they've found little traction on tabletop games; as such, to /tg/ they represent poor trolling attempts and B8 threads (much like the /pol/acks they greatly resemble), as very few /tg/ products or interests are mainstream enough to warrant scrutiny (or continued interest if they do take issue with it).
This is largely due to the fact that tabletop gaming is more obscure in comparison, and any debates and criticisms surrounding the medium are either nearly as old as the genre itself, or else commonplace enough (e.g. impractical costume design) that it's not even exclusive to the genre anymore. -4 STR is something of an exception in this regard, given that it originated with tabletop itself.
In any case, the inner hipster of the SJW may see the tabletop game medium as not worth the effort, and instead prefer mainstream mediums to target... or it could be because the medium is usually associated by design with imagination and roleplaying, which means on paper, you could just as easily fix the complaints yourself if you really wanted to THAT badly. Little of both, usually.
Sometimes though, you may hear complaints about wargaming, and how it has too much imperialism, war crimes, genocide, religious extremism, xenophobia, abduction, child soldiers, injury and death of minors, suicide, rape, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, supernatural horror, etc etc. While not mentioned by name, you can imagine they had one particular franchise in mind. Naturally, you can also imagine the lengths they went to in order to completely ignore the entire air of black vs. black morality around the setting itself.
With that said, Warhammer 40,000 has become a target for them, with the three most common complaints being the absence of Female Space Marines, the Sisters of Battle having boob plates and, tied for third, the lack of women and non-white humans in the Imperium going by models and art. Granted, these criticisms aren't necessarily exclusive to SJWs (plus "a broken clock is right twice a day"), but the problem with this view is:
- Warhammer 40,000 originated as an ironic parody of hard-right authoritarianism, born out of the explosion of progressive UK Sci-fi and fantasy that erupted during Thatcherite Britain. Along with comics like 2000AD, Warhammer 40K took the themes of authoritarian rule to a fantastic extreme, providing both an escape and a reflection on the grim reality of conservative rule in the UK - a context has been lost over time with the growing popularity of the game and the growth of the company itself.
- GW hardly listens to their own customers anyway, so complaining won't change shit no matter how obvious the problem is. The average critic not only recognizes this, but knows to draw the line well before accusing GW of purposely drawing only white male characters out of spite, because
- Every 40k player also knows that GW is simply bad at making business decisions.
The healthy response, which many labeled as SJWs are starting to do instead of just pissing into the wind, is to take matters into your own hands and just make those dark-skinned female guardsmen yourself and troll some /pol/acks while you're at it. Half the fun of Warhammer is making your armies your own anyway, so why wait for GW to change? Hell, like we said before, that extends to wargames as a whole, to say nothing of the tabletop game medium in general. But remember, as long as someone makes their dudes "wrong," someone will always be yelling.
(It should be noted that GW has been somewhat addressing these issue, in Age of Sigmar anyway; several models have non-white skin tones, the first unhelmeted Sigmarine is black and the most promoted faction other than Sigmarines and Khorne is the mostly female Sylvaneth.)
The wrong response (and this is almost always true, by the way), is to insult the fans for liking something they don't like. But hey, whatchagonnado? Complaining about people liking something you don't like is almost as popular here as complaining about people not liking something you love.
Once again, like most of the internet.
And to think, Warhammer 40,000 originated as an ironic parody of hard-right authoritarianism, not the 'how to' guide quite a few contemporary players think it is. For those unaware, 40K developed out of the explosion of progressive UK Sci-fi and fantasy that erupted during Thatcherite Britain. Along with comics like 2000AD, Warhammer 40K took the themes of authoritarian rule to a fantastic extreme, providing both an escape and a reflection on the grim reality of conservative rule in the UK. This context has been lost over time, with the spread of the game to nations unaware of these historical roots, and as the company itself has grown from a small group of young British entrepreneurs into a global corporation. But seriously people, how can you not get that the Imperium is meant to be a social commentary? It's not exactly subtle.
See Also
- /pol/ for the exact same cancer on the other side of the body.
All anyone needs to know.
