A critical glossary of Social Justice jargon

The rhetoric of the Social Justice movement is oft criticized as prohibitively esoteric. Here I will deprive over 100 SJW cliches, jargon words, slang terms and catchphrases of their power to exclude, manipulate and intimidate. (Last updated August 3 2016)

Glossary Notes and Comments



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• Ableism


Ableism is discrimination against the physically and/or mentally disabled. Normally, concerns about ableism are raised to ensure disabled people are allocated the tangible resources and legal protections they need to function within society at large.

In the SJW arena, concerns about ableism move beyond the tangible and into the world of acceptable language. Words deemed ableist and discriminatory by Social Justice ideology include not just moron and retarded, but also crippled, blind, insane, crazy, lame, lunatic, paralyzed and many more. Using these words in illustrative ways to describe ideas, economies, systems or attitudes is considered ableist and discriminatory, because Social Justice dictates that any use of language associating disability with negativity is ableist, no matter how functionally such usage may illustrate an abstraction. Thus, examples of phrasing deemed ableist by Social Justice include: "blinded by hatred," "crippling the economy," "a lame excuse," and "paralyzed with fear."

Some SJWs also consider it ableist to treat the beliefs of mentally disordered people as less valid than the beliefs of neurotypical people, even when those beliefs are demonstrably unreasonable.



• Ageism


Ageism is discriminatory prejudice based on age. While it is not reasonable to judge a person solely by their age, age remains relevant to the opinions, preferences, abilities and needs of every individual, muddying the waters of what counts as ageism and what does not.

The SJW approach to ageism infuses it with concerns of thought crime. Making light of human differences resulting from age becomes ageism. Unhappiness with aging due to its physical and psychological discomforts becomes "internalized ageism." Social Justice Feminists allege that oppressive ageism fuels the market of anti-aging beauty products.

That said, SJWs do not seem to complain about ageism very much. Incidentally, they and their friends on the staunch left often employ ageism themselves. SJWs gleefully complain about "old white men" like Richard Dawkins and other seasoned intellectuals who fit the description, as though these inalienable traits constitute grounds for dismissal. One of the leading complaints about Brexit (the UK's July 2016 vote to exit the European Union), which opponents considered a right-leaning result, was that "old people" had betrayed the country's youth. Some even went so far as to claim "old people" should have their voting rights rescinded.





Next up:
• Ally, good ally
• Apex Fallacy (critical)
• Atheism Plus