What Happened to Social Justice Warriors

By: Luther Bravo

Have you found yourself agreeing with more conservative talking points lately? Maybe you think  nobody wants to work anymore or that trans women shouldn’t be included in women's sports. Most people have at least a few conservative viewpoints on various topics. With the internet, it is easier than ever to find people who agree with you on these topics and even share some funny jokes. As you should do this, you do not notice how quickly you find yourself agreeing with more conservative viewpoints under the guise of joking. This is how a person can enter the “Social Justice Warrior to Alt-Right” pipeline and hardly notice. 

Understanding the “Social Justice Warrior to Alt-Right” pipeline is consequential in understanding our current and future political landscape. Oxford defines social justice warrior as “a person who expresses or promotes socially progressive views.” The definition also states the phrase is used informally and is derogatory as the term is most used when making fun of progressive ideas.  Alt-Right is short for “alternative right” which is a loosely connected far right nationalist movement. How does laughing at social justice warrior ideas lead one to a far right political movement? 

The right wing benefits from a pipeline that smokes people from progressive viewpoints to far right wing views. To understand why, one must understand that The US’ political center is more right than other Western nations. The “Manifesto Project” reported in 2019 by Sahil Chnoy was released and provides data to explain this phenomenon. The Manifesto Project set out to review the different political groups' manifestos to see where they land on a common scale. The research shows that The US’ Republican Party is more far right than other conservative parties. The data also reveals that, The US’ Democratic Party is more right than other progressive parties. Therefore, with The US being a two party system , one can conclude that The US is more right leaning than other nations. The data even shows how The Democratic Party moved more to the right from 2000 to 2012. 

There are a few reasons why The Democratic Party moved more to the right for 12 years. After 9/11 The US quickly started The War in Afghanistan in 2001. The Iraq War started in 2003. Having two active wars going on leads the entire nation more to the right. In 2008 concerns were fixing the economy and making “meaningful progress” in the ongoing wars. Under the Obama administration, the military budget increased the most than it did under any previous president and refused to codify Roe. The Democratic Party continuously courts moderate voters by moving more to the right in policies and candidate selection. In May 2022, Nancy Pelosi endorsed anti-abortion candidate Henry Cuellar from Texas. This is because instead of actually promoting more progressive candidates and policies they simply want to appear as the progressive option. For the upcoming 2022 elections the Democrats are backing far right candidates in hopes that’ll make people support their barely progressive candidate. 

The Pew Research Center did a survey report titled “The American- Western European Values Gap” that collected data on the difference in values. The report shows that people from The US are noticeably to the right of their Western counterparts. Research found that respondents from The US are more religious, have higher culture superiority, and are more individualistic. In addition, Americans were the most pro military and wanted the least amount of oversight. Seventy-five percent of US respondents agreed that military force is needed to maintain order. Only 45% of US respondents believe UN approval is needed for using military force for international threats. This is compared to the range of mid 60s to mid 70s of European respondents who believe that UN approval is needed for international threats. Only 39% of US respondents want to help other countries with problems. This is compared with over 50% in France and Germany. Over half of Europeans do not think their culture is superior to others compared to less than half The US. In other Western countries on average 62% of respondents believe it is more important that no one is in need than people have the freedom to pursue life’s goals. This is compared to 58% of US respondents who believe the freedom to pursue life’s goals is more important than no one being in need. These statistics show that in The US they are more extreme in their values than their Western Counterparts. 

The fact that The US is more to the right than most realize is why the pipeline is able to work on a large population. Most people regardless of party, are able to be swept up in the propaganda and rhetoric because of their values. The Social Justice Warrior to Alt Right pipeline uses appeals to morality, lack of accountability, and echo chambers to successfully move people from moderate to far right. The pipeline works by moving people painting progressives as misguided, weak yet vengeful. This creates an “Us versus Them” mentality within the pipeline. 

The appeal to morality works effectively because everyone wants to feel that they are correct.  This is particularly important when considering that the main target for the pipeline are young white males. Many young white males are dealing with white fragility. White fragility is defined by Oxford as, “ discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person who is confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice.” White fragility causes the need for a moral high ground. Young white men can see how white men are blamed for the ills of society and desperately seek a way to have the moral high ground. Enter the pipeline with jokes about how if black people didn’t want to be shot , they should not run away. Young white men are not going to dig for deeper to understand the racist undertones - they just found a win. Now they have the moral high ground by appealing to authority and will ignore racism. 

White fragility does not just impact young white males but all white people. Therefore, white fragility allows all white people to be susceptible to the pipeline because of the appeals to morality.  This is why when Black Lives Matters protests picked up during the summer of 2020 , many whites cried “All Lives Matter.” Dealing with actual causes of police brutality means that they would have to deal with racist ideals they themselves uphold and support. Therefore, it is easier and benefits the right more to paint Black Lives Matters as the other. To say that they are the problem, not white people who support the police and the brutality they use. 

Lack of accountability is the next pillar in the pipeline. The Republican Party has been using lack of accountability to stroke fear for decades. The Republican Party will have people believe that mass shootings are not uniquely American issues. Yet, they are the party who consistently loosen gun restrictions, cut the public education budget and stroke fear into the nation. When mass shootings happen Republicans deflect responsibility with many phrases. They often say “thoughts and prayers are what is needed during this time.” Yet, they do not rush to give aid to the victims' families or create policy that would prevent it from happening again. In fact they claim that they are protecting the 2nd amendment from the “radical left who want to take all your guns” To support this rhetoric they repeat, “the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” They repeat this even though there is hardly any evidence to support this.  In June 2022 data from how 433 mass shootings ended was released. A quarter of mass shooters ended their own life. Another quarter of mass shooters flee the scene. Therefore over half the time a “good guy with a gun” is not a reliable factor in a mass shooting. Yet, that will not stop Republicans from convincing their base that gun wonder hip is the only thing protecting them from being a victim in the next mass shooting. 

The use of lack of accountability to this degree is destabilizing to the base of the group. It is destabilizing because it allows current events to be seen as isolated incidents instead of consequences of policy. This creates a false reality, is not just appealing to whites people but people of all races and from all backgrounds At this point in the pipeline, access to moral high ground and destabilize reality can be viewed as a tool for people of color. This is because for people of color, assimilation is key to survival. However, what keeps people of color in the pipeline is the same as their whites counterparts - echo chambers.

Echo chambers is an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered. The Right consistently proclaims, “the radical left exists in an echo chamber.” This is key because it enforces the belief to the base that outside options cannot be trusted. That those ideas are extreme and have not thought about “regular people.” This keeps people in the pipeline where they are surrounded by people with similar views as them. This only drags them deeper into the far right which makes it harder to get them out of this thinking. 

The Social Justice Warrior to Alt-Right pipeline is effective because of all these factors. The Democratic Party’s complacency has laid the groundwork for this pipeline. The use of appeals to morality, lack of accountability and echo chambers can bring almost anyone in The US to the far right. The Republican Party is determined to bring The US to the far right and they are doing so successfully. The only way to save our country is to be honest about the reality we are facing.