Jennifer and Lee

This was the last thing that was said to me before a group of bullies destroyed my reputation because of jealousy.

Social Justice Warrior: A pejorative term for an individual who repeatedly and vehemently engages in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation. A social justice warrior, or SJW, does not necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of. They typically repeat points from whoever is the most popular blogger or commenter of the moment, hoping that they will “get SJ points” and become popular in return. They are very sure to adopt stances that are “correct” in their social circle. The SJW’s favorite activity of all is to dogpile. They do not have relevant favorite real-world places, because SJWs are primarily civil rights activists only online. –Urban Dictionary

Why I Walked Away—and Why I Came Back

I never intended to return to the military justice reform arena.

After the relentless online attacks that targeted my husband and me, I was done. These were people who had never met us, yet they sought us out, targeted us, and, from our perspective, appeared determined to destroy our credibility and silence our voices. We believe their campaign against us showed a complete disregard for the devastating impact it could have on two people already living with trauma since childhood and brain injuries.

We never cared about fame, status, or recognition. Our focus was on protecting active-duty service members, even while we were battling serious health challenges ourselves.

What disturbed us most wasn’t just the behavior of participants connected to The Invisible War. It was watching influential leaders, including Nancy Parrish of Protect Our Defenders, elevate and amplify people whose conduct we believed was abusive, giving them credibility and a platform in Washington, D.C., while our concerns were dismissed.

For a time, the harassment achieved its goal. We stepped away.

But two years later, fellow credible advocates asked us to come back. They encouraged us to reopen our Facebook pages and help push back against what they saw as intimidation and retaliation that was continuing to affect active-duty service members.

So we returned.

I reopened my social media accounts, published this article, and committed myself to understanding the tactics we had experienced. Over the next decade, I immersed myself in studying manipulation, coercive control, reputation attacks, and the behavioral patterns commonly discussed in research on abusive individuals and organized harassment. That work gave me a framework for understanding what we believe happened to us—and why similar patterns continue to harm vulnerable people today.

I came back because I refused to let intimidation have the final word.

Narcissistic traits can include a strong need for admiration, concern with status, and reacting defensively to criticism. Someone who primarily seeks praise or attention online could display some of these traits, but many people seek social approval without having Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5-TR)-level narcissistic personality disorder.

Psychopathic traits are generally associated with callousness, lack of empathy, manipulation, shallow affect, and chronic antisocial behavior. Simply joining an online dogpile does not indicate psychopathy.

Sociopathy is not an official diagnostic term, though it’s often used colloquially to describe someone with features of antisocial personality disorder who may be more impulsive or reactive than the stereotypical “psychopath.”

What we initially believed were Social Justice Warriors were much more sinister.

How Online Mobs Silence Independent Voices

In my research on the subject of social justice warriors, I have learned a lot about my own situation. I, like many Americans, have been targeted by a gang of internet bullies, in this case disguised as military sexual assault survivors. The ironic thing about it is that they claimed to be fighting against a culture of retaliation in the military but they themselves are engaging in a form of retaliation against anyone on-line who is not kissing their ass or in lock step with their perspective. The retaliation they engaged in included but was not limited to dog piling, making things up, ruining reputations, contacting people and accusing the person they were targeting of the behavior they were engaging in, doxing, and swatting.

I stepped out of military sexual assault advocacy after becoming the victim of some social justice warriors who were not only the aggressors but were in fact promoted by the main stream media, Oscar nominated filmmakers, victim advocacy organizations, and even Democratic senators. Despite multiple veterans contacting the above listed people with their concerns about them knowingly promoting bullies and harassers, we were banished and isolated instead. It was only after the on-line abuse escalated in the form of doxing and swatting that I began to quickly re-evaluate my situation and decided that maybe advocacy was not for me. In effect, these internet bullies had temporarily silenced me. They infringed on my right to freedom of speech and took away my ability to confront what I consider a due process issue, publicly shaming someone with no proof but plenty of followers.

Dogpile: A group of people jumping on one person and creating a tower of people while crushing the people on bottom.

Doxing: Search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent.

Swatting: Swatting has been associated with online harassment campaigns, and episodes range from large to small – from the deployment of bomb squads, SWAT units and other police units and the concurrent evacuations of schools and businesses, to a single fabricated police report meant to discredit an individual as a prank or personal vendetta.

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Since stepping back into the arena, I have come across a number of professional journalists, constitutionalists, attorneys, and due process advocates who are holding these SJWs accountable. They have intelligently come up with words and phrases to conceptualize the behavior which in effect has empowered me to stand tall and not back down if this kind of behavior ever occurs again. The behavior of SJWs did in fact shake me to my core when I realized just how underhanded and manipulative they are. It also concerned me that they were targeting a population (veterans with PTSD) who are struggling with an epidemic of suicide. I have mustered the strength to take this issue on because of how it negatively impacted me and other veterans around me.

Everyone has a right to advocate for issues that are important to them. Everyone has a right to speak their truth. But on-line bullies and harassers do not have a right to dogpile, dox, and swat those that they do not like or agree with. There has been a lot of discussion around misogyny on line towards women. I am here to tell you that I was never targeted by random men; I was targeted by other women and those that call themselves survivors. It was hypocrisy at its finest and the reason I decided to speak my truth. The lesson I learned is that I will do me and you can do you, until you aggress upon me and infringe on my right to freedom of speech and expression. I wrote about it while it was happening to me to document the behavior and I will continue to write about the damage of public shaming and how it violates another important constitutional right, the right to due process.

Related Links:

The Pecking Disorder: Social Justice Warriors Gone Wild
Why ‘social justice warrior,’ a Gamergate insult, is now a dictionary entry
Why narcissistic people lie, smear campaign, and gossip about victims
Empathic people are natural targets for sociopaths – protect yourself
Adult Cyberbullying: Harassment in the Information Age
Advice for Adult Victims of Cyberbullying