I long speculated that SJWs eventually reached "critical mass" in 2011, but I hadn't quite figured out why, or what it meant. We know that the SJWs had forerunners in the 90's PC movement, and that even they had forerunners in the abstract-thinking, politically-active intellectual elites of the past centuries. Solipsism seems to be a problem unique to the intellectual elites of any society. But something was different about this, never before did they have such destructive capability or self-perpetuating delusions and hoaxes that spread like wildfire.

I'd like to present a theory I've come up with: SJWs have always been among us, in the sense of narcissistic, intellectually lazy young people bent on changing society to fit their worldview. Young rebels who think they know better than everyone else have existed since Socrates time. It just wasn't until recently that the technology has allowed them to become a self-sustaining and destructive force. In the 90s we saw a temporary rise thanks to mass media and the development of academia into its own city-state cut off from the rest of the world, but it wasn't until the invention of social media and web 2.0 that they really took on a life of their own.

What does this mean? Media, in particular social media, has allowed a latent force to build itself up via positive feedback loops and echo chambers that it now effects everyone on the planet. Think of it this way; the world has always had a set amount of SJWs, but in the past they could not focus their rage on anything to have any real impact, with the exception of the occasional popular rebellion - it's no coincidence that revolt is always a young people's pastime. Social media, however, gives them the ability to find new targets everyday to attack en masse. Hypersensitive teenagers have always existed, but while they may have been limited to screaming at their parents in the past, they can now weaponize their angst by doxxing or harassing complete strangers halfway around the world.