The term ‘social justice warrior’ (SJW) has become a dirty phrase to describe anyone who fans see as changing a game or movie to allow for more inclusiveness to the detriment of the game/movie. In practice, this term comes up when games insert women or people of color into games where the property may not have had them before. On YouTube, a new genre has sprung up with titles like “Game X is SJW Propaganda” where the videos then complain about how Game X is worthless because the developers have inserted unnecessary liberal worldviews.
Gaming is not under attack by the feminazis and the liberal media. The country and the world has been divided between conservatives and liberals, and it seems that everything is being drawn into that division. I know that I risk being labeled as a social justice warrior myself, but I’m firmly in the center. This article will be about why it’s irresponsible to use liberals and social justice as a boogeyman for why a game is terrible. Two games that will be used in this article are Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Call of Duty: WWII. These two recent games have come under fire as evidence of the gaming industry’s need to insert social justice warrior propaganda into “muh gamez.”
Wolfenstein
The first thing to know is that the Wolfenstein series has always been about shooting Nazis. This is not something that changed due to the world’s climate right now. I feel that this game would’ve come out unchanged even if there hadn’t been news stories of literal Nazis marching in the streets. A criticism I’ve seen leveled against this game to show liberal bias is the only new white character in the game is a racist, bigoted Nazi sympathizer. This is used as undeniable proof that “white people are treated as the enemy.”
