Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

If you really want to educate yourself on what I'm talking about when I say "social justice" and that sort of thing, here are some links, in addition to the ones scattered throughout the previous posts and comments. This is my starting point, and these are the things I take as understood when I make arguments. I know it's a lot of material. It's a big internet out there.

I'll note there's likely some overlap between these sources. And many of these sites were found by simply putting "X 101" into the google.

Starkeymonster's links for clueless white people

my delicious' privilege tag see also the feminism and politics tags.

Intent! It's fucking magic!

101 Primer

Finally! Feminism 101

Feminism 101 at Shakesville (includes a section on "$SLUR doesn't mean that anymore")

Racism 101

racism_101

Ableism 101

Ableism 101 at FWD/Forward

Ableist word profiles

Not your mom's trans 101

I couldn't find a good LGBT* 101 site, but a lot of the feminism 101s cover that.

Julia Serano's glossary of terms

Heteronormativity

Intersectionality

Kyriarchy

Understanding the principles of social justice is a lot of work. Adjusting your habits along those principles is a lot of work, and ongoing effort. It doesn't hurt you to change yourself to be more kind and less knowingly harmful to others, and it can help make the world a better place for those who have been harmed by the effects of privilege.

You'll still slip up sometimes, or you might not know that a word is harmful to others. No one's perfect, and no one expects perfection. When someone says, "hey, that hurts me, please stop," your response should be, "oh, sorry. I didn't know." and then to cease that behavior. You shouldn't dig in your heels because your sacred, magical intent was good, so the fact that you hurt someone else doesn't matter.