When being a "good person" is a bad thing/Wann »Gutmensch« zu sein, gilt als böse

Austrian journalist Nina Horaczek of Falter and Walter Ötsch, professor of Economics and Cultural History at the Cusanus Hochschule in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany, have written an informative a useful book on rightwing populism, with particular emphasis on the Austrian variety, Populismus für Anfänger [Populism for Beginners] (2017).

Horaczek and Ötsch use "populism" to refer specifically to rightwing populism, a common European usage. It's too restrictive a definition of populism. But their book focuses on far-right demagoguery, and they are very good in their analysis.

They talk about how rightwingers like to reverse the meaning of words. "Politically correct" is an aging example. When people say something is "politically correct," we assume that means that the speaker considers it to be political correct, a good thing, from their point of view.

Another, more recent example is "social justice warriors," SJW for whort, which apparently originated among rightwing online gamers. Fighting for social justice would normally be a good thing in the abstract, although people may have very different ideas about what constitutes social justice. But rightwingers have defined being a "social justice warriors" as being a bad and contemptible thing.

A similar example from the German-speaking world is "Gutmensch," whose straightforward meaning is "good person." German and Austrian rightwingers now use the words to disparage people who disagree with xenophobia and racism:

»Gutmensch« als Schimpfwort zu verstehen bedeutet, Selbstverständlichkeiten des menschlichen Lebens in Frage stellen zu wollen. Denn jedes Selbstbild, auch wenn es nicht so toll erscheint, ist immer mit der Zuschreibung von Moral gekoppelt. Menschen können gar nicht anders, als sich selbst als moralisch zu verstehen. Jede und jeder empfindet sich selbst als moralische Person. Mit dem Gerede von den »Gutmenschen« wird von Demagogen versucht, eine Selbstbeschreibung von Menschen in Frage zu stellen, die die Basis von Gesellschaft bildet. Denn Moralität ist das Bindeglied jeder Gemeinschaft, ihr sozialer Kitt.

[To understand Gutmensch as an insult means wanting to call into question self-evident aspect of human life. Because everyone's self-image, even when it doesn't appear to be so great, is always connected with the assumption of morality. People can do nothing else than to understand themselves as moral. All and everyone feels themselves as a moral person. With the talk about Gutmenschen, demagogues attempt to call into question a self-description of people that forms the basis of society. Because morality is the connective link of every society, its social cement.]