“Social justice warrior,” for example, didn’t start off as an insult.

Well, it was at least 'cringe' from the get go.

Critical race theory was once an obscure academic discipline that insisted that racism is more than individual prejudice

Yeah, that's not what CRT is. Anyway, nobody used jiu-jitsu of any kind to turn the term against liberals. The only thing people did was talking about what CRT really is about. Funny how that is enough to turn the term agains yourself. Time for some introspection, no?

Mention almost any touchstone phrase adopted by the left in recent years — “critical race theory,” “diversity,” “global warming,” even the word “liberal” itself — and it has been redefined or tarnished by conservatives.

No, dipshit. Your constant redefinition of everything to use it as a crudge to beat your opponents over the head with has devalued these words to the point that nobody remotely sane could use them without bursting into hysteric laughter, at least internally.

You stripped these words of any meaning that they might once have had to use them as a weapon, now you cry foul when the same weapon is used against you. Get fucked.

If this sounds abstract, consider the evolution of “ woke.”

I'd rather not. It's up there in the cringe-department, right alongside SJW

The word is defined as being “actively aware of social injustice.”

I'm rather sure the word was used before in very different contexts and then it was coopted and redefined to mean what you wrote up there (and then ot got redefined a few million times more to mean absolutely anything and it's opposite at the same time but I repeat myself)

When the term was turned by conservatives and internet culture into something else: a “whiny,” self-righteous progressive who can’t take a joke

Well, show me someone that uses the word unironically and I show you a “whiny,” self-righteous progressive who can’t take a joke. If the shoe fits.