To be irritated by frequent references to 'snowflakes'

[DailyFaily]

I've noticed people using 'snowflake' as an mild insult a lot recently - here, Facebook, real life. It's usually with reference to something reasonably benign or not especially precious (just seen it on FB by someone saying not being allowed to smack your children leads to generation Snowflake, saw lots of it after Brexit/Trump from people suggesting those opposed to it should put up and shut up, saw it here on Thursday for someone who didn't want her nanny to do something which I think a lot of people would not like their paid childcare to do). I'm assuming it's a reference to Fight Club but I really haven't heard it referenced this way until the last few months which is odd given that fight club was released in 1999. I'm sure my irritation makes me a snowflake myself but does anyone find this annoying?

I use snowflake of people who expect a level of consideration that they do not extend to others, as if they're saying, I am more special and precious than you are.

And I've seen it used by people to say that they are more special and precious than others because they never complain about anything.

Truly, we are all individuals.

#iamasnowflakeandsoareyou

But what does it actually mean? It seems to be used in different contexts and to insult people in different ways.
If it's meaning what I think it means then DT is a snowflake for being so thin skinned and obsessed about his inauguration crowd size.

rorty
Are you actually Piers Morgan using a pseudonym because your opinions really sound like something he'd come out with. That's not a compliment by the way.

Ive noticed a rise in the use along with the infuriating 'remoaners. '

Apparently we should suck up alll the right wing bollocks as we live in a democracy.

Dead

I think yiu might be confusing the words 'snowflake' and 'fuckwit' in your example

YANBU its just used to insult anyone who cares about anything now days.
I get called a snowflake loads just for sticking up for people. Im not sure how that logically works lol!! I mean what do they expect me to say 'Sorry that i want to live in a world where people treat each other with respect and show kindness and work together. Ill try harder to be more selfish so that it doesnt look like im trying to make you feel bad, in future!!!'
IMO its the people calling out 'snowflake' who fit the description more.

'Snowflake', remoaners, get a grip, get over it, stop throwing the dummy out the Pram, grow up and so on and so on...blah blah blah
Apparently we are now not to have an opposing opinion, much less express it. Unfortunately for the unoriginal people who use all the above much overused and cliched thinly disgused insults, the voice of dissent is not going to dissapear just because you call someone 'snowflake' ffs.

I find it boring, lazy, and oh so jump on the band wagon-ie!

Yes, I have seen it used in a really sneery way and I really hate it.

E.g. Someone here might say they were not happy that their 3 year old was given a red bull and a packet of crisps for lunch at nursery (I am exaggerating). Someone else comes along and accuses op of treating her child like a precious snowflake...

I agree that use of it is unkind and sneery. But no worst than "PFB", is it?

*worse

I see it a lot on twitter. It tends to be said by the type of person who'll say something racist/sexist to get a rise, and then use it to shut down anyone who objects as 'too sensitive' snowflake. Don't like it at all.

Dull, unimaginative, sneery, used as a way of attempting to close down discussion by people who seem unable to contribute to the debate in any meaningful way. Am referring mainly to it being used in Brexit/Trump/politics threads as that is where I have come across it personally rather than in any other context though. Usually used alongside any number of equally unoriginal "I swallowed the Arron Banks handbook and am regurgitating it" standards (remoaner, libtard, metropolitan/islington/liberal elite and so on) while urging others to "suck it up buttercup, get a grip, that's democracy and MOVE ON" (shouting very popular with snowflake fans). Reminds me of being a kid when we all leapt on the latest must use words. Can be kind of endearing in kids. Not so much in the middle-aged.

I use the term "special snowflake" when I'm being polite about someone moaning about something that they think is SO TERRIBLE but is in fact is nothing more than a "1st world problem" or when I view their opinion to be so OTT it is just ridiculous.

Much nicer than some of the words I'd like to call them.

I've never seen it used for racist/ sexist comments and never used it for that. Just use it for special occasions when someone is being a precious twat.

It's irritating, but then I like to think of it that one snowflake isn't a lot but get enough of them together and they create an avalanche.

YANBU. It is a meme that originated as a reference to Fight Club, yes.

It's used in a lot of places and usually as, as others have said, a reactionary "PC gone mad" backlash against disabled people, usually those with mental health problems and developmental disabilities.

People can use it if they want, of course, and with impunity if doing so for people who do actually deserve it - ironically, those who use it are often amongst the most deserving of it, since they're offended by people having differing needs or by people caring about anything rather than remaining cynically detached - but it's tainted by association imo.

It's also part of that "whoever cares the least wins the argument" nonsense that's been going on in debates for years. How emotional you get about a subject might highlight your bias, for sure, but it doesn't affect whether you're right or wrong, and it's time everyone admitted that and stopped acting like people's hurt feelings automatically invalidate what they have to say.

I thought snowflake referred to 'fragility' or 'sensitivity'. If it's an insult it doesn't really seem like a particularly viscious one. Aren't snowflakes individually very beautiful (subjective view) and unique?

It refers to you showing by your behaviour/attitude that you think you're different and superior to others and should get special treatment that other people don't get. It's also used to mean a variety of other things, some of which don't make a lot of sense.

Yes it's used a lot on here. It seems to me that it is used when people don't want to engage in an argument, but want to shut the other party down, instead of explaining why there views differ. Always sounds bitter.

MommaGee spoonies is the term for people with a chronic illness, because of spoon theory (you only have a certain number of spoons per day, representing your energy, and once you've used up your spoons that's it, you don't have any more). Zebras is most commonly used for EDS, but it generally refers to medical zebras. Doctors are told "when you hear hoofbeats, assume horses, not zebras" (assume the most likely, common explanation for a symptom) but it results in the actual zebras - the uncommon conditions - being under-diagnosed and untreated, so it's used by anyone with a rare illness to remind people that medical zebras do exist and need to be listened to by doctors too.

It tends to be said by the type of person who'll say something racist/sexist to get a rise, and then use it to shut down anyone who objects as 'too sensitive' snowflake. Don't like it at all.

Liked. (Metaphorically)

Do you know, I might have had my mind changed since reading this. Never used it myself, as I said up thread, but I saw somebody using 'special snowflake' on a thread somewhere else here since. They exuded smuggery, quite the put down they seemed to think, and I found it quite irritating

Thanks Ovaries he's definitely a Zebra - Unique have no record of anyone else with his particular genetic variation