"Snowflake" rage

[hter]

As in, "delicate little snowflake".

... I think this is one of the most loathsomely trite putdowns with no compassion behind it. It instantly makes me think the speaker is a sneery, nasty person.

Anyone else feel the fury when they see someone writing this?!

Ah sod it, I'll be more explicit with what I had in mind. The people I know who shouted 'snowflake' were very quick to want to shut down that play that had Caesar dressed up like Trump. 'So disrespectful,' they would howl. I wanted to call them all snowflakes but, erm, I would be the height of hypocritical.

Hmmm I think some of the posters should google what the term snowflake actually mean....

PoorYorick I know exactly what you are describing and the ones that wind me up the most are when people misspell names to make themselves look clever. To me, they're no more clever than the school bully that makes up a cruel taunt for another child's name and I automatically deduct IQ points off anybody I see doing this online. I don't care what the political persuasion. Or, and I will probably get flamed for this, the whole 'Brexiter/Brexshitter vs Remainer/Remoaner' thing. Eurgh.

Except PoorYorrick when you're attempting to convey your disdain for someone by name calling and then doing a sarcastic misspelling, it just makes me think you're more annoying than the person you insulted to start with

April229 hope this helps...

""a flake of snow, especially a feathery ice crystal, typically displaying delicate sixfold symmetry""

The deliberate misspelling and typos were actually quite funny for a while a few years ago. 'teh' and 'frist post' could be sublime when used properly. By the time internet culture gets into real life, it's usually absolutely ancient and has long worn out its shelf life.

'Speshul snowflake' annoys me because a) it's prehistoric and b) it doesn't have the Fight Club reference, which makes it pointless. Again, the 'beautiful and unique snowflake' thing was actually quite funny when it was still fresh and used properly. (You had to be there, but there were times when it had me spitting tea over my keyboard.) But even five years ago it was dated.

As far as insults go, there's much worse than 'snowflake', but by now it's just lazy.

This does remind me of the time I saw someone in a flame war tell their opponent, 'He who is too lazy for prufs must learn to stfu'. Again, without context I can't really explain why it was so funny but I lost it at the time and still giggle when I think about it.

I saw it about eight years ago though.

I do hope the term diminishes, and fast because when I gave my dd the middle name 'snowflake' as a reminder of the beautiful intricate creations floating gently onto the hospital window on the eve she was born, I never considered the word snowflake had an additional meaning!!

My husband was unsure of the name as he said his mother said it sounded like the name of a racing horse!

Still love doge grammar, Yorick. And the Internet Commenter Business Meeting sketch almost makes me year for the days of frist.

www.macon.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article152884574.html

Apparently, according to an article in The Telegraph, liberal snowflakes are to blame for the decline of Western civilization - of course it's not all the crap and suspicion that's been dished out to our various communities over the centuries ..

Sounds like they want to use A Handmaids Tale as a blueprint for a fascist order again..

It is horrid. It is used to criticise leftvwingers for not being avld to handle ' the realities of life. '

So we should accept bigotry, meaness, gredd, sexism, racism, N

Oops.... nigel farage and the Tories as a reality of life then?

And while we fight amongst ourselves, they control.

Boomers. Snowflakes. And they float above in Davos. And in the glass towers. Manipulating laws and rates and currencies.

We are animals on our knees. Fighting each other for the crumbs from their banquet.

Part of the vocabulary of sheep.

Part of the vocabulary of sheep.

Yesterday 21:15 OlennasWimple

"Snowflakes" aren't people who dislike racism and bigotry confused

They are people who think that they are oh so unique and special and anyone who tries to inhibit their uniqueness is a hater

Well that's the only time I've ever heard it used (and apparently lots of others on this thread!)

My much younger brother is what I consider a snowflake in that he was constantly told how clever and special he was. He's as lazy as fuck, has dropped out of Uni twice, doesn't see why he should work, is full of brilliant ideas which come to nothing and thinks everyone else should subsidise him (because it's OK for other people to work their arses off)

It implies fragility and believing the world should alter for you.

I think it's a good description of how some people carry on, especially those who try to ban people like Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchel and Boris Johnson from speaking because they don't like what they might say.

It's so weird, but I've ^never* heard used to attack people who've stood up to bigotry. I'm not on any social media other than MN though, which is maybe why.

I have used it in the past to describe people who consider themselves to be a bit special and entitled to special treatment all the time and that rules don't apply to them. Not that they're delicate or fragile and can't be challenged, more that they believe they can do whatever the fuck they like because they're special. That's the only way I've ever used it, and I've always made myself understood, so it can't be that obscure an interpretation of the term?

I never thought it had anything to do with fragility or, fucking hell, condoning racism. I'm so annoyed that's what it now means to some people. Even though it still doesn't have that meaning for me, I wouldn't be able to use it again, knowing that it is used by bigoted wankers .

When it started out, it was probably an amusing and handy way of summing up a certain kind of person who thought they were more important than everyone else - a bit like Mumsnet's use of PFB to denote someone who is over-protective of their firstborn.

But it very quickly became a catch-all insult for anyone of vaguely liberal sensibilities who doesn't buy into the right-wing narrative. So the women who went on the women's march last year are "snowflakes". People who oppose Brexit are "snowflakes". Students who don't want to pay £9k a year tuition fees are "snowflakes".

All those terms so sneeringly used against the liberal left - "virtue signalling", "liberal elite", "metropolitan elite", "snowflake" etc - are simply substitutes for argument. You don't have to explain, in a logical, thought-out way, why your opponent is wrong, you just call them a "snowflake" or a "virtue signaller". Job done.

People who went on the women's march were snowflakes? Ugh. Fuck the fuck off. (not at you hack).

I agree, Decaff. There's a mention of it here, with a good riposte on one of the placards:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/womens-march-signs-placards-pictures_uk_58833928e4b02085409857d6

(I realise I said the women's march was last year when it was only January. Funny things seem to have happened to time recently!)

Some people turn it round and call Donald Trump a "snowflake", which is certainly more accurate, because he is just like a petulant overgrown toddler. I can never decide whether I think turning one's opponent's insults back on them is a good idea, though, or whether it makes you just as bad as them.

I think it's overused now however, when used properly is stunningly accurate

What hackmum said. It's used to shut down argument.
Calling someone that pretty much says: "You're just a snowflake therefore I'm dismissing your worries/ideas/feelings"
That said it does seem to be used differently in different areas.
A MNer calling someone a snowflake often intends a different meaning to the average Twitter user.
I see snowflake most used on twitter by mra trolls usually while dismissing women's accounts of harassment so I find it really hard to not notice that connotation when I see the term elsewhere.

Snowflakes melt at the first minor adversity. It's nothing to do with political alignment, unless used to suppress freedom of speech, as per MMZ's post above.