"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?!

You've just reminded me, Winchester, of another term I dislike, which is "victim mentality". Last week in the Guardian there was a piece by Roxane Gay about being gang-raped at the age of 12, and how that led her to overeat as a kind of protection against the world. She is massively overweight and has struggled with what is essentially an eating disorder all her adult life.

On the Guardian's facebook page, one commenter accused her of having a "victim mentality". It's as if the problem is not that a group of teenage boys has raped a young girl, but that the girl has the wrong attitude to it. She has decided she is a "victim" rather than doing whatever it is you're supposed to do in response to being gang raped.

It is extraordinary. One thing I've noticed repeatedly is that the kind of people who dish out insults to others for being over-sensitive tend to be remarkably thin-skinned themselves. It was pretty hilarious when the Mail decided last week to get all aggrieved at the Guardian for Martin Rowson's cartoon when they are always telling people who get upset by racist cartoons in their own paper that they should toughen up.

I've never heard the word used in some of the contexts described on here. When used as a put-down I'd understood it in the context of 'special snowflake' - as in someone who's got the idea into their head that they or their child are terribly unique and special.

I despise it. I think people on here especially think they're being amusing and insightful when they use it. My bigoted, racist father in his seventies uses it a lot to slag off anyone younger than him that doesn't agree with him so I am always reminded of that when I see it typed here. It's cringe.

Not seen it used in an offensive way on MN, and a bit surprised at some of the uses pps have seen. Not that I don't belive them but just wasn't aware.

It is overused though even on here.

It's an OK term and describes a kind of behaviour that does exist, but just because someone whips it out in a discussion doesn't mean they are right to or right in their pov.

Cringe? I can think of stronger words for something you associate with racism and bigotry tbh.

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

It's was used regularly in the DM to describe Feminism. It then started being applied to disability issues and now anything from pupils who need extra tutoring, people who want decent affordable housing, people who want good work contracts, human rights etc.

It's used to replace "PC gone made" and "Entitled" but worrying it's being used against bullying campaigns and sexual harassment (even of children).

The World that I grew up in, in the 60/70's needed altering and we need to guard against going backwards.

There are snowflakes out there. Actually dsis calls them "nincompoops". They are usually mollycoddled 20-somethings but can be found in all brackets of society and all ages. A person who is just that little bit more special then anybody else and finds things just a little bit more difficult than the rest of us. Or a little bit more boring, eg, "Oh, I could never work in an office. I'm creative and need stimulation!" I've heard that quite a lot from several very entitled young people who would be working in a boring old office as quick as you could say Payforyourownphone if they didn't have a comfortable free billet with their parents.

It's incredibly unpleasant and dismissive. Often used against those who are fighting for justice about something. People who use it know nothing about the background of the people they are sneering about. For those who use the term it often speaks of someone who lacks empathy and understanding, someone who thinks that name calling is the way to win an argument.

Er, I think it is somewhat less used about "fighters for justice" than someone who is an entitled pain in the backside.

LadyInCement: 'Er, I think it is somewhat less used about "fighters for justice" than someone who is an entitled pain in the backside.'

You may think that, but you'd be wrong, ime - if you read the right-wing press you'll find it's almost exclusively used now to attack people on the left, regardless of whether they're campaigning against sexual harassment or for better housing for poor people or improved public sector wages.

If you haven't come across it much in that context, it's probably because you don't spend your time reading Mail Online or right-wing blogs, for which I can only commend you.

Those of us who go to protests and who do much more in the way of concrete action to campaign for justice are always being called snowflakes. I can be a pain in the backside for sure, I'm not being entitled - I'm fighting for others.

The phrase is awful, but so are any other overused sound bites.

I think the real thing that irks be is that people can't put together their own eloquent criticisms. If someone parrots off a phrase like this I tend to assume they have no opinions or reasoning of their own.

Crikey. I am Special FlowSnake but all this has got me thinking it's time for namechanging.

DSS definitely has a snowflake streak, but then, so does DD2. Maybe it's genetic and I should blame DH for it

It is never a kind comment.
One of my teenagers yesterday was telling us he'd met someone on eurostar who had skied where we ski and how everyone seems to ski the same place. I said we could write an essay ont hat comment (as indeed we could) as even in the 8% of those of us who pay school fees many cannot afford to ski never mind in nice places. I hope I always pick up on any comments like that my children make. I want them to be understand, humble, helpful and stoic -never ever the snowflake and always that solid rock everyone turns to in times of trouble because no matter what is thrown at us come hell or high water we stand firm. I think all my children are are like that - as mentally strong an ox with self reliance at their core and never to be rude to anyone or nasty.

Well, like many other posters I've learned something today. I've only ever thought of 'special snowflake' as meaning 'delicate (possibly adult) child who must be treated with greater care and consideration than everyone else or they will melt'. I never even considered it as a slur on anyone who doesn't think Donald Trump is a good thing.

It only really works if used with "special", and a heavy dose of irony.

All snowflakes are unique, and exactly because of that, no snowflake truly is.

There's people who think they are special-er than anyone else and, for example, their not conforming to gender norms makes them special even though no one is a walking stereotype.

Didn't even know the MRAs used it. I suppose I'd better find a different word.

Perhaps "most equallest animal" would do.