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Let's call it getting into the groove of self-employment post graduation (a year and a half in and loving it), and travel (shout out to all the great people we saw last year), and gardening (year three was a mild success), plus working on finishing up the Lady Cave (still not complete, more to come on that), and let's be honest...just too much election...too much bullshit...too much real shit...too much.
But it's 2017 now.
It's still too much. Too much too fast. Watching the very fabric of this county being ripped apart at the well-stitched seams; and if you have no idea what is going on because you only watch local news, read local papers and/or pay attention to very specific news outlets, then Google search: Trump with any number of the following key terms [and click the 'News' tab] - Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, China, UK, Exports Mexico, Exports Russia, Muslims, Travel Ban, Immigration, Johnson Amendment. Constitution, First Amendment, Press Suppression, Reproductive Rights, Education...the list could literally go on and on.
Note: do the search in an incognito [Google] Chrome search window (Ctrl+Shift+N) this way it will ensure it's giving you a more "pure" search not based on your search and user history. Also, none of these searches will impact your future searches via your Google account.
It's not even like when you have a shirt that has a loose thread that you constantly pull at, that you forget about every once and awhile, and eventually your procrastinating ass clips and double stitches the breach; this is full-on pull the seam ripper from the sewing box and dismantle the shirt stuff.
It makes a rational person shudder. Especially a rational person who has a clear understanding of history, and how abuses of power in the wrong hands can destroy countries. For more on that please see every superpower that crumbled in the entire history of recorded human history...
Anyway. On the the Snowflake.
This past week it became necessary to explain to one of our old political science professors (a professor we do occasional work for, and also go visit to hash out politics with every couple of months) what a Snowflake it. Trying to use all the words possible to get the point across, he finally got it when the words "sensitive libtard" tumbled from these lips - a detestable infantile word used by the Right when they are all out of constructive debate tactics, or they just want to be bullies. (For more on the horrors of being a libtard read this guest blog post: 'I'm a "Libtard", Apparently'.)
Having had to explain such a politically potent slur to a political science educator became just another weird teaching a teacher moment - shouldn't he know these things? - like when we brought him an argument, backed by data, about how 'Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America' was outdated and incorrect, and he then decided to stop using it as a teaching tool, because it was indeed incorrect. This was almost exactly two years ago. Not a minute too late. Right?
People never stop learning, no matter who they are or how old they are.
Okay. Some people definitely stop learning. But that's a choice.
So what is a Snowflake, really?
There are plenty of variations of the definition, but it generally comes back to the "Libtard" paradigm.
A "Snowflake" is someone who is "easily" insulted, or takes offence.
[Older uses of the word have more to do with someone somehow insinuating that they are unique or special. This is not that kind of snowflake. This is the snowflake that has been appropriated by the Alt-Right/White Nationalists/White Supremacists/Neo-Nazis/Right/GOP/Republicans]
Delving further, a Snowflake is someone who is insulted, disgusted, offended, and angered (proponents of the word would say easily) by things such as racism, bigotry, sexism, bullying, "alternative facts", inequality, making fun of handicapped people, targeting people for abuse based on gender, sex, sexual orientation, *religious discrimination, (calm down Christians, you're never being unfairly targeted or discriminated against in the USA, your privilege is well in tact, check it), anti-intellectualism, the death of democracy, ruining/destroying the planet, this country becoming a crumbled mass of fallout debris, etc. You get the picture. They care about stuff, and people.
These people will usually be vocal, via social media outlets - though surely there have been snowflakes at protests, and on TV, and Radio, and in the newspapers.
Snowflakes will express their concerns about how they feel and what they think, which makes them a target of the Alt-Right/White Nationalists/White Supremacists/Neo-Nazis/Right/GOP/Republicans who, in turn, upon confrontation, or just in passing, will spew any manner of derogatory terms (in addition to "libtard", or calling someone "whinny", See Also: "cuck", though this one is usually directed at conservatives who the alt-right white supremacists find weak and ineffectual), either before, during, or after a digital debate in which they have lost footing and/or have nothing of factual value to offer. Need proof? You simply need to read the replies below Tweets and Facebook posts.
Essentially a Snowflake, in this definition then, is a person who cares about other people's freedom, other people's happiness, the environment, culture, education...usually from an educated standpoint, who generally wants to be respectful to people and their many differences.
What a terrible person, right? Like, who wants to care about those things?
Other people?
Be a good person?
Shit, man.
Money.
Money is all that matters. Money and controlling a woman's reproductive rights, amiright. Fuck the environment. Clean water? That's what filters are for. Fuck the future of the children. They'll live in glass domes or some shit some dumb scientist came up with. *snorts* Science dumb. Book learnin' is for pussies. *high fives grunting friend* Go God (but, like, only the Christian one).
This is not to say said Snowflakes are perfect, and never name call (or blatantly make fun of the lesser developed homo sapiens), but it usually takes some pressure to push them, despite their "delicate snowflake nature". They'll crack once in awhile. Melt? Shit. That analogy doesn't work so well.
In any case, it's pretty sad and pathetic that people have to deal with bullies because they are nice and caring, and want the best for the country, and it's pretty sad that this bullying is a national phenomenon in such a way that one of the bullies is ruining the country.
That wasn't a spelling error.
Just remember, all you active and would be bullies: One snowflake behind a screen may be an easy target. But the snowflakes of the USA are getting pretty agitated.
You know what happens though, when you have a bunch of snowflakes whipped into a frenzy?
A goddamn blizzard.
And take it from someone who lives in the American Midwest. Blizzards kill.
As an aside, there is nothing more "delicate" and "snowflake"-like about a man, or his followers, who attacks every person who criticizes them or their actions from a place of caring and concern, brandishing facts - you know, the real kind - or threatens those who don't do as they say.
That is authoritarianism, and fascism, and definitely not democracy.
So there you have it. A brief deconstruction of the Snowflake.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully this'll be the year of getting back into writing. :-)
Time for some whiskey.
[*Religion is a private matter, and a choice, and as such it should be practiced in the home, in ones private life, not forced upon other people, not used to discriminate in public businesses and services.
You don't have to let the person that is not living their life to your religious value into your home. You can even keep your kids from dating them. You certainly don't have to have sexual relations with them, or perform their abortions, or dress like them.
You can choose not to patron their businesses/services...those things are your private life.
When you negatively impact the way other people live their lives, by creating laws to prevent them from doing so, you are doing nothing more than enforcing a kind of "Sharia Law" - laws derived from religious "tradition" - on society.]
PLEASE NOTE: Comments of a harassing, ignorant, and bullying nature will be removed. Ain't nobody got time for your motherfucking hate.
For more political-type essays/writings from this blog:
I am a snowflake and I approve of this definition. Not that you need my approval, it's meant to be an affirmation. ~Ron Shields
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