I actually just got started yesterday. And by “started” I mean, I’m currently creating a graphic to help explain our students at work a specific concept and if that’s online, I’m done with it for the moment. If I find more concepts that could use a graphic, I’ll obviously add more, though.
I plan to just throw it up on Codeberg Pages or Neocities or something.
When it comes to the current insult, It is a combination of both.
They think they are special because they know something everyone else doesn’t (the basis of rhe whole Qanon bullshit), but are also fragile because they can’t handle being called out for being terrible people.
Wikipedia and most dictionary definitions talk about uniqueness. Each snowflake is unique. That’s what most people mean by it.
Snowflake is a derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or are overly emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.
You are not special. You are not beautiful or unique snowflake. Quote from the novel “Fight Club”
I guess the “easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions” part still fits. That’s how I always understood it. But I’ve never actually looked it up. It seems I’m not the only one, though.
It’s fascinating to read all the top comments from people who didn’t know the implication. I would guess that you and others assumed from context that it means “fragile.” It’s a reasonable assumption, and if enough people use it to mean that, then that will be a new meaning of the word.
Language evolves, so it isn’t fair to say that you or they are “wrong,” but it belies the problem with using metaphors in communication. If the listener doesn’t understand the metaphor, they’re more likely to fill in their own guess than they are to ask for clarification or look it up. And that’s not a flaw, that’s actually a fantastic adaptation that makes language possible in the first place. How many words did you learn from the dictionary, compared to how many you learned from reading or hearing them used?
Take the name “Nimrod.” Nimrod was a Biblical character known to be a great hunter. It has frequently been used sarcastically to impugn the hunting skills of the target, most famously by Daffy Duck to describe Elmer Fudd, and then again by Bugs Bunny to describe Yosemite Sam. But most of the people watching the cartoons weren’t Biblical scholars, and the word entered the public consciousness as a generic insult which has come to mean a stupid person.
The term for the phenomenon is “semantic drift.” See also: peruse, awful, nice, and the currently-relevant “weird.”
I think you are cherry picking. It says it means both. My 5c: If you think you are unique and you don’t give a fuck about what other people think (example would be a goth or punk imo), then not a snowflake. If you melt down at the slightest touch over others not being like the status quo (example would be a Karen imo). Not a snowflake. If you think you are different, and melt down as soon as someone chalanges that difference (example vegan yelling at someone buying a steak imo) then snowflake.
I haven’t claimed it doesn’t imply fragility too. Just that the uniqueness is the primary meaning of it - thus the term snowflake. “I’m unique and thus deserving of special treatment”
If it was primarily about fragility then we’d probably be using some other term as that is not generally the first feature that comes to mind about snowflakes.
I feel like you googled the word and consider that truth without really looking at the nuance of how the phrase evolved.
Long ago, there was a saying that “no two snowflakes are alike.”
Decades ago: We personified it to promote diversity. “We are all individuals, just like snowflakes!” The point of this was to get people to look past stereotypes. People weren’t defined by their ethnicity, they were individuals and you should judge them for the person they are, not by their appearance.
Within the past few years: Conservatives use the term sarcastically. Delicate snowflakes, try so hard to be unique but melt if you look at them wrong! Meaning, instead of fitting in, they want to be different, but when we bully them for being different, they get upset.
So, yes, it’s about uniqueness, but when used as an insult, it’s more focused on fragility.
I guess people like to be lied to. They prefer to live in their own imagined worlds fueled by lies and propaganda instead of facing real problems, finding solutions, and sometimes just admit to being wrong. This is why rectionaries are getting so much approval in our fast changing world. sometimes people are not ready for speed of those changes, do not forget not forget it hasnt been long time since we left our caves. and billionaires propaganda is making it’s part too
The use as a complimwnt or insult has changed over time.
It was once a positive about being yourself (unique).
Then it conservatives used it to refer to someone thinking they were special.
Then it was used to mean someone who melted at any criticism, generally referring to conservatives who thought they were special because they ‘know something everyone else didn’t’ (Qanon morons).
When conservatives all someone a snowflake and when people call conservatives snowflakes the insults are slightly different.
The modding scene is (or, well, was) pretty active though, if you’re into that. There are still official te4 forums, but most folks hang out in the discord (yeah, I know.) including a couple old head modders that are pretty familiar with the codebase if you’re trying to do something exceptionally interesting with it.
VCMI - it’s re-written from scratch, open source, multiplatform Heroes 3 engine with many improvements and mods manager. It requires some files from the original game though.
Oh yea, absolutely. Joining a very small group of war criminal countries including (but not limited to); Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Malaysia, Venezuela, Mexico and of course Palestine+Israel (feat genocide).
Man that felt good, fuck all those places I listed for their war crimes/criminals.
They don’t. All these people saying these excuses are doing so to dismiss their conscious because they are the true monsters but unable to openly recognize their own reflections. When tides turn, these are the people that sway in the wind of Nazi like horrors and atrocities. I doubt any of them realize it directly. When I was much younger I was just as naive of an idiot, and just as clueless about what disability is really like. There is no monster as scary or atrocious as ignorant indifference.
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