Image by Johnny Silvercloud (License CC BY-SA 2.0)
Snowflakes. That’s what they call us now. In any given day, with just a quick browse through social media, someone has been referred to as a snowflake at least a dozen times. And that’s just at a glance. So, what is a snowflake exactly?
According to the dictionary, it’s a “flake of snow, especially a feathery ice crystal, displaying six fold symmetry.” As an insult it is supposed to “encompass not just the young but liberals of all ages; it became the epithet of choice for right-wingers to fling at anyone who could be accused of being too easily offended, too in need of “safe spaces,” too fragile.” In their opinion, we’re weak, whiny, and useless. But to someone like me, being a snowflake means so much more.
Being a snowflake means that you’re standing up against the utter uproar of a shit storm that is our country and our politics these days. Being a snowflake means you want nothing more than to see EVERY human being in this country and on this earth have the same basic human rights as everyone else. It means you’re getting really fucking tired of watching the news, only to see people shot and killed for the color of their skin.
“Now, insults are going to happen. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been called a “libtard” or a “lazy millennial.” I’ve been called a redneck and a hick. I’ve been called worse than that more than once. I don’t take it to heart anymore.”
You’re beyond over watching your friends fight tooth and nail, just to marry the person they love, and then someone arbitrarily telling them that their love is not the same or as valuable as the rest of ours just because they happen to have been born with the same genitalia. You’re sick of having to fight for rights to your own body simply because you’re a woman.
Your opinions don’t matter, your body doesn’t matter, and you’re not even worthy of an equal wage. You’re tired of walking down the street at dark, terrified, because someone thinks they’re more entitled to your body, your very skin, than you are.
As a snowflake your heart aches for the thousands that are facing losing their healthcare with nothing to replace it. Your stomach is sick at the thought of all the refugees with nowhere to go, their children confused and scared, fleeing a country that we’re shooting missiles at. And you’re damn right we’re fucking fed up with drowning in student debt, only to work unpaid internships and laughable minimum wage jobs; trying to keep our heads above water in this economy that the “not-millennials” so kindly threw down the fucking toilet for us.
We’re the ones participating in women’s marches across the country. We’re the ones celebrating pride month with parades, and wearing out that Facebook pride reaction for as long as we can. We’re the ones building and shaping our children to love and respect human beings— ALL human beings. We’re raising our children to be warriors for those who need a voice. We’re fund-raising for Planned Parenthood and protesting the bullshit at every given opportunity. We’re raising our voices when we see our “president” committing treason in broad daylight, only to have it brushed under the rug and defended with some sort of ridiculous excuse.
We’re throwing a fit when we see that his inept, unqualified daughter is sitting in for him at the G20 summit meeting; something that the Republicans would have crucified Obama for if he had done it. We’re tired of watching our “president” play golf. We’re gathering at airports, and clinics and government buildings, and in the damn streets if we have to, because we’re pissed. We’re tired, we’re fed up, and we’re fucking angry.
Now, insults are going to happen. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been called a “libtard” or a “lazy millennial.” I’ve been called a redneck and a hick. I’ve been called worse than that more than once. I don’t take it to heart anymore. And while snowflake never really offended me on a personal level any more so than all the others did, I have to say it did stump me a bit. I had to wonder— have these people ever spent much time around snow before? Because I have.
Kentucky is a strange state when it comes to our weather. We like to say that we get the best of both worlds. We’re far enough south that our summers are sweltering at times, but our winters can be mean with snow and ice for months. Snow and ice that knocks out power and shuts down all the major roadways. Snow that has people running to the store in a panic to buy milk, bread, and eggs. Snow that shuts down schools and businesses for days or even weeks at a time. Snow that has you hiding in your house, afraid or even unable to go out, hoping that it ends soon, because you’re running out of food and heat. Snow that all started with a few snowflakes falling from the sky.
So, if snowflake is the new insult these days, I’ll take that. I’ll be a snowflake, and I’ll be a proud one. Because one snowflake, all on its own, is fairly powerless. It can give its best shot, but once it hits the warm pavement all alone, it’s doomed to melt. But have you ever seen what hundreds of thousands of snowflakes can do together? You get a fucking snowstorm.
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Andrea is a freelance writer based out of Kentucky. She is the mother to a 3 year old little girl and step-mother to a 6 year old boy. She’s been married to her husband and best friend for 5 years. She enjoys fishing, camping, hiking and the occasional glass of wine by a bonfire.
Second to last paragraph is a perfect example of why conservatives look down on people like you as weak.
Snowed in and running out of food? A liberal sits terrified and starving, unable help themself. A conservative grabs their gun, walks into the woods and finds some food, then brings it home.
Heat not working? A liberal buries themselves in blankets and sits terrified. A conservative grabs their axe, cuts down a small tree and makes a fire.
You’re weak and helpless, unable to do most things for yourself so you depend on the government to do it all for you, despite its horrid track record.
You march and protest for the most idiotic issues the world has ever seen while your great-grandchildren get sentenced to the slavery of paying off our national debt. You even augment the problem by pushing for Venezuela policies.
It’s a shame I will not live to see the day that socialism is thought of the same way as witchcraft, that gun control thought if the same way as slavery and that those who choose to demand others take care of them while being able bodied themselves are left behind.
You clearly have been well programmed to live out a very cold and cruel life. You have no idea what you are talking about. Being empathetic for others is a strength which you clearly do not have. You actually think by bullying others you somehow get your point across?
All you are doing is making it clear that you have no interest in building a great United States. On the battlefield nobody asks if you are liberal or gay or cares if you are black, old, or disabled. You work together period. Smart people play the game of life the same way. You want to live in a fantasy world that fits your tiny perception of the wide-range of ideas around you.
I know many liberal people who own guns and thriving businesses. They don’t hide from anyone and have some amazing fire power. They don’t waste time complaining about people they know nothing about and they don’t simply believe what they hear on FOX or CNN.
America was founded and grew up on protesting the sins of immoral and callous men who prefer to gun down anyone they don’t like. We didn’t escape the King of England, eliminate slavery and lynching, give women the right to vote, non-whites and the disabled some hope of civil rights, and raise the quality of life of most of our people from impoverished farmers to an educated technological society by sitting home and watching FOX and sending hate posts to strangers.
If you hate half the people in your own nation, you will never live in peace or enjoy life to the extent which would have been possible if you only sat down and met people outside of your cabin in the woods.
Best of luck to you; I will join this lady as another snowflake and after 40 years of hard work, nobody is going to intimidate me for deciding where I fit into the American snow storm that is coming in three years.
Hilarious that you call me programmed and then write a ramble about feelings and emotions. Here’s a cold hard fact for you: reality doesn’t care about your feelings.
Hilarious that you use a battlefield as an example, in battle you all work together true enough, but your idea of working together is taking all my ammo and just sitting there jerking off.
There was a time not even that long ago, when liberals were simply misguided. These days liberals are completely insane.
Well, let me clarify a bit. By programming, I mean mentally biased by inputs generated by external messaging. Sadly, you actually think that emotions and feelings are a form of programming. I suppose they are genetically programmed into all species so we don’t all kill each other.
You have to be in another person’s shoes before you can judge them in any sane fashion. I have not lived in an isolated rural community; but I can understand how a life there could radically program ones thoughts against anyone in a city. All they see are the bad things on the so-called news.
Clearly, by not being open to others who are different and living in fear of people you don’t understand, it is understandable that the best view is to arm oneself to the teeth and camp out on a ridge waiting to shoot down anything that moves.
When you live in or around a large city, you figure out that people come in all flavors and most are completely like you; they just want to survive and get through the day without having to worry about the nut with the gun who has come to save America.
I don’t need to shoot you. I have no desire to kill or hurt anyone. I don’t have any fear of the bogey man coming to get me. I am a trained fighter and have shot a variety of guns, but should a nut case decide to pull out a 45 at the mall and blow my brains out, there isn’t anything the best fighter and marksman can do at the moment – I am dead. So, we learn to keep our eyes and ears open and most of us never experience much more than a finger or a shout from a car window. I have had mentally disturbed homeless people shout and act out, but they thankfully backed down.
I actually fear people, who lack connection with their own feelings and emotions and see them as some form of weakness. It is those people who curse others and divide us against each other. It is they who decide it’s time to start blasting their fellow American’s simply because empathy has no place in their hearts and it stirs up deep seated wounds of their past.
Emotions and feelings are part of being a life form with a brain. Sadly highly conservative people seemed to have learned to squelch this critically important part of their lives deep down inside. They prefer to see live as black and white with no gray in between. They prefer to calculate the risk of increased pain from interacting with those they deem less human verses the opportunity for increased pleasure from the joy of learning that regardless of social labeling, the vast majority of us are decent fellow human beings.
Possibly, this morbid hatred and fear of others who show feelings and emotions stems from a childhood of being told no, punished for every small spill or stain, reminded of their lack of mental prowess or physical weaknesses. neglected and kept from socializing with others, or worse suffered the hand of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. I don’t know what your personal situation is, but your beliefs about people like me are delusional. I have a wonderful American life that sadly I don’t see happening for the majority of our population and it’s this twisted programming that divides people that is 100% to blame.
So, go ahead and spew your disdain for those you know nothing about. I will forge ahead with an open mind and open door to anyone who has the courage to step in and have a mature, rational conversation.
I’ve lived in big cities my whole life, from Boston to DC to Philadelphia and now Charlotte, I’ve never lived in a rural area.
You see, you make the mistake of thinking that emotions keep people from doing bad things, that is not true in any sense. Take an infant for example, I challenge you to name a more narssisitic being, feed me, change me, play with me, burp me and if you don’t, I’ll cry and cry until you can’t take it anymore. People are not inherently good, if they were, goodness would not have to be taught. Once you realize this, the world makes a lot more sense.
You’re making a BIG leap when you claim I hate people unlike myself. You make an extreme connection that because I do not agreement your methods for helping people, I must not want to help people at all. This is false and an ad hominem fallacy.
I simply support policies that have been proven to actually lift people out of poverty, whereas you support policies that merely make poverty less miserable. I would love to discuss the details of our different policies but I do not believe you’re capable of a discussion of that caliber given your Reliance on emotions.
Now we get somewhere.
1. I never said you lived in a rural area. I was simply pointing out how I can understand how someone raised there could find life in a city unbearable from shear fear of all the bad human beings.
You think people are inherently evil (or bad in your words). You had to be taught to be good to control your own evil nature which is quite scary. I guess it’s best you keep thinking that way.
Even helpless babies which if you ever raised any, you would quickly realize your fears of demons directing the actions of all men and women would vanish.
2. I never made any comment on my method of helping people?
My method is to listen with an open mind. Offer suggestions based on methods that worked for me and my family. Refrain from judgement based on religion (or lack of one), color, race, ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability, of mental capability.
I admit we have a large population of desperate people that have little hope for entering the corporate world which selects people based on fitting into a very narrow mold. They lack education and worse some lack motivation to do better because they don’t believe they can.
Millions of people come from walks of life that I am thankful not to have been born into. They live life as a series of disappointments and failures, they self-medicate, they have to accept constant abuse at every turn, and many foolishly turn to crime as a solution.
You can build all the prisons you want, have all the guns you can shoot, put walls up and cameras everywhere and this situation only gets worse and worse because those of us who could help, prefer to leave it to the conservatives who have no empathy for the “bad people.” They prefer to believe society will improve with more punishment.
I prefer to believe mankind is essentially good because I have enjoyed far, far more good people in my life than bad or evil as you seemed to have suffered.
Good people need good jobs so they can build a life here. Giving someone twenty hours at $8.50 an hour less taxes and no health care is just wage slavery enjoyed by the greedy upper class who cry about missing their quarterly EPS and fire those poor people at the bottom to make up for it. Treating human beings like this is how we got to where we are.
I don’t believe in charity, that is all just another write-off for the wealth donors who like their names and company brands posted around.
Human beings need to have a means to produce value and wealth for themselves that grows in relation to everyone else. When we have 1% taking 90%, there is nothing at all left to discuss.
Your rant began by calling people with emotions and feeling weak and helpless. I wanted you to know that is nonsense as I am living proof of a strong, independent, successful, and happy American that has no need to attack others as a means to feel good about myself.
Good luck to you and the America you dream about. Mine is one where we all work together in one nation with liberty and justice for all.
You see, you’re still not seeing how your worldview is foolish. You’re telling me that as a young child you never hit somebody because they did something you didn’t want them to Do? You’re claiming that you just knew better inherently? Your parents never had to tell you “that’s not nice” or punished you for doing something you should not have?
The notion is ridiculous. You’ve met so many more good people because they’ve all been taught to be good, as you were. If you had no adult figures in your life to teach you right from wrong you would still be hitting people for insignificant BS, because you wouldn’t know better.
And you still fail to see that your idea of “working together” is you taking my eggs and oven away and then insulting my baking skills because I can’t bake a cake.
Your entire worldview is based on fantasy.
You entirely lost me on that last post?
Having a mother or father to tell you not to hit somebody when you are two years old is simple parental guidance. Ninety nine percent of us don’t have the urge to hit other people to start with and should we do it, we don’t need a priest, god, devil, police officer and soldier standing by to remind us.
We learn that when we hit others, they can hit back and it’s to nobody’s advantage to keep that going. Most of us have brains. We shake hands and go play ball.
Sadly, you need a loaded gun in your pocket because you don’t trust others and this is an indication of the level of trust you have in your own behavior. We don’t shake hands and then when their back is turned, blast a cap in their head unless of course one is suffering with a serious mental illness.
If my world view is a fantasy, then I sure have a great fantasy. I need nothing from anyone, I am surrounded by loving people who love me and who I love back. I work with great minds, we don’t worry about a knife in the back. I have dogs and cats sitting with me at all times when I am home, friendly neighbors that never did anything but offer a hand and a smile.
This is the world I want to live in and I would encourage anyone reading this to come to one of our meetings in Portland and experience scores of complete strangers coming together to share stories and support one another. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
Again, good luck to you Chris. I have nothing for you to learn since I have feelings and emotions as well as advanced critical thinking skills, a solid graduate level education, have traveled around the world and have seen some of the best and the worst of human life. Go hike around Thailand for a few months and I guarantee you will come back with a different perspective of the nature of human beings.
You STILL can’t wrap your head around WHY 2 year olds need that parental guidance in the first place. If people were inherently good, guidance would be unnecessary.
Two out of every three people in the United States have a criminal record, while a large portion of that is due to us having too many laws, a large part of it is the fact that some people still hit other people, it’s called battery and is illegal, people get arrested for it every single day.
Given that you cannot grasp the very basic reality that people are not inherently good and must be taught (or guided, whichever term you prefer) how to be good, you have zero chance of understanding how a free market works.
A great fantasy it may be, but it’s still a fantasy with zero chance of ever becoming reality.
I suggest a degree in Economics from a well known University would do you some good. Using the fact that one of ten babies might choose to hit another in a fit of jealousy over a lollipop and leaping to this being a foundation for the free market economy is about the most incredibly insane concept I have heard in a long time.
Two year old babies need guidance because they are infants. You clearly have no children as you would see that most play nice together. It is the odd ball that hits others and most of them learn quickly not to keep it up. If one keeps hitting and gets joy from it, then he or she has a mental problem that may or may not be reversed later in life.
You are spreading more Fake News my friend. Two out of three American’s DO NOT have criminal records. No wonder you live in fear. Stop spreading FAKE NEWS.
One in five have a criminal record which include all petty crimes. Only 18% of felony convictions are for assault and battery, so with some basic math 20% x 18% = 3.6% or 3 to 4 out of 100 are the people you actually believe are all around you.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/20/opinions/feinberg-criminal-justice-reform/index.html
http://usalawsuitloans.com/assault-and-battery-statistics/
As for the Free Market, there is no such a thing. Those with the most gold make the rules for the rest of us get to pay to play. Industry lobbyists write most of the laws and regulations they are supposed to follow. They also govern themselves and have massive legal and accounting teams to ward off any attempt to corner an actual responsible party. They get caught and pay a small fine, no executive gets their hand slapped.
Private interests run most of our systems. To corporate machine people, profit and self-gratification is far more important than the quality of life of others.
We get overloaded every day with stories about the poor black criminals robbing convenience stores and we rarely hear anything at all about the massive white collar crimes that drain billions of our resources.
I never once took a beating from a parent or relative. I was never inherently evil. I could see with my own two eyes, feel with my heart, and think with my brain to the extent that my awareness of life was to protect all life, not take lives or hurt others simply because I could do so. I always enjoyed helping others succeed far more than helping myself by exploiting their weaknesses.
You go on with your perspective and fake stats, keep living in fear and spreading to everyone you can. In the end, love (which is a feeling or emotion) crushes fear and hatred. You can have the last comment. May you find love and peace in your life and help others do the same.
Over and Out.
Wow, not only are you unable to understand basic realities, you also lack intermediate reading skills.
I never said children misbehaving was a basis for a free market economy, I was talking about two separate issues, the fact that you are unable to understand that children need guidance because they are inherently bad, and that you lack the comprehension skills required to understand how a free market works. The first one is a very simple concept, the second one is fairly complex, so if you can’t understand the simple one, how could you understand the complex one?
Have you heard of a place called Hong Kong? If not you should look it up, it has the closest thing to a free market the world knows today (basically it has adopted the entire Republican economic agenda) and guess what? It ranks among the best or IS the best in all positive economic counters. Unemployment, upward mobility, poverty, wages, you name it, the people of Hong Kong enjoy being the recipients of the best overall numbers in the world.
As for a country that has adopted the entire Democrat agenda, we have Venezuala, enough said.
Your remark about those with the most gold (I prefer the term wealth) assumes that there is only so much wealth to be had, which is also untrue.
I really shouldn’t ask because I know you’ll be wrong, think you’re right and not understand what I try to explain to you but curiosity is just getting the better of me right now… How was the “preexisting condition” issue created?
Thank Chris. I appreciate all the kind comments. Have a nice life in Hong Kong. Yes, I have been there and unfortunately the factory cities that I go to nearby are living hell, but hey one city in a dictatorship is your dream planet.
Peace and best wishes to you!
In other words, you have no way to challenge my statement and you don’t know how the preexisting condition issue was created.
I accept your unconditional surrender.
I realize you are a Facebook media bot. The next phase of machine learning designed to divide us inefficient thinking beings into a completely powerless mass of flesh and blood.
– You paste together paragraphs that have nothing to do with each other and form conclusions.
– You cite false facts and build arguments around them. When called out, you avoid the error and make no apology.
It’s quite fascinating. The purest form of emotionally-charged propaganda; all wrapped in the disguise of a non-emotional, non-feeling human being which of course is the definition of an AI driven machine.
I enjoyed the twists and turns to nowhere. I can’t surrender a battle that never started. I accept whatever illusion you wish to take home. You won the knowledge that most of us thinking and feeling beings won’t so easily fall to your AI fallacy generator.
Thanks again for the interesting comments. Take care. Best wishes. from one of those pesky human beings with emotions. Hopefully, you find yours someday too.
1. That’s the point of paragraphs, to make different points.
2. There were a number of points you stated that I did not address, unlike you, I don’t have all day to write a novel. Butbsince you insisted I double checked my sources and I did make a small error, the number is one third, not two thirds, don’t know why I remembered it as two thirds but that still leaves 100,000,000 arrest records on file according to a 2012 DOJ study. Not all of which resulted in a conviction.
Apologies for my minor error.
Anywho, have a nice life. I hope you don’t become a victim of any of the future genocides that will inevitably take place as they have throughout all of human history, because you know, humans are good so that never happened in your mind.
Thanks again for the education and positive feelings for the future of mankind. Rock on.
Just coming in to voice support and admiration for the amount of patience and effort Social Entrepreneurs Portland put forth to try and have a reasonable and rational dialogue with someone who was repeatedly being disrespectful, seemed to be running a logical fallacy playbook, and seemed to have nothing but contempt for you. I don’t have the energy to jump into this (plus it seems like there is very little point in just coming in to weather abuse from that poster like you have been without making many communication gains despite your efforts), but I wanted to remind you that you are seen and that someone appreciates those that have the cognitive resources to keep this up while others of us need to recover from battling bullies and abuse. Thanks.
Thank you very much Rose. I am happy to read your comments. You are correct, there is no point in trying to have a discussion with such people. I actually learn a lot from their twisted logic and delusions. Our educational and media systems have really messed up our society.
Imagine being an angry bully who hates everyone you don’t agree with and at the same time you believe that you are a superior life form for not having feelings and emotions? Hate and anger are the worst of all emotions, so they are actually the most emotional people walking the planet.
The best way to work with them is to stick to refuting their comments with facts and never let them manipulate you into using their brand of engagement filled with anger, false statistics, and personal attacks.
You just proved my point by responding. The human race is far more good than evil. Happy Troll hunting.
Umm, look at this hideous ska nk, get off welfare, stop expecting others to do your work, feminist C U N T!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6728b841a028323ea273e0dbc79c58bac2f832f1e74121d2375f08b096bc51f8.jpg