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Generation Snowflake

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  • Generation Snowflake

    Interesting article in the Brit newspaper The Sun:

    Source: TRIGGER WARNING Meet ‘Generation Snowflake’ – the hysterical young women who can’t cope with being offended


    British thinktank boss says mollycoddled kids are breaking down in tears when asked to deal with controversial ideas

    A top British thinker has claimed young women are in the grip of a “hysteria” which has made them unable to cope with being offended.

    Claire Fox, head of a thinktank called the Institute of Ideas, has penned a coruscating critique of “Generation Snowflake”, the name given to a growing group of youngsters who “believe it’s their right to be protected from anything they might find unpalatable”.

    She said British and American universities are dominated by cabals of young women who are dead set on banning anything they find remotely offensive.

    “It makes me sad that these teens and 20-somethings have become so fearful that they believe a dissenting opinion can pose such a serious threat,” Fox wrote in an article for Mail Online.

    This hyper-sensitivity has prompted the University of East Anglia to outlaw sombreros in a Mexican restaurant and caused the National Union of Student to ban clapping as “as it might trigger trauma”, asking youngsters to use “jazz hands” instead.

    Books containing troublesome material are now slapped with “trigger warnings”, whilst universities and student unions are declared “safe spaces” where young people should not have to encounter anything they disagree with.

    Fox described astonishing scenes at an event set up to discuss whether the public outcry against footballer Ched Evans was “social justice or mob rule”.

    The academic said her mostly female audience broke down in tears after she “dared suggest (as eminent feminists have before me) that rape wasn’t necessarily the worst thing a woman could experience”.

    Fox added: “I expected robust discussion – not for them all to dissolve into outraged gasps of, ‘You can’t say that!’

    “Their reaction shocked me. I take no pleasure in making teenagers cry, but it also brought home the contrast to previous generations of young people, who would have relished the chance to argue back.

    “It illustrated this generation’s almost belligerent sense of entitlement. They assume their emotional suffering takes precedence. Express a view they disagree with and you must immediately recant and apologise.”

    Generation Snowflake has also created a social minefield for young boys and men, who risk being labelled “sex pests” for twanging a girl’s bra at school, Fox continued.

    She said women were opting to stay at home and socialise on the internet due to overblown fears about predatory men.

    “There is a strand of self-absorption and fragility running through this generation; all too ready to cry ‘victim’ at the first hint of a situation they don’t like,” Fox concluded.

    “We need a younger generation that’s prepared to grow a backbone, go out into the world, take risks and make difficult decisions. Otherwise the future doesn’t bode well for any of us.”

    Claire Fox has penned a book about Generation Snowflake which is called I Find That Offensive and was published by Biteback in May.


    Source

    © Copyright Original Source



    Personally, I don't think it is just girls and young women who are like this as the article implies. I've seen a substantial number of boys and young men involved in such protests.

    Also, men ought to know better than to "twang" a woman's bra.

    I'm always still in trouble again

    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

  • #2
    I get triggered whenever I see the term 'safe spaces', check your dusty old fossil privileges.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
      Personally, I don't think it is just girls and young women who are like this as the article implies. I've seen a substantial number of boys and young men involved in such protests.
      Agreed.
      Also, men ought to know better than to "twang" a woman's bra.
      In context of school, it's usually boys (though that can depend on your definition of "man" - after all, in some cultures, boys become men at 13).
      Enter the Church and wash away your sins. For here there is a hospital and not a court of law. Do not be ashamed to enter the Church; be ashamed when you sin, but not when you repent. – St. John Chrysostom

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      I recommend you do not try too hard and ...research as little as possible. Such weighty things give me a headache. - Shunyadragon, Baha'i apologist

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      • #4
        This is too much to process. I'm still working on why yellow makes me sad. I'm thinking of suing McDonald's.
        Last edited by Cow Poke; 06-09-2016, 11:39 AM.
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          I was going to start a thread on this myself, but since this one already exists, I guess I'll post a few thoughts here.

          I recently finished my college years (at a fairly large American public university, at that), and at no point did I ever see anything like what the author of that piece describes. Nor have any of my Facebook friends who attend other American public universities reported seeing anything like that. I can't comment on British universities, but I'm skeptical that this is as widespread in the US as the author seems to think it is. For one thing, how exactly would a 56-year old British woman (who's presumably at least 30 years removed from her college days herself) know what goes on with college students in America? I think it's far more likely that the media has misrepresented the magnitude or scope of a few isolated cases, and others have blown it out of proportion.

          Now, I *have* seen a few US writers report similar things before, but once again, those writers are all in their forties and fifties and even sixties. They aren't college students themselves. How can they make such broad, sweeping judgments about typical college environments on the basis of limited interactions with a small subset of students?

          Regarding "trigger warnings," I would agree that they're overused, but I think there are a few instances in which they may be acceptable or even preferable. Back in April 2013, the TV show "Glee" aired an episode that features an intense, emotional scene in which a gunshot is heard and the school is placed on lockdown, thinking that a dangerous shooter is on the loose. The episode aired less than four months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, and a few Newtown parents complained about the fact that there was no warning about the content.

          Now obviously, parents can't let their terror and pain and grief from the shooting consume them forever. They do need to eventually "get over it," so to speak. But on the other hand, come on--some parents just recently lost their children! It seems perfectly understandable to me that, just like physical healing, emotional healing in the face of legitimately traumatic events takes time, and I can't fault parents if it takes them longer than a mere four months to "get over" the pain of losing a child. I wouldn't want to tear open their emotional wound anew while they're still healing. So in cases like these, at least, "trigger warnings" may be helpful insofar as they warn people to only engage with certain material if they're ready to do so.

          I'd really like to emphasize this plea for nuance and compassion, because I often see Internet commenters mocking "trigger warnings" and acting like callous jerks. Yes, there are some cases in which the warnings are applied to things that aren't legitimately serious, but I think dismissing the concept/usage entirely constitutes throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
          Last edited by fm93; 06-09-2016, 11:43 AM.
          Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

          I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

          Comment


          • #6
            Snowflakes remind me of shurikens which are sharp and I am afraid of sharp things. I demand an apology, a changing of the title of this thread, and a new safe-forum where I can post without fear of being violently assaulted by such words.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by fm93 View Post
              I'd really like to emphasize this plea for nuance and compassion, because I often see Internet commenters mocking "trigger warnings" and acting like callous jerks. Yes, there are some cases in which the warnings are applied to things that aren't legitimately serious, but I think dismissing the concept/usage entirely constitutes throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
              Exhibit A:
              Originally posted by CMD View Post
              Snowflakes remind me of shurikens which are sharp and I am afraid of sharp things. I demand an apology, a changing of the title of this thread, and a new safe-forum where I can post without fear of being violently assaulted by such words.
              Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

              I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by CMD View Post
                Snowflakes remind me of shurikens which are sharp and I am afraid of sharp things. I demand an apology, a changing of the title of this thread, and a new safe-forum where I can post without fear of being violently assaulted by such words.
                giphy.gif

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by fm93 View Post
                  Exhibit A:
                  Yes, because CMD is dismissing the concept of trigger warnings entirely.

                  He's making fun of SJW's who misuse the concept of trigger warnings to stifle discussion, he's not making fun of the concept of triggers in and of itself.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by fm93 View Post
                    I recently finished my college years (at a fairly large American public university, at that), and at no point did I ever see anything like what the author of that piece describes. Nor have any of my Facebook friends who attend other American public universities reported seeing anything like that.
                    Have you seen the YT video titled "Milo Yiannopoulos, Steven Crowder and Christina Hoff Sommers at UMass"? If not, look it up. I can't link to it due to language, but it shouldn't be hard to find.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      In my senior year of college, I was part of a group on the receiving end of one of these little campaigns. We had the audacity to try to advance arguments in defense of the understanding of marriage as heterosexual and monogamous; opponents circulated a petition saying that our arguments were discriminatory and therefore contrary to the school's Catholic values.

                      At the time the petition was written and circulated, we had neither hosted any events nor made any public statements: we actually hadn't made any arguments, all we'd done is file the necessary paperwork to be recognized as a student group and to host a conference.

                      But on thee other side of it, my brother knows someone at Oberlin College, which was in the news because students were protesting the cafeteria food as cultural appropriation or some such thing. According to my brother's friend, they were protesting a number of things, among which the food bit was a very small point, but the media only ever reported on the part they could paint as silly.

                      College students can be very silly, but the people who report or comment on them virtually never tell the full story.
                      Don't call it a comeback. It's a riposte.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        This is what happens if you violate a snowflake's "safe space" with a Halloween costume, poor Professor:

                        Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Spartacus View Post
                          but the people who report or comment on them virtually never tell the full story.
                          I'm glad I was sitting down when I read this.
                          I'm not here anymore.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Chrawnus View Post
                            Yes, because CMD is dismissing the concept of trigger warnings entirely.
                            That is, in fact, exactly what he appears to be doing.

                            He's making fun of SJW's who misuse the concept of trigger warnings to stifle discussion, he's not making fun of the concept of triggers in and of itself.
                            Unless he added something in a font that only you can physically see, there's no indication of that. When I want to make it clear that I'm not dismissing an entire concept itself, I say things like "It isn't entirely bad, but..." or "Although they mean well..." He appears to purely be engaged in mockery, without any hint of nuance.

                            And also, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly's up with that acronym? I understand that it's often applied to people who sometimes come across as self-righteous or wanting to stifle discussion by shaming, but why are those specific words used with derogatory intent? Social justice is simply justice applied throughout society. The Bible has plenty of passages advocating for that (see the first line of my signature, for instance), and Jesus no doubt could've literally been described as a fighter (read: warrior) for social justice. It just seems odd to me that people try to denigrate other people by using words with positive meanings.


                            Originally posted by Chrawnus View Post
                            Have you seen the YT video titled "Milo Yiannopoulos, Steven Crowder and Christina Hoff Sommers at UMass"? If not, look it up. I can't link to it due to language, but it shouldn't be hard to find.
                            I'm sorry, I find it difficult in good conscience to trust Crowder's productions. That said, I'm not doubting that there might be a few students here and there who engage in bizarre activity--I'm simply doubting that the phenomenon is as prevalent as some authors would have us believe. I certainly never got the impression that it was a widespread, defining characteristic of an entire generation, based on my four years of interaction with fellow members of that generation.
                            Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.--Isaiah 1:17

                            I don't think that all forms o[f] slavery are inherently immoral.--seer

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Carrikature View Post
                              I'm glad I was sitting down when I read this.
                              At least the college students are more up-front about not wanting their views challenged.
                              Don't call it a comeback. It's a riposte.

                              Comment

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