I remember the term snowflake or special snowflake coming to prominence from the alt-right in 2015-2016. By 2017 it was part of the MAGA vocabulary and was commonplace among right-wing pundits like Tomi Lahren and Glen Beck.
The reference was less to the notion that snowflakes are frail, but that they’re unique. Empathetic folks sometimes might recognize that individual human beings are special. To borrow a thought from The Watchmen (Allen Moore), Dr. Manhattan eventually realizes life is a series of “thermodynamic miracles,” events so improbable that they seem miraculous, like oxygen turning into gold. We all have value to society and to each other, even if that is lost in the teeming crowds.
Those of us who practice empathy practice looking for this value, or taking it on faith that if we feed and care for everyone without selection, we are stronger for the numbers. (Certainly, art, science and culture are improved by having more eyes and hands). But, as Dr. Manhattan notes, when you see such miracles by the millions they become hard to recognize. Hence the alt-right response is to compare it to the individual uniqueness of snowflakes: Each one is different and even pretty, but all are ultimately, tumbling ice crystals that get lost in the snow.
Much of the alt-right is comprised of men who are, to quote old movies and old analysts, not economically viable, They struggle to find work or a place for themselves in a society that sees them just as expendable resources. Our deteriorating economy has produced a surplus of War Boys, looking to be witnessed, that they might rise to Valhalla, all shiny and chrome.
(It was a voting bloc that Steve Bannon was able to draw to back Trump in 2016. In 2024, they still haven’t gone away, and while they’re still cynical and less loyal to Trump, they’re waiting for their next Immortan Joe.)
But as much as the early MAGA movement swore by apathy and brutal truth, we would rapidly discover they too were sensitive about their own weakness, and couldn’t bear criticism and was easy to take offense.
In June of 2017, Shakespeare in Central Park did a performance of Julius Caesar, and as is tradition, Caesar is dressed as the regional leader. Gregg Henry dressed tall and blond and orange-tan with an extra-long red tie. Calpurnia was a spitting image of Melania. (During Obama’s terms, there were multiple performances, with Obama-like caesars. It’s an ongoing thing.
Right-wing media had a meltdown. Sponsors of Shakespeare in the Park were pressured to cut their ties. So while Liberal Tears mugs were flying off the shelves; while Omarosa was threatening enemies of the new White House order with shadowy arrests; while Stephen Miller was looking to become Trump’s Heydrich to start an immigrant holocaust, suddenly a Trumpy Julius Caesar (who gets assassinated, though the assassins don’t fare well in the end) was a troll too far.
By the end of 2017, it was evident that Trump’s ego was as tender as a baby with diaper rash, that he needed his rallies and his cabinet meetings to include a rotation of compliments about how amazing he was as President. It was one of those moments where we realized as the most powerful dude in the world, he still felt like a failure.
So yeah, as per the Republican party since 2015, every accusation is a confession. They send the police in full riot gear not because they imagine Palestine aid supporters to be weak any more than they imagined BLM to be weak in 2020. It’s because they’re terrified that they have no legitimate standing for their authority except for the force it can command. And the police know it as well, which is why CS-Gas flows thick as London fog before dawn.
I can’t be sure if the protests will do anything. All the concessions made in response to the George Floyd protests in 2020 were reversed. But they are afraid of the outrage. They do tremble before communist revolution, even if the rise of communism, itself, remains a remote dream.
So about snowflakes
I remember the term snowflake or special snowflake coming to prominence from the alt-right in 2015-2016. By 2017 it was part of the MAGA vocabulary and was commonplace among right-wing pundits like Tomi Lahren and Glen Beck.
The reference was less to the notion that snowflakes are frail, but that they’re unique. Empathetic folks sometimes might recognize that individual human beings are special. To borrow a thought from The Watchmen (Allen Moore), Dr. Manhattan eventually realizes life is a series of “thermodynamic miracles,” events so improbable that they seem miraculous, like oxygen turning into gold. We all have value to society and to each other, even if that is lost in the teeming crowds.
Those of us who practice empathy practice looking for this value, or taking it on faith that if we feed and care for everyone without selection, we are stronger for the numbers. (Certainly, art, science and culture are improved by having more eyes and hands). But, as Dr. Manhattan notes, when you see such miracles by the millions they become hard to recognize. Hence the alt-right response is to compare it to the individual uniqueness of snowflakes: Each one is different and even pretty, but all are ultimately, tumbling ice crystals that get lost in the snow.
Much of the alt-right is comprised of men who are, to quote old movies and old analysts, not economically viable, They struggle to find work or a place for themselves in a society that sees them just as expendable resources. Our deteriorating economy has produced a surplus of War Boys, looking to be witnessed, that they might rise to Valhalla, all shiny and chrome.
(It was a voting bloc that Steve Bannon was able to draw to back Trump in 2016. In 2024, they still haven’t gone away, and while they’re still cynical and less loyal to Trump, they’re waiting for their next Immortan Joe.)
But as much as the early MAGA movement swore by apathy and brutal truth, we would rapidly discover they too were sensitive about their own weakness, and couldn’t bear criticism and was easy to take offense.
In June of 2017, Shakespeare in Central Park did a performance of Julius Caesar, and as is tradition, Caesar is dressed as the regional leader. Gregg Henry dressed tall and blond and orange-tan with an extra-long red tie. Calpurnia was a spitting image of Melania. (During Obama’s terms, there were multiple performances, with Obama-like caesars. It’s an ongoing thing.
Right-wing media had a meltdown. Sponsors of Shakespeare in the Park were pressured to cut their ties. So while Liberal Tears mugs were flying off the shelves; while Omarosa was threatening enemies of the new White House order with shadowy arrests; while Stephen Miller was looking to become Trump’s Heydrich to start an immigrant holocaust, suddenly a Trumpy Julius Caesar (who gets assassinated, though the assassins don’t fare well in the end) was a troll too far.
By the end of 2017, it was evident that Trump’s ego was as tender as a baby with diaper rash, that he needed his rallies and his cabinet meetings to include a rotation of compliments about how amazing he was as President. It was one of those moments where we realized as the most powerful dude in the world, he still felt like a failure.
So yeah, as per the Republican party since 2015, every accusation is a confession. They send the police in full riot gear not because they imagine Palestine aid supporters to be weak any more than they imagined BLM to be weak in 2020. It’s because they’re terrified that they have no legitimate standing for their authority except for the force it can command. And the police know it as well, which is why CS-Gas flows thick as London fog before dawn.
I can’t be sure if the protests will do anything. All the concessions made in response to the George Floyd protests in 2020 were reversed. But they are afraid of the outrage. They do tremble before communist revolution, even if the rise of communism, itself, remains a remote dream.