By Steven Petrow Columnist, Civilities April 10
I’ve always said that I appreciate all my readers, both those who agree with me and those who don’t. But lately I’ve been puzzled by the new slurs directed at me by some of the latter. Many I didn’t even understand, so I did some digging.
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But here’s the nasty undercurrent: These new words are intrinsic to the alt-right’s rise, according to Lakoff. He connects this to the Nazis and the coded language (prime example: “the master race”) that eventually allowed them to topple governmental institutions. “The strategy is to control discourse,” Lakoff points out. “One way you do that is preemptive name calling . . . based on a moral hierarchy.”
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Snowflake. This is no compliment, even if you like to think that you’re one of a kind. At best, it’s a derisive term for someone considered entitled, which to those using it includes people of color, LGBT folks, students — even Meryl Streep for her pro-kindness stance at the Golden Globes. Sarah McBride of the Human Rights Campaign told me that it’s often used against LGBT people in reference “to pronoun usage, particularly nonbinary pronoun use, and the efforts on college campuses to be more aware and affirming of people’s pronouns.” Used in a sentence, via Urban Dictionary: “Hey snowflake, Trump won, deal with it.” With one word you’re dismissed as weak, feminine, juvenile — a loser.
ETC,,
More at link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-coded-language-of-the-alt-right-is-helping-to-power-its-rise/2017/04/07/5f269a82-1ba4-11e7-bcc2-7d1a0973e7b2_story.html?utm_term=.263263d549ba