Wimpy 'Generation Snowflake': The Insult du Jour for Trump Camp

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Americans like to categorize themselves by generation: there were the post-World War II baby boomers, followed by Generation X and the Millennials.

Now, enter Generation Snowflake.

The Snowflakes are defined by Collins Dictionary in 2016 as those who have reached or are reaching adulthood in the 2010s, and are considered "less resilient and more prone to taking offense than previous generations."

Conservatives and other backers of President Donald Trump use the term to take on their leftist adversaries, describing them as so fragile that they can't take even a hint of criticism or handle words they don't want to hear.

At a major conservative conference this week outside Washington, known as CPAC, workshops are being held for students from all over the country so they can learn to express their views at a time of what they see as rampant political correctness.

"Being a conservative on campus is like it used to be when you were gay back then. You're afraid to come out because of the backlash from society," said Max Ortengren, 23, vice president of the young Republicans association at Florida Gulf Coast University. 

This offshoot of America's cultural wars has spawned new vocabulary.

In recent years, minority students have demanded "safe spaces" on campus in which nothing smacking of intolerance is allowed.

Others demand "trigger warnings" during a lecture or play, say, in case ideas that might offend them might emerge.

For conservatives defending freedom of expression, these precautions are tantamount to a refusal to debate -- an attempt to shield students -- wrongly, they say -- from opinions they do not want to hear.

Ortengren tells a story about waiting two weeks before announcing an event organized by the National Rifle Association out of fear that left-leaning students would mobilize and block it.

A 21-year-old student named Chloe recalls being shocked last year when students disrupted a speech being given by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos at DePaul University in Chicago. They took to the stage and called Trump -- whom Yiannopoulos backs firmly -- a racist. The talk was canceled.

"It just blew up," Chloe said. 

In contrast, she said, people like her can just be themselves at the conservative pow-wow.  

"CPAC is like a safe space for us," she said.

- 'Sue your school' -

In a conference room at the conservative conclave, attorney Casey Mattox leads a workshop centered on teaching students to understand what their rights are.

"My job is to sue your school," he said.

His organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom, specializes in defending freedom of speech and assembly for students who are Christian, Republican and pro-gun rights, among other persuasions, and attacking their schools' policies.

"The leftists who dominate most of our campuses savor the advantage they have over students and delight in their power to indoctrinate students in socialist ideas," Mattox told an estimated 40 students attending the workshop.

In a nearby workshop, Micah Pearce, a student at the conservative evangelical Liberty University, discusses ways to get stuff done: be present physically and not just online, invite well-known conservative speakers to campus and film any clashes with counter-protesters, as a bit of publicity never hurts.

"They literally want to silence what you want to say," he said.

Since Trump was elected in November, the term "Generation Snowflake" has stuck.

His one-time campaign chief and now advisor Kellyanne Conway has described people at anti-Trump rallies who are gutted by the defeat of Hillary Clinton as just that -- pretty, fragile snowflakes.

But concern over political correctness goes both ways.

In September 2015, then president Barack Obama told students trying to keep right-wing lecturers from speaking to let them have their say. 

"I don't agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view," he said.

"I think you should be able to -- anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with 'em. But you shouldn't silence them by saying, 'You can’t come because I'm too sensitive to hear what you have to say.' That’s not the way we learn either."

Nevertheless, people taking part in the CPAC conference denied that Trump, who loathes the news media, is intolerant of opposing views. 

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