The snowflake generation exists only in context of the rise of conservatism

The argument

The snowflake generation exists only in the context of the rise of conservatism, because the term acquired its force from that opposition rather than from anything it describes. The chronology is the first piece of evidence. While the joke of calling an individual a "special snowflake" extends all the way back to the 1996 novel Fight Club, it is only with the rise of conservatism that it consolidated its power in the English vernacular. For twenty years the phrase existed without doing any political work. The term "Snowflake Generation" was then popularized by Claire Fox's 2016 book, I Find That Offensive!, which describes the Christakis fiasco at Yale University in 2015 as an example of an overdramatic, hysterical reaction by young people. Paired with the referendum to support Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, this created a snowball effect regarding the term "snowflake". The second piece of evidence is what the word means when it is used. Its power is characterized by its alleged stark opposite, the modern conservative: to call someone a snowflake is to place them on one side of a division and to place the speaker on the other. The content of the accusation — oversensitivity, an inability to tolerate disagreement — is only insulting if the speaker's own position is understood as its reverse, so the term carries an implied self-description as much as a description. That is why the argument treats the two as inseparable. Without a platform, these two warring bodies would never have clashed, nor would the term have been popularized. The mutual antagonism between conservatives and snowflakes gives the term its wings. On this reading the snowflake generation is not a cohort that exists independently and was later named, but a category produced by the conflict that needed it.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The snowflakes existed far before the 2016 conservative international swoop. The Christakis fiasco described in the argument happened in 2015, long before the guarantee of Brexit and back when Hillary Clinton had a majority of support in the polls. The snowflake generation is characterized by how they were raised, not their current existence. As such, one needs to reflect on the decade previous to the current one as the context in which these young liberals were created. Perhaps the resurgence of conservatism worked to fan the flames, but the fire was already burning.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The dating does not hold: the counter points to the Christakis episode described in the argument itself, which took place in 2015, before Brexit was assured and while Hillary Clinton led in the polls, so the phenomenon predates the 2016 conservative turn the premise treats as its origin. [Rejecting P2] The definition is placed elsewhere as well — on the counter's account the generation is characterised by how it was raised, which points to the preceding decade as the formative context, and while the resurgence of conservatism may have fanned the flames, the fire was already burning.