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My Semester with the Snowflakes

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Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#31

Post by akhilcacharya »

gfodor wrote: post #10

I’m not worried about the kids in college now who are too young, busy, and roll their eyes at mainstream American political culture to give a shit about the latest outrage-du-jour on Twitter. They’ll be graduating into the strongest economy in American history. They’ll be just fine. It’s the young adults who are a few years into their career being crushed by high prices, low wages, holding useless degrees under piles…

Specifically it’s the ones who are at Yale. They’ll be fine no matter what.

The side effect of the “campus PC” hysteria is it ignores the very real voices of folks that go to commuter schools like I did where the stereotype matches even less than it does in elite circles (where it rings hollow too).

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#32

Post by atoav »

moneywoes wrote: post #22
siquick wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And no mention of the elephant in the room - climate change. It feels like we're already seeing it here in Sydney, Australia. We've had dangerously low air quality from bush fires for the last 1.5 months and we now have a serious water shortage. I've been accepting of climate change up until recently - now I'm genuinely worried about the future here.

Is there any solution in sight?

This interactive MIT tool gives you a feeling for the possible solutions: https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org/

I won't spoil it for you, but you could find out that you might want to phrase that question of yours differently..

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#33

Post by he0001 »

I always thought the “liberal snowflake” term is quite odd. I guess I could qualify or classified as one. There’s something wrong with that statement. I think the meaning of it is quite the opposite. As a liberal, you realize that you are not a special individual and must cooperate to gain more, to distribute the available resources for some sort of greater progress, such as health care for everyone etc. Being the opposite is just what a snowflake would be. The one of a kind, just me and my capabilities and resources against the rest of the world. If you don’t have an insurance to give the appropriate healthcare to your loved ones, you, and only you are the failure here, not the collective “us”.

I believe I was less liberal in my youth, but since when I got my children I can’t bare the thought of not being able to pay their health care if they ever needed it. Even though that’s not a problem for me, I still think of it very often when I see them sick.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#34

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

sneak wrote: post #14

It’s interesting how much implied context is in this: that someone old, and related to the military (presumably right-leaning from the “snowflake” term), likely distrusts/disrespects someone young and wealthy from the coasts (presumably left-leaning from geography). Are we really so polarized? Are hundreds of millions so gung-ho to flock away from the center? Can the whole American situation be approximately summed u…

I feel like this is a pretty weird reading of the article. The author makes it clear that the real situation is more nuanced than that, that the people he's met at Yale aren't trying to flock away from the center at all.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#35

Post by mirimir »

moneywoes wrote: post #22
siquick wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And no mention of the elephant in the room - climate change. It feels like we're already seeing it here in Sydney, Australia. We've had dangerously low air quality from bush fires for the last 1.5 months and we now have a serious water shortage. I've been accepting of climate change up until recently - now I'm genuinely worried about the future here.

Is there any solution in sight?

Even if human CO2/CH4 emissions hit zero tomorrow, it's probably too late. Because of positive feedbacks already triggered. So long term, the solution will be collapse of technological society.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#36

Post by atoav »

kortilla wrote: post #8
catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #3

Well written piece! Never stop learning. In a way there's an underlying political statement here on how diverse opinions and education changes perspective.

It’s not really “education” that changed his perspective but rather immersion in a group of people with a completely different mindset. The same could be accomplished spending time with them in a job, a volunteer group, a prison, etc. He also likely wouldn’t have changed his perspective much if he took the courses online asynchronously.

I don't know if this is a thing in the anglosphere but in Germany there is a saying that goes like: if it doesn't changes how you think, it can be hardly called education. Getting educated means you have to let the things you encounter change your view of the world – that doesn't mean you have to change with the wind, but if you are not an idiot you will realize the points where you just wanted something to be true vs. what might actually be the case.

In that sense, the bloke really did get an education. And of course: collegues, professors and the whole environment plays a huge role in education. I'd argue that collegues can be even more important than professors.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#37

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

atoav wrote: post #32
moneywoes wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any solution in sight?

This interactive MIT tool gives you a feeling for the possible solutions: https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org/ I won't spoil it for you, but you could find out that you might want to phrase that question of yours differently..

I struggle to understand what I'm supposed to get out of this tool. If "new technology" has a "huge breakthrough", global warming will be reduced .3 degrees - but we'd better hope that the breakthrough doesn't cause "economic growth" to become "high growth", since that will increase it by .7 degrees. Doesn't matter what the technology does or how the economic growth happens, we can predict their effects... somehow.

I don't think there's much understanding to be gained by attaching sliders with vague, underspecified labels to a graph.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#38

Post by atoav »

sneak wrote: post #14

It’s interesting how much implied context is in this: that someone old, and related to the military (presumably right-leaning from the “snowflake” term), likely distrusts/disrespects someone young and wealthy from the coasts (presumably left-leaning from geography). Are we really so polarized? Are hundreds of millions so gung-ho to flock away from the center? Can the whole American situation be approximately summed u…

I'd say what is polarized isn't necessarily "all the people", instead the perceived discourse is polarized. And like in any really entrenched discourse, the one side thinks to know exactly what the other side wants and thinks, without ever talking to each other.

One of my best friends became a neonazi years ago. I don't live in that village anymore, but every 3 years I manage to meet him at some party or so. He has a extremely clear (and sadly utterly fantasized) image of my political goals and ideas. One of my goals is apparently to introduce muslim Sharia law nationwide, although I never ever mentioned anything about Sharia law to him.

It isreally hard to speak with him about anything at all, because he always seems to "know" what my opinion is, to the point of misrepresentation, while I am more or less just curious what he wants. What he says is usally a progression of: "I just want the foreigners to respect the rules!", "Deport the foreigners!" or "Shoot the foreigners!", depending on how many beers we are in. The whole thing is spiked with unsolicited explainations why liberal ideas "like mine" (although I am usually more on the realistic side) will never work and it sometimes feels he is telling this more to himself than to me.

This is rightwing Austria, his grandfather was a Nazi and this is where the discourse in the US is moving as well.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#39

Post by blackflame »

tempay wrote: post #6
blackflame wrote: post #2

There was once a guy in his mid-40s that tried to rush the fraternity I was in. I don't think there were any rules that prohibited it either except extreme creepiness.

For those who didn't know (like me), "to rush the fraternity" means to join a social organisation at the university: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternities_and_sororities#Ru...

Yea they’ve only been around like 250 years or so on both sides of the pond.

Re: My Semester with the Snowflakes

#40

Post by blackflame »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #7
blackflame wrote: post #2

There was once a guy in his mid-40s that tried to rush the fraternity I was in. I don't think there were any rules that prohibited it either except extreme creepiness.

Why would people be unwelcome after a certain age? They’re just as valid of a student as anyone else. “Tried” implies he failed. I wonder if it was due to his own merits, or due to bias against him due to age.

Because it’s mainly a social club and some of the events include things like date night with a sorority. I’m not sure exactly why, but for some reason girls ages 18-23 really feel weird about being on a date night with someone old enough to be their dad. The point is, it’s never to late to learn something new but keep in mind your limitations change as you age. People remember their youth as it was yesterday but there are reasons why we prohibit adults talking to minors
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