Am I a woke snowflake?
Or am I triggered, cos I’m certainly not an OK boomer.
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In a world where new words, phrases or sayings seem to be published every day, it’s pretty hard to keep up. Then you get called one of these words, and you have to look it up. Not all of these words are that new, however the way they’re used changes depending on who says them, or who is on the receiving end of them.
Not living in the UK doesn’t help things really, I’m still getting to grips with the differences between Dalmatian Croatian and official Croatian, so I don’t have time to be reading UrbanDictionary every day or following Twitter for the new trends.
Definitions
Before I get started on my point, let me tell you what all those words in the title actually mean, for those of you that don’t know.
‘Woke’ generally means ‘keeping up with today’ and by today they mean the injustice that is happening around the world, be it sexism, racism and other injustices. Others use it for people perceived to overreact to these terms.
‘Snowflake’ means someone that is easily hurt or offended. Or perceived to be easily hurt of offended.
‘Triggered’ was only introduced to me by a meme addict recently. Often used against feminists, or perceived feminists, to describe their reaction when provoked or not provoked by your comment, it’s slowly spreading to other groups.
‘OK boomer’ was used in the New Zealand government, and used to belittle comments made by the baby boomer generations, especially when they seem to hold old-fashioned views.
What’s the issue?
I have a huge problem with labels. I have been called a liberal. I have been called a colonialist. I have been called a hippy. I have been called woke. I have been called male. I have been called a snowflake. I have been called British.
Most of you know me by now, which of those would you agree with? Which of those would you least agree with? You see, labels depend on who you’re speaking to, and this use of labels is turning our world into a very black and white place. Things are not black or white. With each of those labels comes a stereotype, or a prejudice too, and surely by now we…
