“It does come from Fight Club,” he confirmed down the phone from his home in Oregon. “There is a line, ‘You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.’”Asked about Donald Trump, Palahniuk said “I’m going to pass on that one.” So who's the snowflake? Is he one of the hidden Trump supporters? But I can understand a culture-critic wanting to avoid any partisan alliance. He's not necessarily bullied into silence. It can be a way of making your own writing better. It's what I call cruel neutrality.
In Fight Club, Tyler Durden leads a generation of emasculated men to rediscover their inner strength by beating the hell out of each other.
Two decades later, Palahniuk sees the modern generation as delicate flowers more than ever. “There is a kind of new Victorianism,” he said. “Every generation gets offended by different things but my friends who teach in high school tell me that their students are very easily offended.”...
Chuck says this is a problem with the Left, not the Right. “The modern Left is always reacting to things,” he opined. “Once they get their show on the road culturally they will stop being so offended.” He added self-effacingly: “That’s just my bulls**t opinion.”
January 24, 2017
The author of "Fight Club," Chuck Palahniuk says he coined the term "snowflake" and he stands by it.
After Kellyanne Conway used the term recently, the Evening Standard called up Palahniuk to ask him about it:
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48 comments:
Snowflakes will get educated as burly men jobs return and Starbucks has enough barristas.
I'm not sure if he is a snowflake, but stand up, Palahniuk, and act like you have a pair.
The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Trump
Trump is Tyler Durden and his campaign was Project Mayhem
Could you stop with the cruel nutrality bullshit Ann? There is nothing neutral about your writing about Trump. Please list two critical post you did about Trump in 2016. You can't, because you weren't.
In the very beginning I hid my support for trump behind some such evasion. Then I realized that the left holds positions that are not morally acceptable and the only way they can tell others what to do is through projection and shame.
We have come a long way since then. More and more people are coming out publicly. Soon the left will be broken and their nature exposed.
The important thing isn't uniqueness but melting, in the modern usage, which differs from his.
Fighting teaches men that life is a one on one event with only one winner per bout. Not nice at all.
It is no wonder women hate men. They are out of the women's league, unless they will to enter a covenant relationship with a good woman and the two become one family.
"Once they get their show on the road culturally they will stop being so offended."
Not entirely sure what he means there.
Snowflakes that disappeared by ablation wouldn't get the contempt that the melters do.
Blogger Once written, twice... said...
"Could you stop with the cruel nutrality bullshit Ann? There is nothing neutral about your writing about Trump. Please list two critical post you did about Trump in 2016. You can't, because you weren't."
Perfect example. Once Written is a totalitarian douchebag whose positions are totally unsupportable. He operates through attempting to shame others just like this.
You lost.
No Achilles, don't be such a snowflake. I am calling Ann out on her bullshit. She is welcome to link to two critical posts of Trump to prove me wrong.
Once written, twice... thinks that Althouse never said anything critical of Trump because she never once referred to him as "Cheeto Hitler" and doesn't buy into hysterical claims about him committing tax fraud, raping a 13 year old girl, or colluding with Vladimir Putin to steal the election.
"Once written..." is a tiresome lefty troll. It would be interesting if she ever said anything that had a thread of intelligence to it.
I say "she" although I am not certain there is a vagina attached to it.
There are a few lefty commenters who do offer some thought. Not that one.
Hunter, Ann wrote critically of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama everyday. She did not do the same with Trump. That is her right on her blog. But I am calling her out on her claims to cruel neutrality. She can delete my comments if she wants to. (She has done so in the past.) But she will be doing so knowing she is a fraud.
I actually wish more actors, writers, and musicians would refuse to share their opinions on Trump. I mean, unless you feel you have some sort of unusual new insight, you're just going to be contributing white noise.
An example of Ann's "cruel neutrality?"
Ann, wrote ridiculously, attacking Michelle Obama on Inaguration Day for fumbling the gift presented to her by Melania. But Ann did not even note that Trump did not even bother to wait for his wife to come around the limousine, and did not walk her up the stairs and present her to the Obamas.
Cruel neutrality, not.
Once Written: "But Ann did not even note that Trump did not even bother to wait for his wife to come around the limousine, and did not walk her up the stairs and present her to the Obamas."
"...present her..."
Wow.
Once written, twice: "Hunter, Ann wrote critically of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama everyday"
That's right!
And that's why Hillary lost!
Behold the Power of Althouse!
One must be presented to the obamas, as befits the obamas "God" status amongst the left.
Gee, I can't figure out why the left is so susceptible to cult-like behavior. It's completely inexplicable. Did the media place another halo around li'l baracks head in the photos as well? Or is that move completely played out?
No, she is just singing to her Althouse Hillbilly Choir, that she works so hard to cultivate.
It is the norm to present your spouse to others. Not let her fend for herself like Trump did.
Please list two critical post you did about Trump in 2016.
It's the professor's cruel neutrality, not yours.
Try to add something insightful, or entertaining. Are you capable of such??
I'm not holding my breath.
No, she is just singing to her Althouse Hillbilly Choir, that she works so hard to cultivate.
you missed a memo..we're the deplorables now......
"Please list two critical post you did about Trump in 2016."
She's through assigning homework. Now you're giving her some? Good luck with that. Do you really believe she cares to engage you and your nonsense?
I think that while Althouse mostly presents her blogposts more from a conservative standpoint, there are times when she sneaks in a left of center blogpost cloaked in a way to make her readers think she's seeing the subject from their point of view, pretty brilliant. Then there are times she honestly and openly presents subjects that she knows go against the grain of her mostly conservative readership. I applaud her bravery! Then, there are times she trolls her own commenters, especially when she's been slammed hard by her commentariat over a left of center blogpost the day of two before. Those are the times I adore her.
I do agree with Once Written that the brunt of the Althouse Trump coverage has been presented in a positive light. She has bent over backwards and twisted herself in pretzels interpreting his babble. She seems to see him as a victim of the left and it has made her seem to forgive him for his many missteps. But at some point she must see the real Trump without her sympathy goggles on.
Just my observations, I may be wrong.
If you work in the arts, and you want to keep working, and you haven't carved out some special conservative niche for your work, and you haven't already established yourself as such a huge star that no one can touch you, you can't make pro-Republican/pro-conservative comments. Period. The conservatives who aren't out read like the apolitical people; head down, mouth shut, go about your business.
You can criticize the Left, but you have to do it as though you might be criticizing from the inside.
Libertarians are grudgingly tolerated.
It is the norm to present your spouse to others. Not let her fend for herself like Trump did.
My wife is socially intelligent enough, confident enough, and smart enough to know how to introduce herself to others while in my company. What sort of weird projection is this?
" But at some point she must see the real Trump "
But do any of us see the real Trump?
What is the Trump? Can you fit him into some simple taxonomy of the political beasts?
And isn't he in fact a rather complex, paradoxical character?
"It is the norm to present your spouse to others."
Maybe so. But this comment (by Once Written, Twice... at 10:37) struck me as sexist and paternalistic. As if Trump owned Melania and was supposed to show her off like his chattel?
"Snowflake" is good.
As a teen in the 70's, the equivalent terms we used to besmirch our less boisterous colleagues were "Pussy" and "Faggot".
Obviously, it's impolite to use the latter term, so I have swiftly expurgated it from my vocabulary. The former, though, appears to be getting some play in various venues. The gals wearing "Pussy Hats" at the Anti-Trump rallies are stealing the word back. Good for them - with language, useage is everything.
In addition to "Snowflake," I would add, "Cupcake," "Beta Male" and "Pajama Boy."
Don't taze me, Bro.
"You didn't coin that."
Seriously, people were talking about how each child is special, like a snowflake—meaning a unique personality, the way each snowflake is supposedly a unique shape—long before "Fight Club". Maybe a decade or more. It was a big thing in childhood education, the snowflake metaphor.
It's possible he was the first one in popular culture to use the phrase sarcastically. (Although it would surprise me if annoyed teachers and parents hadn't done that privately, occasionlly, almost from the start of the "unique snowflake" era.)
For a negative 2016 post, here's my fireacton to the puusy-grab tape.
Yes Ann that was your one and only negative post about Trump (and at the same time, Clinton) in 2016. If you review you will see you even backtracked on that in later posts.
Kellyanne isn't just a member of Fight Club, she's the president.
Trevanian, in Shibumi, captures it adequately:
Miss Stern obviously suffered from the democratic delusion that all people are created interesting.
Didn't Althouse write a blogpost questioning Trump when he first made the ridiculous assertion that millions of people voted illegally? If I recall, her commenters were pissed of about that. So now he said it again, despite absolutely no documentation that this is a fact. When is the man going to stop the lying? It's not just your everyday political mistruths, it's the continued in your face big fat lie. Even after being debunked, he continues to repeat the lie. Doesn't he know this makes him look crazy? Why don't his aides and children shut him up? Unless they're as nutty as he is, then God help us.
So now he said it again, despite absolutely no documentation that this is a fact. When is the man going to stop the lying?
Right. There is no documentation that this is a fact. There is also no documentation that this isn't a fact, so no proof it's a lie.
There's a few shaky papers of speculation, but until we require proof of citizenship in order to vote, random voter checks or audits of voter rolls it's a just war of words.
The White House is now Conspiracy Theory Central, or Alternative Facts Headquarters. Well, Trump never did "pivot", did he?
Blogger Once written, twice... said...
"Yes Ann that was your one and only negative post about Trump (and at the same time, Clinton) in 2016. If you review you will see you even backtracked on that in later posts."
Keep it up once. Don't stop attacking people who disagree with you on bitter personal terms. Don't stop acting like a fascist douche. You are doing everything right.
Go read the old posts yourself. There are hundreds of posts about Trump last year. I'm not going to sort through them on your assignment. I gave you one and you changed the question. I will dig up others for you if you pay me $500 an hour for my time.
Ann, you've been out of New York too long. $500 an hour isn't nearly enough for you.
Libertarians are definitely not grudgingly tolerated by the left. I invite you to check out oh, Jezebel, TPM, Daily Kos, And just about any of my favorite alt country/punk rock musicians. There is no common ground with any of these people. They are severely fucked up.
Freeman Hunt @ 11:54.
That.
Conservatives are shut off by oh so tolerant progressives. No free speech for conservatives in the arts.
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