the snowflake generation

As much as I hate saying this, I've been in denial about something for a long time. Today, I finally admit that we're living in The Snowflake Generation. We're in it hard. We're in it deep. Things have become ugly and it's not about to improve anytime soon.....if ever.

Love it or hate it, but this is how I feel right now. I will attempt to explain why I feel this way. This will likely upset someone, somewhere along the way. At this point, I'm not sure if I care or not.

I can't say for sure when I first noticed this, but over the course of several years, society has been changing more radically then normal. Long before Trump's run for office. Long before Obama gained national exposure. Long before social media, as we know it now.

We'd probably have to go back at least to the days where AOL chatrooms were used by kids and perverts alike. It was somewhere during the mid-'90s where this first became obvious to me on a major level.

Society was starting to become a bit more 'sensitive'. That's me attempting to be nice about it. When I mention this, I'm not talking about a little bit sensitive. We're not talking some small, random group or a select individual or two. Nah....when I talk about this, it appeared as though it were a growing wave of people were becoming more and more sensitive.

When I bring this up, I don't want to single out people or groups who want to make true improvements to society. I don't want to get down on people who are trying to get rid of hate because of race, religion, handicaps (physical or mental) or other good causes. If you're trying to battle problems like homelessness or childhood cancer, keep fighting to end these problems.

My issue? We, as Americans, have turned into a nation full of wimps. No longer can we have disagreements without someone being emotionally scarred because of it. Naaaa......now when we have disagreements in society, someone is walking away butt hurt. Typically, several people are butt hurt over one thing or another. Doesn't even have to be a big reason to be upset. It can be for perfectly idiotic reasons.

If you have a young child, there are people who think you have to stop calling your child a boy or girl. According to people like this, you have to wait for your child to assign gender identity to themselves. Adults are supposed to use third-person pronouns. I'll post the Wikipedia page in order to better explain it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_pronoun#Preferred_pronouns

When I hear of stuff like this, I realize that we've crossed the point of no return. If you're child is a toddler, I'm pretty sure they have no idea what a gender identity is. Toddlers are more likely to be interested in simpler stuff, like wanting that nice shiny toy (as an example). When I was that age, most of my breakfast usually ended up everywhere except in my mouth. Mom was contemplating hitting the bottle (hard) before 7:30 AM.

I'm pretty sure calling me anything beyond a little monster was on her mind.

When you're at an age where you can reasonably understand things like gender identity, fine....let the person make that choice for themselves. If you feel like you should've been born as a man, fine with me. I'll do my best to avoid call you by whatever identity you prefer using. I'll do what I can to better educate myself on such issues.

We've got various roles for identity and orientation. I can still grasp gay/lesbian/bi pretty easily. I understand the concept of Cross Dressing....I forget the actual term for this, off hand. Too lazy to look it up, at the moment.

I think I can grasp pansexual. Outside of that, I'm lost. That's something that needs to be dumbed down for me.

When you're at the point where you can clearly say you have a certain identity, be proud of it. When people like myself are confused by the terminology, don't assume we're trying to be hate mongers. Not all of us are. Some of us just don't understand it. Those of us that are old geezers are used to using crude language.

Not going make excuses for inappropriate langue to anyone. I, as an example, don't even realize I'm saying mean or offensive stuff. I often struggle to avoid saying "fuck off" to co-workers. Imagine my struggles with more offensive language. I'm amazed I haven't gone off the deep end on this post.

It's not like I want to be offensive or crude. I could probably blame a lot of things for my stupidity. My folks aren't one of those excuses. They did what they could to teach me better ways of communicating.

Meh....I'll use that for a latter discussion. I had a point I wanted to work with. Let's see if I can get my dumb ass back on track.

Play dates. That's another piece of stupidity that I still can't grasp. Really? We can't simply allow kids to just play? Kids can't simply have some unadulterated, unrestricted time to have fun. Nope! Simply getting together with your friends is no longer spontaneous. It has to be planned out in great detail, much like you'd plan out a business merger. Everything must be done in great detail.

Seriously, people. We shouldn't have to recruit Harry Kissinger to help arrange play time. It shouldn't be necessary to go through several days of planning, just for 30 minutes of playtime with involving a few kids. Don't make me break out one of my "back in my day" stories. You know the kind of stories. Usually involves over-exaggerated stories of stuff that I claim I could do in my youth.

If you're concerned about what your kids are doing, fine. Lay out some ground rules first. Maybe become familiar with who they are friends with. Get to know the parents of the other kids, if you want/need to. To plan things out in great detail is a bit overboard.

If you need to, make sure your kid has a phone available. It's not like my youth where you needed change for the pay phone. At least these days, your kid can call up the parents if a problem occurred.

Besides, parents are way too involved in the daily activities of their kids anyway.  Kids could use a break from adults, much like parents need a break from their kids. Trust me, kids need a certain amount of independence if they're ever going to learn anything on their own.  I know they need guidance and I get it. But, if they have adults monitoring their every comment and/or action, they'll never get the experiences they need to be better people.  Kids, like adults, need time to figure certain things out without someone else acting like a helicopter.

Here's something else I need to rant about. This is something we've all done.....yes, including the ladies themselves. At one point or another, we've all been guilty of looking at each other like a piece of meat. It's standard stuff most of us have heard or said numerous times. It's things like 'check out the ass on her', 'did you see the rack on her?' and numerous other comments.

You get the drill. Men, honestly, are pigs. I admit it. Even if some of us don't admit to it, we all think with our dicks. Some do it more then others. Some have better control of their urges. We're still pigs, to one degree or another.

Most women I know don't deny being equally guilty. Fine. We're all human. We all have urges. As long as you aren't doing anything illegal, then what's the worst that can happen? Get yelled at for staring at a great ass too long?

I know the snowflake community won't like my attitude on this, but I'm being man enough to admit to stuff. Too many people these days are trying too damned hard to not offend anyone, anywhere......EVER!!!!! Lots of luck with that. Let me know how well that works for you.

I'd rather be the jerk that admits to still having urges in life then the jerk that tries deny having any urges at all. I'd rather listen to music that pisses a few people off then listen to garbage that nobody is capable of enjoying. I prefer TV shows and movies that strike a few nerves as opposed to something that doesn't make me think at all. I would rather have comedy that pushes the envelop then comedy that nobody laughs at for fear of being offensive.

Like it or not, there will always be something offensive to someone in society. I've been offended by stuff, just like anyone else. Depending on the subject, I can completely understand why people are offended. When a white cop is accused of shooting an unarmed black man, I can see why the black community would be royally pissed off. They have every damned right to be pissed about stuff like that.

Stuff like this is a real reason to be offended. I can't say I blame anyone in the black community for seeing cops as the enemy. Now, if you're the type to get offended because I didn't say African-American, then it's not my problem. Seriously, if you've been born in the country, you're an American...just like I am. If you've been naturalized, you're American. If you're still working on gaining citizenship, I hope you get it. Having a fresh supply of new people and new ideas makes this a great country, IMO.

Making America great by overdoing political correctness? I don't think so.

Disagree with me? Agree with me?  Want to add your own comments. Feel free to do so in the comments section below.