Too many lords, not enough stewards

The relevant quasi-paranoid thought I have here is that prior to Snowden, I had never heard the 'snowflake' term used in those ways. Close, but not the same. Prior to Snowden, had I encountered it, I would have interpreted its use as referring to the 'myth' of all snowflakes being unique, and something a compassionate person might use to encourage a sense of self-importance in a person who at the time was feeling as if they didn't matter much, because they were just a single person on a planet of billions. Then, curiously (to me), somewhat shortly after Snowden, I started seeing it used in the way you described in internet comments. Slashdot or SoylentNews, I think I saw it used by someone in the same comment as outright racist (perhaps trolling) comments. Then as time went on I saw occasional use of it in the way you described. I do think however that an adequate exploration of the term is indeed key to this entire topic, including the long comment thread. I must also admit that about the closest I ever came to kernel development was some participation in dm-devel, where an idea I made was dismissed. Before reading this thread I was certainly content to believe it likely that my idea indeed was not good, or not explained well. However I also happen to have a ruthless-jungle darwinian view of linux kernel 'politics', and a non-mainstream view that forking should be viewed with positive rather than negative connotation. Thus I was always perfectly content with the idea that I was able and free to fork and demonstrate the utility of the idea independent of any official maintainer. And even though I think this thread is the best evidence one could imagine for Linus to demote/fire msnitzer, I have to admit that part of my understanding of the political issue around Linus's 'colorful' methods of critically commenting, can pretty much be summed up by this 'snowflake' usage. Namely I've never seen any quotes from him on LWN that make me wish he would be out of the picture. Unlike about a dozen in this thread from msnitzer. Yet at the same time, I also have a paranoid theory that intelligence agencies threatened by Snowden's revelations may have pushed this particular 'snowflake' trigger/meme in a mass-psyop tactic. I hope within a couple hundred years some AI does a plot of instances of uses of the term in internet comments, perhaps to flesh out that theory. $0.02...