Peak Snowflake

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Readers will recall the withdrawal of the Bank of Ireland mortgage ad.

Yesterday economist Jim Power and Journal.ie journalist Aoife Barry spoke to Pat Kenny on Newstalk about the matter.

Further to this… Mark Paul, in today’s Irish Times, writes:

Barry, who is 34, was critical of the ad and generally represented those outraged on social media – she even sports a presumably ironic snowflake in her Twitter handle. Power, who is of a slightly older vintage, was broadly dismissive of the backlash. He recalled selling his Mini to help gather a deposit to buy his first home. Kenny read out a stream of messages from listeners, mostly critical of Barry for being oversensitive.

Kenny then read a message aimed at Power. “I’m outraged at Jim Power suggesting I sell my car to buy my house,” read Kenny, adopting a deliberate tone of mock indignation. The tweet was obviously a wind-up. “Not everyone has a car. So insensitive of Jim… signed, Snowflake from Cork.”

Barry is from Cork, and has the lilt to prove it. The message was obviously a dig at her, and seemed supportive of Power. But he didn’t see it that way. Power, normally as rational and genial as economists get, reared up in indignation. For real.

“I didn’t suggest anyone sell their car, I sold my own car,” he retorted, his voice faltering with anger. He hit out at people for “bitching” and said we were “all free to do what we want”. We couldn’t see the blood rising up the back of Power’s neck. But we could almost hear it. Kenny hadn’t the heart to tell him he had simply missed a joke.

There it was, peak Irish media discussion about millennials and social media. One of the country’s soundest economists, outraged over a misconstrued message that was poking fun at the outrage of “snowflakes” on Twitter, whose original outrage was sparked by a bank, which made a not-very-outrageous ad . . . about a mortgage product.

When ‘snowflakes’ attacks: Home truths for Bank of Ireland (Irish Times)

Further to this…

You may recall a piece written by Kathy Sheridan in The Irish Times last September, in which Ms Sheridan responded to online criticism of the coverage of the killing by Alan Hawe, 40, of his wife Clodagh Hawe and their three children Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, 6, in Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan.

Mr Hawe also took his life.

After Ms Sheridan’s piece was published, The Irish Times’ opinion editor John McManus tweeted it, saying:

On the same day, in response to Mr McManus’s decision to specifically refer to Ms Sheridan’s sex, Aoife Barry, assistant news editor at The Journal, tweeted…

In response to Ms Barry’s tweet, former Sunday Business Post journalist and writer Siobhán Brett tweeted…

Then. Several days later, Ms Barry was alerted to the fact that Mr McManus had added Ms Barry to a Twitter list, entitled Snowflakes:

As was Ms Brett…

There you go, now.

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52 thoughts on “Peak Snowflake”

  1. MoyestWithExcitement

    It’s only ever fragile middle class men who use that term ‘snowflake’. Sheer projection. Instead of dealing with their insecurity, they delude themselves into thinking that it’s everyone EXCEPT them who are weak and fragile.

  3. newsjustin

    I think people (including me) are angry (I wouldn’t say offended) by the add purely because it strikes a clanger of a note in the context of a dysfunctional mortgage market.

    It’s fupped up that a person earning a good salary and with a track record of paying rent and savings can’t buy a house with a mortgage. Variable rates in Ireland are a rip off.

    1. Sheik Yahbouti

      Entirely correct, newsjustin. No matter what age we are, the concept of basic fairness was inculcated into us by our parents. The current situation is so incredibly unfair, people are entitled to be ‘outraged’. Social Contract me ho-ill.

    2. Anomanomanom

      If you have a good wage and a track record of savings and you cant afford/get a mortgage then its something you are doing. Maybe not saving enough and wasting your good wage. And facts are I don’t know of anyone who was renting,at any time in last 10years, and could also save for a mortgage. So moving back home was the option. Or saving before you moved out like I did.

      1. newsjustin

        I said “can’t buy a house with a mortgage” ie can get a mortgage but it isn’t necessarily enough to buy a house (a reasonable non-fally-downey house).

      2. MoyestWithExcitement

        “If you have a good wage and a track record of savings and you cant afford/get a mortgage then its something you are doing.”

        Please think about what you’re saying here. The other day you were saying people shouldn’t protest if a dictatorship says so. Is there any situation where you will actually blame authority for something wrong?

    1. Brother Barnabas

      Ah ye can. I’m still dealing with the fall-out from a Christmas party 15 years ago.

  5. Padraig

    This is a problem across many countries. I highlighted the other day that In 1997 I bought a house for 175k it sold last year for 575k. The job I had when I bought it the same job today the wages have only increased by $3AUS an hour. For the majority of people, they are looking at ten times their wages to purchase a house. You compound that with the lack of banking products (here) and the deposit rules although have been slackened off a little and you have a recipe for disaster.

    I acknowledge that I have spent many years in Oz, a country that hands out money like sweets and the 95/100% mortgage is not rare. The first home owner grants are a great incentive to help, they remove stamp duty for one, remove some taxes etc. They will also depend on the banking institution match savings. Now I admit Australia is a rich country; however, it is also expensive and it has become increasingly difficult to get onto the housing ladder. Yet, they acknowledge that and will do whatever is possible to aid in people gaining their first home.

    Here it is treated as a privilege and the banks here is like dealing with a 1970’s bank where the manager is a god, and you have to tug your forelock when entering the door. The more you invest in the lifestyle, your people, the more a country will prosper.

    What gives my goat an even bigger mohawk is this is where the EU should have a benefit. Like motor insurance, you should be able to shop about within the EU. Alas, you are stuck in a country that has little to no banking resources, hell, you can’t even gain a line of credit and don’t get me started on business banking. Backing brave, me *rse.

    This advert normalises a broken system; I am not outraged, I am just angry at the detached nature the system is maintaining here.

    2. DavidT

      Being able to shop for car insurance EU-wide would put the frighteners on the Irish lads. Bring it on.

  6. John

    Be poorer than your parents, be a snowflake for asking why that is?

    We’ll be back to 2, 3 or more generations all living under the one roof soon enough.

  8. Vote Rep #1

    The two pieces seem very random. Not sure what the relevance of the 2nd piece is to the first.

    The ad is weird. In theory there is nothing wrong with it per se as lots of people are doing it. The fact though that a banks mortgage advert feels the need to encourage couples of move back in with one of their parents to save for a deposit is extremely depressing.

  9. John

    I wonder how long it will be before we see the soft focus lifestyle articles on the benefits of living out of ones PCP’d car

  11. Bruncvik

    A bit on tangent here, but am I the only one who has absolutely no idea how all that Twitter interaction works? I was able to read and follow the article, but once Broadsheet got into all that “he said, she said” Twitter stuff, I was so lost that I couldn’t even tell who was who, much less whether I should feel sorry for someone or offended by someone else.

    1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

      First rule of Twitter is, be offended by everyone.
      You need to be on it for a while to get how it works. I hadn’t a clue when I started, but you get used to the interface and replies etc etc quite quickly.

      1. Bruncvik

        I don’t like being offended, so I guess I’ll stay off Twitter. But for the sake of us less social-media-savvy people, journalists could just translate Twitter talk into concise paragraphs, instead of throwing out a bunch of copy/paste text.

        1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

          Yeah. It looks weird when taken out of the Twittersphere, I must admit.
          I generally don’t get offended as I only follow those who I agree with, so I spend most of my time nodding my head, saying YEAH MAN and tut-tutting at those who have everything UTTERLY WRONG.

  13. The Bottler

    Kenny recently sang “The white cliffs of Dover” live on air to Edwina Currie. He got the words wrong……buttock clenching embarrassing!

  14. dav

    great to see the core fg vote finally getting a taste of the inequalities fg have lumped on to the less fortunate citizens of this nation

  15. realPolithicks

    These rightwing types with their labels for everyone who disagrees with them, snowflakes, SJW etc. It’s kind of comical, what are they afraid of?

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      “It’s kind of comical, what are they afraid of?”

      Everthing, basically. I’m only half joking as well. Being fearful, distrusting and suspicious of people you don’t know is the foundation stone upon which right wing thinking is built.

    2. Paps

      Ah yes, its much easier to just brand everyone with an apposing opinion a member of the right and perhaps a nazi for good measure.

      Perhaps they’re afraid of the Social justice, privilege movement , perhaps their afraid of the double standards and thought and speak crimes you can be accused of if you don’t agree to pander to certain peoples mental illnesses.

      1. MoyestWithExcitement

        “Ah yes, its much easier to just brand everyone with an apposing opinion a member of the right and perhaps a nazi for good measure.”

        No, not anyone. Just people who voice right wing and Nazi opinions. You right wingers are so sensitive and whiney. Relax.

      2. realPolithicks

        “Perhaps they’re afraid of the Social justice, privilege movement , perhaps their afraid of the double standards and thought and speak crimes you can be accused of if you don’t agree to pander to certain peoples mental illnesses.”

        You’re obviously very angry too, why?

    3. Harry Molloy

      all sides guilty of that. annoying nonsense and a dumbing down of rational argument in my opinion.

  17. Drogg

    When this middle age mid class generation gets old, my generation is going to cut all their pensions and leave them to freeze in their gaffs while telling them it’s their fault.

  19. rotide

    We defintely need more po faced reportage of completely unimportant twitter exchanges in the irish media ecosystem.

    Sterling work broadsheet. Surely a pulitzer awaits.

  20. Eoin

    We never allowed the property bubble to properly deflate in 2008. We allowed NAMA to be set up and by taking property off the market before it collapsed they preserved bubble valuations. Now prices have gone up from there due to artificial scarcity created by the state. We also have new bubble highs. BOI know this and they also know that the entire global banking system could blow up for any one of hundreds of Black swan reasons. Nobody should be taking a loan from these people at the moment. And you certainly shouldn’t be moving home to save or selling a kidney for a deposit. Properties here are hugely overvalued. We got inflation and high interest rates in the future and assured banking chaos (please look up the IMFs warning on the global inter-connectivity of Deutche Bank and it’s scary derivatives book). I would’t be taking out a massive loan with all that on the horizon.

    1. Cian

      Then your options are to rent, emigrate or live with your folks.
      and we’re not allowed to mention that third option.

  21. Eoin

    There’s an entire generation in Ireland that feel they will never own property. They’re not the ‘snowflake’ crowd at all. They’ve got a genuine gripe. Moving back to your parents house….with your boyfriend I might add? Who’s even got the option? Is this now the new norm? It is for crazy/out of touch BOI.

  22. Peter Dempsey

    Aoife Barry is a total snowflake, really po-faced who ticks all the right-on boxes. Yer man was dead right to add her to his list.

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