en·ti·tle·ment
noun -ˈtī-təl-mənt
: the condition of having a right to have, do, or get something
: the feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges)
: a type of financial help provided by the government for members of a particular group
I was asked last week when I posted the paper on PTSD to explore the psychology of “Special Snowflakes.” I don’t have time (or frankly my dears, the interest in them) to do an in-depth paper like I posted last week. That was a project that won’t likely happen again soon, as I am not taking any more psych classes unless something weird happens.
Anyway, I open with the definition of entitlement, because it seems to be the word most used to describe the sort of person I was asked to look at. One who believes that they are, somehow, more special than those around them. David Burkhead describes on his blog yesterday a conversation with a woman who firmly believed that it would be perfectly all right for her to own slaves, because, of course, she was entitled to be taken care of. Seems to me this one classifies as pure Fantasy.
This incident, on the other hand, seems to be a direct result of entitlement. Nevermind the student’s rights, the teacher felt hers trumped theirs. “In the crime report, which describes a conversation held between Miller-Young and a UCPD officer whose name has been redacted, Miller-Young took responsibility for taking and destroying the poster and refused to give the names of students who were “following” her. Although she said she did not know “what an acceptable and legal response to hate speech would be,” Miller-Young said her actions were justified. “Miller-Young went on to say that because the poster was upsetting to her and her students, she felt that the activists did not have a right to be there,” the crime report states.”
So the snowflakes do believe they are better than, and entitled to destroy those, who disagree with them.