TW - LIFE!

What the hell is up with EVERYTHING needing to carry a "trigger warning" these days?

I mean, I get having them there for potentially unexpected or particularly graphic accounts of violence or major trauma, but lately, I've been seeing things tagged with "TW" for pretty much anything which could be the least bit potentially offensive. 

Have we become so soft, so weak, in our climate controlled, PC, Darwin thwarting, warning label & nanny law intensive, padded cells of modern society, that we are now unable to tolerate even reading about anything that is unpleasant or challenges our beliefs, values, or traditions, for fear of having it trigger crippling, traumatic, responses?

Just in the last week, I've seen posts all over social networks with TWs for ableism, fat shaming, slut shaming, mis-gendering, racism, drug war, capitalism, governmental overreach, anti-feminism, contempt for others' beliefs, homophobia, and a host of other things that, while not nice, I fail to see why they require a warning label.

What's next? Do I need a TW before I view the latest home furnishings catalogue, lest my eyes be violated by a print or colour I dislike? 

What about the menus at restaurants!? Shouldn't I be warned that there may be items offered which I find disgusting?

I have seen multiple instances of un-censored, frank discussion of troubling topics being labelled as, "violent", "unsafe", and "enabling rape culture". Seriously!? TALKING or writing about unpleasantness is violent and unsafe now?

In that case, the required/recommended reading lists for middle school and high school age children is certain to bring about world crisis, 'cause not a single one of those book lists contain trigger warnings! Yet.

This bullshit is just another nail in the coffin of freedom, personal sovereignty/accountability, and survival of the human species as anything more than slaves/drones. 

We already live in a world where our morning coffee comes with warnings that it may be hot, the chainsaw manual warns us not to hold the business end whilst using, and the strollers at the mall advise not to place the baby in the little shopping bag on the back, among myriad other warnings to keep stupid people from suing when their idiocy injures them. And then, of course, there are the laws popping up, prohibiting the sale of extra large soft drinks, use of trans fats, smoking, even in the cigar bar (and, in some places, your own vehicle!), and various other things, "for our own good".

Kids' sports programmes and playgrounds are being stripped of anything that might, possibly, result in so much as a bruise, scrape, or sprain, let ALONE the possibility of a broken bone or other, more serious injury, while more and more children are obese, malnourished, and completely physically unfit from playing virtual sports at a game console instead of risking going outdoors. Schools pass students to the next grade when they are not ready, and hand out high school diplomas to the illiterate and thoroughly uneducated, because failing them might damage their delicate little psyches.

WAKE THE FUCK UP, SHEEPLE!!!

Life is full of disappointing, unpleasant, painful, dangerous, and downright fucked up shit! 

Burying your head in the sand or putting your virtual fingers in your virtual ears will not make it go away. Cushioning all the badness with warnings, nanny laws, and censoring only serves to create a society of weak willed, overly fragile, easily victimised herd of human cattle, ripe for the slaughter. 

Anything can be "triggering" for someone, somewhere. That is the nature of surviving traumatic events. What ever happened to, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger"? 

There are plenty of things which, to most people, are perfectly normal, mundane places, things, scenery, phrases, etc, that remind me of past trauma. A significant number of them can actually trigger my PTSD, but this is my issue to manage. It is not the job of everyone in the world to pussyfoot around me in case I might be upset by something, and it is not my job to censor my speech or writing to avoid the possibility of offending someone, somewhere. 

No, this is not a free pass to say whatever insensitive, crass, derogatory, or discriminatory thing that we want, without repercussion. Being anti-PC should not be used as an excuse for being a douchebarrel or lacking tact and diplomacy, and there are some things that are well understood to be not cool to say - ever! But the DISCUSSION of those things should be fair game.

So, yeah. Here's a fucking trigger warning. Life's a bitch, then you die!!