a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by mk
mk  ·  3920 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Spread of Trigger Warnings

If people want to use them, go ahead. There isn't going to be any kind of policy on my part.

In my personal opinion, they are terrible. I suppose one of the most traumatic moments of my life was my father breaking his neck in front of me when I was 14. Probably worse than him dying next to me 20 years later. But fuck anyone that thinks that a trigger warning for 'physical trauma' or 'bodily harm' or whatever else is going to meaningfully relate to my experience, or the interaction that I have with the content they labeled. Seeing something like that hurt like hell, scarred me deeply, and I would have it no other way. No one has experienced that particular trauma as I have, even someone else that experienced a very similar event; they don't share the context, so they don't have a clue as to how it might affect me, and why and when. To assume so is to grant a mantel of self-import that has no basis. That which causes pain may not be beautiful, but the growth and healing that occurs after it can be. IMO every trigger warning is applied in ignorance.

But yeah, people can feel free to use them. :)