So this topic has been on my mind lately, for reasons listed below. It's been discussed a lot in other threads, but I've searched all over the subforums and can't find a specific thread for it -- if there does exist one under some obtuse name, I'm sure it's far back enough that it's outdated now. Or maybe I'm a blind idiot and there has been one relatively recently that I just haven't been able to find! Anywho.
If you have a strong opinion on politics and social justice, as most people on the internet (including me) do one way or the other, there's a strong chance the mere mention of a "trigger warning" sets off a knee-jerk reaction in you. Be it defensiveness or hostility, it's become one of the calling cards of social justice controversies on the internet.
Semi-recently, one of my web stories was flooded with a sudden surge of comments outraged to the point of insults and threats because I included a warning at the start in a story that occasionally deals with parental sexual abuse, only some of which were anonymous and thus able to be blocked; it's worth noting that this warning was in a chapter posted in early 2015, but only got this "feedback" earlier this year. And this morning, sarcastic anime analyst Mother's Basement uploaded this critical video about Goblin Slayer, a recent anime that's split the internet wide open over a brutal, fetishized rape scene in the first episode. The video was immediately met with hundreds of preemptive dislikes and the number continues to swell by the minute, and judging by many of the comments when I last read them, the main reason is not his breakdown of the show's mistake (he's pretty positive about its overall quality and not against depictions of rape in general), but the fact that the video starts with a warning about the depicted subject matter.
So my question is... why? Why is this the emblematic issue that breaks the internet so often? It's very very true that trigger warnings are abused to absurdity on hard-left/SJW sites like Tumblr and the Gizmodo Media Group, but they're hardly the only thing or even the most common thing abused to absurdity in that territory. Used in proper context, they're just a slightly more pointed iteration of a "viewer discretion is advised" on TV -- they let people who might not want to watch the thing (whether because of PTSD, sensitivity toward the topic, or just lack of interest in seeing it) know ahead of time, and they're easily drowned out by everyone else. They seem in another territory altogether from more understandably controversial things, e.g. safe spaces being exclusionary, privilege totem poles, what have you. They straight-up don't affect whoever they're not intended for.
I used to feel similarly to those against it, but as I've gotten older, I've found the backlash toward this increasingly stupid. And I know a fair bit of it is alt-right shitheads from 4chan et al on a crusade against anything liberal, but I also know there are good peeps on TCS who aren't alt-right shitheads but who do hate trigger warnings out of hand. So what's the problem with them? Why are they the blazing flag of culture wars? Are they inherently bad in your opinion, or are they just commonly misused? Is there ever a situation where you appreciate them? Does it just boil down to "kids these days are too sensitive"?
Let's discuss it all in a civil manner and hope the thread doesn't instantly spiral out of control.