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  1. Heh. It was heartfelt, Jonathan — there’s nothing wrong with that. I even agree with some of your points re those most in need of some compassion wishing to refuse it to others… and the fake nostalgia of a mis-remembered past.

  2. A chunk of the grief I see people giving trigger warnings online comes from people who are of the ‘In MY day…!’ camp, specifically the ones who think that safe spaces, trigger warnings, etc. are ‘coddling’ today’s youth and has made them into clueless dorks who need someone to always hold their hands. These people go on to rant about Millenials as if every person born after 1995 all across the country can be best represented and typified by random people on the Internet who (a) might have something to say, (b) typical teenage rebelliousness in saying it, and (c) even have internet access to say it. But of course, they’re ‘coddled’ and ‘spoiled’ and the people who frown down at Millenials say that THEIR parents spanked them and THEY turned out all right!

    Which fails to take into account the possibility that they aren’t massively f*cked up themselves.

    The way I see it, we have a generation that is growing up which recognizes that not all hurts are physical, and that emotional and mental trauma is not something to hide and gloss over because they’ve SEEN how that messes a person up. (Side-note for anyone reading who scoffs at my use of the term ‘trauma’: Back off. There’s a reason you’re getting riled and I’m about to go into it.) Frankly, looking at some of the people who are saying ‘grow up!’ or ‘man up/FORTIFY!’ or ‘get over it!’ are some of the MOST f*cked up people I know. There’s a reason for this, actually, and it’s a similar reason that people who are abused turn into abusers.

    So people who got clobbered by all the emotional and mental pains of growing up and their own experiences, are angry and envious of people — i.e. Millenials — who can find solace and sympathy and care and empathy. Because my generation? We were raised by people who are the ones at the forefront of making ‘compassion’ and ‘love’ and ’empathy’ into grounds for disqualification from being a judge.

    Now, trigger warnings can potentially go ‘too far’. Potentially. There really are going to be some subjects so obscure that only a handful of people in the entire human race will find triggering. But we’re not talking about those, stupid and insulting ‘examples’ by ‘witty’ culture warriors notwithstanding. We’re talking about things that are (deep breath, rant incoming) so goddamn common in our society but which the Very Serious People Who Matter have plastered a coat of spackle on top of, denying left and right that it happens, that we don’t live in rape culture, that we don’t live in a kyriarchy, that we don’t live in a society where any weakness is grounds for derision, that any expression of emotion is foolish and mock-worthy and pitiful and F*CK ALL Y’ALL WHO PERPETUATE THAT because guess what? One out of six — ONE OUT OF SIX — of women, all women, ALL WOMEN, those women you claim to put on pedistals and cherish, have been sexually assaulted in some way or another, and if a soldier home from a war-front can be made severely uncomfortable (at best) by blithe discussion about war by people who know nothing about it, then you can bet your left testicle that there are women who MIGHT get a LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE about a blithe and airy discussion about RAPE.

    My generation is so f’d up I don’t know where to begin. We’re living in goddamn Gilead and my generation is happily mortaring the walls of it with the blood of our own children.

    Okay… rant over.

    Basically, TL;DR: What Iv’e seen it’s been people who are clinging to an old, outdated, insufficient ideology of ‘Grit’ that is inherently, mentally damaging and emotionally stunting, and which contributes to a culture that de-emphasizes and even denigrates empathy.

    Um… yeah, that went off the rails. Please feel free to delete it or edit it. Sorry. :(

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