But here's the thing about people who use it as a joke: They do that because SJWs on Tumblr have made a joke out of it themselves by grossly misusing the term. Anything that mildly disturbs them or offends them or hurts their damn precious feelings, they'll say they were "triggered". People have said they're triggered by the colour blue--on a site with a mostly blue layout that they're on daily. And some have used it as a way to silence others, especially if they know they're losing an argument. Hell, I've seen people put trigger warnings on gifs moving normal life speed. I've seen people trigger tag JonTron because he called a PS4 service retarded--yet it was somehow perfectly okay to call for the death of both him and his bird in response. They've fucked it up for the people with ACTUAL triggers, by making sure people don't take the term seriously anymore.

Here's how I like to explain it. Did something make you a little uncomfortable or sad, or did someone paint you into a corner in an argument and you're mad that you're losing? That's not a trigger, the former is just life and you have to deal with it like everyone else, and the latter just means you're bad at arguing. Did something make you react like a Vietnam vet hearing fireworks, or Calhoun from Wreck-It Ralph when she heard the words "dynamite gal"? Did it send you into a legitimate panic attack {as opposed to the fake-ass Tumblr "o fcuk im ttly havin a ppanic ataakc yeet stil ussin th compter so mehoww" bullshit}? THAT is a trigger.

Oh, and before you claim I'm neurotypical and don't understand or something, know that I'm mildly autistic. And I mean actually diagnosed as a child, not recently self-diagnosed because I'm kinda quirky and obsessive so therefore I MUST be autistic.

Here's the problem with your argument. It's bullshit. When people refer to "SJWs misusing the term," they mean people dare to have triggers that they don't think make sense or are "real." There's no-one actually calling anything that hurts their feelings a "trigger" or saying they were "triggered" when that happens. That's a smear campaign to discredit people and the concept of triggers. I've never seen anyone that wasn't a transparent troll using it that way, nor have the people who insist this totally happens been able to offer convincing examples.

You've bought into a lie designed to literally discredit people like you and me. And yes, I'm autistic, and diagnosed as a child.

That said... self-diagnosis for psychiatric issues often isn't that much different from what psychologists and psychiatrists do, except that they have a license. More often than not, they'll ask you about various symptoms and make a determination based on that, plus influence from any additional observations they might make. On top of that, psychiatric medicine is expensive and often inaccessible, and some people have horrible histories of abuse with it, so not everyone can get a formal diagnosis. I don't and haven't self-DXed, but I don't blame people who do or automatically consider it invalid.

And yes, "feeling a bit uncomfortable" can be a response to a trigger, sorry. Responses vary greatly depending on circumstances. I've had issues all the way from dissociation to discomfort and mild nausea from the same freaking trigger (victim-blaming related to sexual abuse; rather not get into why that's a trigger for me, for multiple reasons) depending on how upset I was by other things and how viciously it was thrown in my face. Similarly, autistic sensory triggers can cause discomfort, pain, or shutdown/meltdown, depending.

The people who are making a joke out of triggers aren't "SJWs" doing things they've never actually done. It's the people literally making a joke out of triggers then using that excuse if they're called on it.

>When people refer to "SJWs misusing the term," they mean people dare to have triggers that they don't think make sense or are "real."

Uh, no, they mean SJWs who use the term willy-nilly to mean they're simply made uncomfortable by something when we have other words for that exact feeling. Or people like the ones I mentioned who trigger-tagged JonTron cause they were mad at him. People who think gifs moving at the speed you normally view things at need warnings. People who go on Tumblr and live on Earth yet claim to be triggered by THE COLOUR BLUE. Shit like that.

>There's no-one actually calling anything that hurts their feelings a "trigger" or saying they were "triggered" when that happens. That's a smear campaign to discredit people and the concept of triggers.

Yeah, no, I'm sorry to break it to you, but there are countless people on Tumblr being genuine about that. It's not a "smear campaign". The new generation is just packed full of oversensitive kids with a narrow worldview, kids who are shocked to discover that reality won't bend over backwards to make sure they're never upset once they get out into the real world. And even when it's sourced with exact posts and articles, people still aren't willing to believe it happens for some reason.

>You've bought into a lie designed to literally discredit people like you and me.

Well no, not people like me, cause I don't have triggers. I have things I dislike. I have phobias. I have things I'd prefer not to do. I can become emotional. I have ordinary human responses like pain and sadness and discomfort. But I don't have triggers. I have nothing that sends me into full-blown panic attacks or gives me bouts of PTSD or anything. And that's another thing that pisses me off that people on Tumblr do, btw, trying to speak for everyone with a particular disability or skin colour or whatever and telling them what they should be offended by.

>self-diagnosis for psychiatric issues often isn't that much different from what psychologists and psychiatrists do

Yeah, it really is. And on Tumblr, it's often based on arbitrary shit that can apply to any number of people, disabled or not.

>Uh, no, they mean SJWs who use the term willy-nilly to mean they're simply made uncomfortable by something when we have other words for that exact feeling.

No, they don't, because that's literally not a real thing. Where have you seen examples of it? When? Why aren't you producing them now?



>Yeah, no, I'm sorry to break it to you, but there are countless people on Tumblr being genuine about that. It's not a "smear campaign". The new generation is just packed full of >oversensitive kids with a narrow worldview, kids who are shocked to discover that reality won't bend over backwards to make sure they're never upset once they get out into the real world. >And even when it's sourced with exact posts and articles, people still aren't willing to believe it happens for some reason.

Then why has no-one EVER managed to produce one of these people being genuine about it? Why is it that people constantly reference this phenomenon, but no evidence actually seems to exist? Why don't you demonstrate some of these examples of people doing that.


> Well no, not people like me, cause I don't have triggers.

I mean, autism usually comes with triggers related to the sensory issues it has, but it's pretty variable in expression, so maybe --

>I have phobias.

*Facepalm.* As I literally pointed out in my post, if you have phobias, guess what, you have triggers! Those situations that cause attacks of the phobia are triggers for the phobia. That's all a trigger is -- something that induces an attack of a mental illness. You're swooping in to criticize a post you apparently didn't even read.

>I have nothing that sends me into full-blown panic attacks or gives me bouts of PTSD or anything.


But you just said you have phobias. I... the... what? Are you actually reading what you type, or just letting things fall out of your hands onto the screen that you think show me up?

>Yeah, it really is.

How is it different? Y'know what happened when I got diagnosed with depression? I went in to a psychologist and they watched me and asked me about various symptoms I might be experiencing, and based on those observations and answers, they gave me a diagnosis. There's no special scanners or magical detection methods for mental illnesses. They just have to compare what they see you do and what you say you do to lists of symptoms. That's what self-diagnosis involves, too, with less training behind it.

You also sidestepped the issue I pointed out of all the people who, y'know, can't afford to visit a psychiatrist to get a formal diagnosis.

>No, they don't, because that's literally not a real thing.

Yes, it literally is.

>Where have you seen examples of it? When?

I...just listed examples. From Tumblr. From within the past two years.

>Why aren't you producing them now?

Because I'm not a fucking magician, nor do I have all this stuff on standby.

>Then why has no-one EVER managed to produce one of these people being genuine about it?

They have, but others always leap to claiming it's all fabricated. Like whenever Plebcomics makes a post and sources it with links to actual Tumblr posts that she often directly quotes and she gets told she's strawmanning and none of it ever happened.

>As I literally pointed out in my post, if you have phobias, guess what, you have triggers! Those situations that cause attacks of the phobia are triggers for the phobia.

Oay, first off, stop saying "literally" so much, cause it literally makes me take you less seriously. Second, WOW, are you ever getting deliberately broad with what a "trigger" is. So, if a movie scene makes me cry, am I allowed to say it triggers me cause it sparked an emotional and biological reaction in me?

>But you just said you have phobias. I... the... what?

So, what, in order to be, say, arachnophobic, I have to completely melt down at the sight or very thought of a spider?

>How is it different?

Nah, you're right, there's no difference at all between heavily trained and educated professionals and some kid on Tumblr using some random shmoe's half-assed tests when it comes to diagnosing mental disorders.

>You also sidestepped the issue I pointed out of all the people who, y'know, can't afford to visit a psychiatrist to get a formal diagnosis.

Uh, hi. Poor person here to tell you that's not an excuse for treating your every little quirk or odd thought like it means you have some random disorder and then flaunt it around like it's an accessory or your one defining trait.

">No, they don't, because that's literally not a real thing.

Yes, it literally is.

>Where have you seen examples of it? When?

I...just listed examples. From Tumblr. From within the past two years."


Sorry, I missed that when I was reading, because I find this argument upsetting. I wish I hadn't, because it's amazing.

> Or people like the ones I mentioned who trigger-tagged JonTron cause they were mad at him.

I was gonna go into a discussion about how his ableism and outburst of unprovoked anger at being politely told to cut it out (Oh, you didn't know? That's what started the whole thing. Before any of the venom, or anger, or anything, someone politely asked him to stop using an ableist slur and he flipped out. That's what caused the big kerfuffle) might make that justified... but this doesn't seem to exist, or at least, I can't find it. I did a search for "Jontron Trigger" on Tumblr, and nothing. Now, tumblr search can get weird when searching for multiple words, so I used google site search for the same thing.

No examples of him himself being tagged as a trigger in the first page. Some discussions, including him

http://letsplaysocialjustice.tumblr.....7/sluggirls-hm insulting someone for politely asking him not to use an ableist slur, as compared to Plebcomics' presentation of it.

None of what you claim.


>People who think gifs moving at the speed you normally view things at need warnings.

Yeah, see, there's a reason for that. Epilepsy. Unusual framerates can trigger it, or quickly shifting images, or, I've heard, having a lot of gifs not necessarily all synced up at the same time. Not every gif or set of gifs will trigger it, but most people would rather be cautious and tag everything to be safe, rather than assume this one's fine and turn out to be wrong. And yes, there are browser extensions that remove animated gifs and other epilepsy triggers from pages, that doesn't mean taking extra precautions is bad.

> People who go on Tumblr and live on Earth yet claim to be triggered by THE COLOUR BLUE.

This one is a famous bit of distortion. What they're actually talking about is posts that use the same shade of blue as the Tumblr background in a way that makes the image difficult or impossible to distinguish from just part of Tumblr. This can make it hard to distinguish between actual Tumblr posts and fake gifs or similar, and is sometimes used for tricks like making something tear out of a post. For most people? Not a problem. If you already have psychotic symptoms like hallucinations and aren't always sure if what you're seeing is real or not, something that deliberately undermines your sense of reality to mess with in that way tends to be pretty freaking upsetting. There's also other conditions that can have issues with it.

Even basic research into this issue from anyone other than reactionaries trying to paint it as ridiculous would have brought up this explanation. Indeed, the very first Google result for me for "Why is Bluespace a Tag" is http://thepageofhopes.tumblr.com/po.....-tag-bluespace which explains just that. Instead, TumblrInAction pulled up a post of someone explaining the issue badly and pretending that was saying the Color Blue was triggering, and most people didn't bother to fact-check or see if there was a sensible explanation.

> Like whenever Plebcomics makes a post and sources it with links to actual Tumblr posts that she often directly quotes and she gets told she's strawmanning and none of it ever happened.

Ah, good 'ol Plebcomics. Have you ever tried to actually fact-check her? I have, and so have many others. Many of her comics have no sources, and of many of the ones that do, she deliberately misrepresents the arguments she's disagreeing with. She's not exactly a bastion of integrity, and the fact you seem to think so suggests to me you haven't really looked into this except for what one side is saying. I'll see if I can pull up some of the thorough examinations and takedowns of her comics and their accuracy.


>Oay, first off, stop saying "literally" so much, cause it literally makes me take you less seriously. Second, WOW, are you ever getting deliberately broad with what a "trigger" is. So, if a movie scene makes me cry, am I allowed to say it triggers me cause it sparked an emotional and biological reaction in me?

Technically, that is a valid use of the term "trigger", but not one that's useful in most circumstances. If you're specifically talking about triggers for sadness or crying, that is useful, though -- say, if you're doing a study regarding that.

> So, what, in order to be, say, arachnophobic, I have to completely melt down at the sight or very thought of a spider?

No, because that's not what a trigger actually is.

Do you have intense feelings of anxiety when exposed to spiders? Congrats, you're triggered by spiders. Have you come CLOSE to a panic attack when near a spider? Still have a trigger -- you just managed to cope with it enough to avoid a panic attack. Have started to dissociate -- to feel like you aren't in your body, or like the world or things that are happening aren't real or are happening to someone else? Still a trigger. You may notice that none of these are necessarily a "complete melt down." They're all still phobic responses to triggers. And all responses to triggers I've experienced in different circumstances, myself.

> Nah, you're right, there's no difference at all between heavily trained and educated professionals and some kid on Tumblr using some random shmoe's half-assed tests when it comes to diagnosing mental disorders.

I'm not talking about half-assed tests. I'm talking about things like the DSM-IV/DSM-V and symptom lists derived from such, and comparing them with your own experiences. It's not foolproof, especially due to the lack of training -- which can become important in edge cases or with easily mistaken or confused symptoms, for instance -- but it's literally the same thing a psychiatrist would be doing, just with more training behind it.

>Uh, hi. Poor person here to tell you that's not an excuse for treating your every little quirk or odd thought like it means you have some random disorder and then flaunt it around like it's an accessory or your one defining trait.

Most people I'm aware of aren't actually doing that, though. Maybe there are some, somewhere, but most people experience a way they're fundamentally "different" from others and don't have a name for it, then find something that matches up with what they're experiencing. At least, in my experience.


ALSO: Sorry for being so hostile earlier, I was kind of upset by your comments. I'm trying to be more even-handed and informative, now.

Oh, don't worry, I was done with this when you unironically called Jon ableist for calling an inanimate object retarded {Let's face it, he was only singled out cause he's semi-famous on the internet--and even disabled people went on to call those who violently and disgustingly reacted to his comments retarded} and then claimed Pleb doesn't source her stuff and isn't usually directly quoting the stuff she cites.

Actually, I would like to mention something interesting regarding Jon. He said the n-word 7 times in one minute on an episode of Game Grumps, made jokes about the disabled, used the word "retarded", joked around about domestic abuse, etc. No one lost their shit. Arin does the exact same AND WORSE long after Jon leaves the show. No one loses their shit. Jon is one of the 300 thousand people on Twitter one day to use the word "retarded" and refuses to censor himself because someone told him not to say it. People throw death threats, racial slurs and personal attacks regarding his appearance at him and wish for Jacques to die.

FYI, his response was making a point about people trying to speak for the disabled. Who largely didn't give a fuck, just like they didn't care that the funny-eyed pony's name is Derpy.

Oh, you were done when I did something I never did. Good to know. Enjoying beating on that strawman? I described his actions as ableist, because using an ableist slur is inherently ableist, regardless of what it's used against -- the term has a history of harm to the disabled, and is turning their status into an insult. Didn't say he himself was necessarily ableist. And you erased his response to someone politely asking him not to use that term was to attack them with that term. It wasn't about his using the term on the show. The flip-out was literally because he responded to a polite request with an angry attack and got increasingly more angry and unreasonable. I literally already explained this. Nice to know that you don't read peoples' posts before responding.

Also, funny how you're defending someone "making a point speaking for the disabled" by speaking for the disabled. I'm autistic, as I mentioned, and you decided your opinion (granted, as another autistic person) automatically trumps mine. I think using the r-slur is vile and is worthy of criticism. You don't. Too bad.

I didn't speak for the disabled at all. I said the majority didn't care. This isn't speaking for anyone, it's a statement of fact.

Also?

"he responded to a polite request with an angry attack"

Uh, no. No he didn't. He responded with "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were retarded." That's an angry attack to you? And fun fact: That person wasn't even a fan of his or anything, they were a random shit-stirrer who realized what an easy target famous people can be.

"It wasn't about his using the term on the show."

*THE POINT*


*YOUR HEAD*

Continuing (edited in more content) -- making a point by using a slur against the group you're supposedly defending is never a great tactic. I never actually advocate for people with more serious physical disabilities than mine by actively referring to them by offensive terms, for instance, and my advocacy for black people and signal-boosting doesn't normally involve calling them racist slurs. Because that tends to alienate them and undermine my point. Funny how that happened with Jontron, too.

And we all know you stormed out because you were losing and wanted to find an excuse so you could spin it as being a result of being intellectually and morally superior. Don't kid yourself.

"And we all know you stormed out because you were losing and wanted to find an excuse so you could spin it as being a result of being intellectually and morally superior."

Sure, I totally "stormed out" cause I knew you'd bested me, and not because I have better things to do with my life.

Don't drag me back into this shit again.

PS. Good to know you actually read that people hurled death threats, racial slurs, personal attacks and wishes for his fucking bird to die at him...and still side against him. That tells me plenty about you.

I really have to come back to this part:

"cause I don't have triggers.... I have phobias."

You literally just claimed that you have phobias, but you don't actually have any response to the thing you have a phobia of when exposed to it -- that it produces no reaction in you. And you're trying to lecture me on how you know so much more about triggers when making this breathtakingly absurd claim.

I didn't say it produces no reaction in me, I said it doesn't make me break down or have PTSD or something. That's literally what I sai. ACTUAL literally, not Tumblr literally.

Sorry, but you're wrong. Lemme give an example of what trigger actually means, from an Eating Disorder site:

http://glossary.feast-ed.org/5-psyc.....apies/triggers

You may notice it doesn't say anything about breakdowns or PTSD, just making eating disorders activate. Because that's what it means. I'll find more:

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/trigger

This discusses triggers specifically as part of trauma, but also says that they're more broadly things that trigger a certain emotion or response. It also, even in the case of trauma, comments that they just be overwhelming feelings of sadness or anxiety.

http://www.humanillnesses.com/origi.....e/Phobias.html

Here's a discussion of phobias that mentions that, guess what, they have triggers.


http://overcomingsocialanxiety.com/.....iety-triggers/

Here's a discussion of social anxiety that mentions it does, too.

As someone who is autistic, I appreciate this description, that it activates some negative response.
It doesn't have to be a god-damn episode of PTSD where you're suddenly completely inconsolable. It could even be something that, while only minor, invokes discomfort that will stay with you for longer than is potentially healthy.

I think, as a personal opinion, that there's a distinction to be made about trigger warnings, in that, if someone approaches you because they follow some general social account you use, and it's something that isn't a common trigger, you should be in your right to say something along the lines of 'I'm not going to put up trigger warnings for this, feel free to unfollow me'. For rather common triggers, and if more than on person comes to you about something, then you're probably gonna wanna start taggin' it.

On the flip side, it's important to decide whether asking for trigger warnings is worth it. For instance, I had a minor bit of an episode here (read: heart pumped, chest hurt, gut felt icky for a bit) when I read all the back and forth was going in the comments. But, not only is that something that happens on the internet literally all the time, it also didn't last very long, and didn't have that much of an impact on my day. It was just enough I'd call it a 'trigger', but it isn't something I'd ask people to tag, because it wasn't enough that it'd deeply affect me.

This, I think, shifts triggers from being meaningless themselves, to being something that can be potentially mistreated from both sides.

Also very much autistic.

And thank you. You do make some good points, and sorry to cause you undue stress with the argument. I have difficulty not responding to that sort of thing.