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Trigger warning - this blog contains stuff about trigger warnings and also Mother's and Father's Days. If you don't want to read about those things then please skip this blog.
I've always been mildly confused by Trigger warnings. Isn't the warning itself a trigger? It's kinder, of course to introduce a controversial subject in a controlled and unsurprising way, but it will still remind people of whatever trauma you're trying to make them stop thinking about.
Also it doesn't take into account the feelings of the people who are not affected by the issue and want to enjoy a drama, or whatever, without having a major plot surprise ruined. The issue will weigh too heavily on the mind of the viewer and skew the intent of the writer. Maybe there should be some optional button you can press at the start that will let you know what to look out for, if you're the kind of person who knows you might be upset, but you don't have to press if you think you don't have an issue.
It starts to get a bit complicated.
The only really good thing about trigger warnings is that if a continuity announcer says "This programme contains sexual content and swearing from the outset", funny dads can say, "I bloody well hope so," and then laugh at their own joke, whilst no one else does and their wife rolls their eyes, wonders why he does it every time and considers divorce.
From personal experience.
I'm still 70% behind it, but 30% of me is a GB news presenter who thinks trigger warnings are partly just a way for people to amplify their own supposed goodness. As soon as that's up to 51% I can rail against vaccines and 15 minute cities, have my wife and family leave me and be back where I belong on TV. Just as the medium dies. And I die with it.
But at least I will have won.
The trigger warning-ish trend that I am 100% against though is the emails from big companies saying giving you the opportunity to partially unsubscribe from their mailing lists if you are going to be upset by them mentioning Mother's Day or Father's Day. This not only mentions Mother's Day and Father's Day but if those things upset you, it forces you to click a link to avoid further emails about them. Which really makes you think about Mother's and Father's Days and also leaves you imagining the emails that you are now not getting as a result of opting out.
In this case I am 70% certain that the companies are doing this to amplify their own supposed goodness and I am 90% certain that no one at the company gives a fuck about you, your mum or your dad or whatever reason you don't want to think about it. If they really cared about this they could just not send out the emails at all, or just send vague ones out that don't mention specific events (though could still include stuff they thought dads or mums might like).
What I want for Father's Day is for everyone to laugh at my trigger warning jokes as if I am a proper comedian. But no one offers that.
I went into London for some podcast records (not my own this time). On the way back I risked sitting in First Class again. I am the criminal that they will never catch, even though I taunt them here with my crimes. Prove I was in there rail company. Oh you can't. When I got off in Hitchin two ticket inspectors got on the carriage I was getting off. They will never know how close they came to catching the Fox.
Your move pigs.
Retro RHLSTP with Charley Boorman went up today.
Is that me or him?
