1:51pm June 25, 2012

➸ "You don't need this junk. You need a cat.": To be clear.

youneedacat:

I am not part of the Internet “social justice” community.

I am not part of the Internet “anti-SJ” community.

Both communities have, at different times, tried to claim me. At different times, I have joined in with both, knowingly and unknowingly.

But I can’t be in either. Because they are…

Yes. This.

Is that why you don’t do trigger warnings? Because of that dynamic?

No. I don’t do trigger warnings for completely different reasons. Note these are my reasons alone, not meant to apply to others.

If I post trigger warnings for some things it sends a message that when I don’t put a trigger warning, there aren’t triggers. Since I’m unable to do it consistently, it’s not fair to my readers to send that message when things on a triggering topic may not be warned.

My triggers are mostly for things you can’t warn for. If people are doing the thing that triggers me, they are either unaware (in which case they don’t know to warn) or purposeful (in which case they don’t want to warn).

Other triggers I have are things that are frequently done by the same people who insist that trigger warnings are absolutely necessary or you’re doing everything terribly wrong. (As opposed to people just using them.)

So it just feels like it’d be unfair and dishonest of me to post trigger warnings, for those reasons and more. If I can’t do it consistently, and my and other people’s worst triggers are damn near impossible to warn for, and it’s all lopsided and confusing… I just can’t.

I’m not saying anyone else has to do it my way, though. It’s just ends up seeming hard or impossible for me to do it in a way that seems fair to my readers. For reasons like the above, and lots of reasons I don’t even know how to describe in words.

So I won’t erase trigger warnings when I reblog. I just won’t, can’t really, add them to my posts or reblogs. It really has nothing to do with the ongoing arguments about whether to use them or not. I don’t mind if people use them, I don’t mind if they don’t, and I’ve seen all the exact same arguments for and against over a decade ago. (And I have pretty bad PTSD.)

Notes: