Triggering

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

It is a known fact — or at least heaven knows I’ve talked about it enough — that when I’m out of it either physically or emotionally I read… shall we call it? Unsurprising stuff. Like Jane Austen Fanfic or true crime.

The fact I’ve been doing that more or less non-stop for three years, with occasional forays into classical SF is a measure of how weird these three (or four) years have been. And yes, i promise to get back to reading the future of the past soon. I hit a snag because the book a friend sourced was scanned and it’s pdf and my eyes aren’t good enough to read that, so I got sidetracked and need to figure out what’s next after that skip.

But anyway, I get that sometimes — sometimes — you just can’t handle shocks or revelations. You need to know the book is going to end in a predictable way. (Weirdly true crime is mostly about “justice restored”.) Which is why people read genres like regency romance, or yes, Jane Austen fanfic. Or to an extent Western. Or….

But I’ve noticed a creep up of trigger warnings in fanfic. Some of these would be incomprehensible to non-Jane-Austen fans and are actually not so much trigger warnings as sub-genre warnings. There are subgenres some fans (sometimes I’m some fans) hate, like “Lizzy is not a Bennet” or “Bingley is evil” or…. whatever. That’s fine. It saves me the trouble of reading a fanfic that’s going to annoy me. Unless I’m in the mood to be annoyed, in which case I will read it so I can grit my teeth and mentally yell at the writer. (Bingley is evil is a problem because it usually turns into a revenge-fest on EVERYONE. Everyone is evil. Etc. I don’t think there’s ever a time I want to read that. You find yourself wanting to take a shower for the soul. With a wire scrub brush.)

We make fun of trigger warnings, often, but it’s a real measure of how stupid things have gotten. When I’m having to read a trigger warning for say “kissing without consent.” or “violence against children” (Okay, you’ll think that last makes perfect sense, until you find out it’s because a kid gets slapped once in the novel) or “verbal violence” or–

And you start wondering, on the serious, if the ideal novel for these people has no plot at all, just people sitting around having a nice meal and talking.

This is disturbing, because the whole point of a novel is to make you feel emotions and experience things you either can’t in your real life, or which wouldn’t be safe to experience in your real life, followed by resolution and catharsis. That’s what a novel offers you. The opportunity to be the someone else far away experiencing “Adventure” (which as we all know is really a series of unpleasant events.)

Anyway, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion all this demand for warnings and screeching about offense isn’t by real readers.

No, seriously. Real readers know that no one can insulate them against all surprises in a book (or blog) and that in fact the point of reading is to get out of your head and experience different things, different events, different emotions and different points of view. You might disagree vehemently with them (I actually do with most of the really old science fiction. Really, scientists in charge? Who thinks that’s even safe? Oh, yeah, the Soviet Union. But even they didn’t DO IT. They just paid lip service. They might have killed a lot more people if they’d done it, at that.) but that forces you to think about why you disagree and how you’d do it differently. If you’re of a certain frame of mind, you mind end up becoming a novelist and writing your response to what you disagree with. Though if you are worth spit, even then, your “response” will be less of a response and more of this whole new thing it became, with the response buried somewhere inside it. And if you’re not of that frame of mind, you’ll still end up a more considered and self-reflective thinker than you were before. For one, while you might think that the other POV is stupid, if you read a whole novel with it, you’ll be aware that thought went into it, and might even have to confront that the worst stupid takes a lot of thought and self deception.

Anyway, the point is, I don’t think the offense-monsters read. Because the whole point of their screeching is to shut down the thinking and prevent ANYONE ELSE from being exposed to the material, and maybe thinking.

That’s not what they say, of course. They say “I’m offended.” And “I’m hurt.” And “You’re mean because you offended me.”

But what they really mean is “this you cannot think” “This you cannot see” and “this you cannot read” and “this you cannot write.” And “this you cannot say.”

They have, you see, completely surrendered their very core to the herd. They have given up their right to think and feel and be, in favor of belonging completely to the herd. (They used to have a term for this and said it as though it were praiseworthy: “mind-kill”.) So being exposed to contrary things hurts, and they have no defense, because they have taught themselves not to think and/or reason through things.

The pain they feel at the slightest hint of disagreement is true. It is also a symptom of what they have done to themselves, and has nothing to do with being mentally or emotionally healthy.

Just like the pain of withdrawal of a chronic alcoholic denied alcohol is real, and continued and too fast withdrawal might kill him, however continuing to feed his drinking habit will also kill him, faster.

To give them trigger warnings, apologize for any offense and handle them with kid gloves is not only bad for them but bad for society in general.

How?

Well, because it establishes some points of view as incapable of being questioned. Even when those points of view are right, if they are never questioned, they can slowly become well…. evil. Take for instance the point that “More children are better.” While in general this is true, or the human race goes extinct, if no one ever questions it, in 50 years or so, people will be shunning couples who have been married ten years and have no kids, without regard to possible fertility issues, or even ability to raise a kid. (Or other things.) Or telling all women married and unmarried, young and old to have a kid NOW, which …. well, it’s better than extinction, we’ll say that.

All points of view, regardless of good, bad or neutral status, should be questioned, mocked, played with in your mind regularly. Why? Because if nothing else, it helps you establish why you believe what you believe. It makes society aware of its own boundaries.

That was the genius of the first amendment.

So if you write a kissing without consent, or a kid gets swatted in your book and the screechers descend on you? The best answer is “That’s cool. You’re offended and I should care why?”

And the same for something someone overheard you say; a fit of temper on your twitter account (it happens); a joke; something you said at thanksgiving; a sign on your lawn; your t-shirt.

The only healthy answer to “I’m offended” is “That’s fine. You’re allowed to be.” Because they are. And you’re allowed to offend them.

The royal family of Spain, being related to Queen Victoria, had a set of hemophiliac heirs. In order to protect them they had every tree in the royal gardens padded.

In the long run that just delayed the inevitable. It’s very sad, but hemophiliac heirs couldn’t carry the royal line, and certainly created all sorts of vulnerabilities, in terms of the royal rule.

In the same way, emotional hemophiliacs are going to bleed out. You can’t stop them. If you pad everything in the public sphere, they’ll just become sensitive to smaller and smaller blows. Eventually they will bleed out in a pile of anger and depression.

But emotional hemophilia is treatable and curable.

Refuse to pad intellectual and emotional life. Don’t be cruel for no reason, of course, (See where I hate “Bingley is evil” fanfic and why.) But if you have something to say you know someone is going to take offense to (I think these days that is every single thought and perhaps every single word, including “a” and “the”) ignore it. Just speak, think, dream, create.

If they’re offended? The only possible answer is “I really don’t care.”

And carry on.

111 thoughts on “Triggering”

  3. The best answer is “That’s cool. You’re offended and I should care why?”

    “Because I’ve figured out who you work for and asked them how they feel about having a BadThinker working for them” is a favorite. For a long time, that was a tactic of the Left, but now that our side is playing too, there’s going to be an awful lot of Sicilian Weddings until it burns itself out.

    Doesn’t necessarily affect everyone, but if you’re the one it can be unpleasant.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. I’ve co-opted “Whatever” (correct voice tonal required). Just as irritating when elderly use this as a teen. Bonus, now teens are horrified to use the word (or my great *niece is). One word, two syllables.

    (*) Her parents, grandparents, great-grandmother, other great-aunt, think this hilarious.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Ehh, not necessarily. There are a lot of people who use content warnings as shopping lists. Just as a Hugo award acts as an anti-recommendation for some, a list of content warnings (or reviews) can act as a “gotta read that” for some people.

    The issue, as always, is clinical language getting outside the clinic. A trigger or trigger event is for people who actually experience PTSD. Most of the things being warned for aren’t remotely traumatic. Tragic, some of them, sure, but not traumatic.

    Then there’s the people who can’t distinguish between “not to my taste” from “makes me uncomfortable” or “things I find actively disgusting” and who think that’s the same thing as someone being retraumatized because of a harrowing on-page account of a sexual assault.

    Liked by 6 people

    1. The word “trauma”is similarly grossly overused, with the implication that anything other than ecstatic bliss constitutes “trauma”. The main purpose seems to be as the entrance token to victimhood, with all the bragging rights claimed thereto, and all the excuses therefrom available for any bad behaviors.

      Actual PTSD folks are fully entitled to all the help they can get. These trauma poseurs deserve naught but scorn and derision.

      Liked by 3 people

  7. So watching a TV program and the opening has the warning: “Caution, smoking, alcohol use, violence and profanity” Great! A one sentence review – I think I’m going to like this one!

    Yeah, ok – just a bit sarcastic there. But I do think a warning sometimes may be ok (child abuse depicted) as some people do have actual issues and it’s fair to warn them. On the other hand, grow up and be an adult – ya don’t like it, turn it off.

    Liked by 4 people

  8. “They” already know I won’t comply. So I try harmless versions of malicious compliance. The closest thing to a rebuke has been to start asking me to tell lame jokes instead of waiting for me to just deliver them…

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    1. This is something I noticed years ago, and it goes along with “we’re just challenging people’s beliefs” — but for some reason, my beliefs are open season, but the “challenger’s” beliefs are never questioned or challenged.

      I still remember the “All Things Considered” episode from the late 1990s/early 2000s that pretty much blamed all bad things on Conservatives (including assuming that a stalker neighbor was probably motivated by possible conservatism) finishing with a story about hamsters mocking religious belief.

      Yeah, every time after that, whenever the topic of funding for PBS came up, I was always on the position of “defund it and let it burn to the ground — I’m sick of paying for trashing my beliefs and propping up beliefs I consider disastrous”.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. I left a comment but I don’t see the comment nor an “awaiting moderation” notice, so attempt 2:

    Funny how the people who chide me on possibly offending someone else don’t seem to be concerned about offending me.

    Liked by 2 people

  12. Emotional hemophilia. I like that one.

    I’ve run into it a lot, from readers who seem to think historical terms are now insulting and their use should cast the writer into the Outer Darkness.

    Not happening, people. I will keep using terms like “gypsy” because it’s historically accurate. If you screeching hordes can’t remember Nightcrawler’s canon origin, to heck with you.

    …And go read more history. Oy.

    Liked by 3 people

    2. Nightcrawler’s AND the Maximoff twins’ origins. The Morgan Conquest (1995) literally has Morgan le Fay call Wanda a gypsy to her face. That is not why Wanda kicks her butt.

      And fine, if a fanfic writer is going to set the twins’ story in modern times, he can have her say she’s Roma. But considering she’ll have to put that in context for at least one super soldier, he had dang well better have her “translate” it as gypsy for said super soldier’s benefit.

      Furthermore, “gypsy” is not an insult, dang it. Not by now, no more than “mick” is. Call me a mick, I’ll laugh. Or retort with my favorite counter from Zoids: Chaotic Century. Still not entirely sure what “Motherless Neanderthals” stood in for but I have a strong suspicion….

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Just like there are some Inuit-related tribes that like to be called Eskimoes, there are some Roma-related tribes that like to be called Gypsies.

        Roma is the name of _one_ tribe, and then there’s also one called Rroma, and then there’s also at least six other tribes that think it’s insulting to be called Roma because that’s not the tribe they’re from. It’s super-complicated, and yet rich white leftists are sure they know what people should be called.

        Liked by 5 people

        2. To be fair, consider how the word “Chinese” came into being for the people who call themselves Han..

          Long history of this kind of thing

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Speaking of that part of the world: MORA = Make ‘Oriental’ Respectable Again as a term for both peoples and things on the eastern fringe of the Eurasian landmass, just as ‘European’ is for those on the western fringe.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. As an aside, I’ve now butted heads with two Europeans who vehemently insist that Europe is a contintent.

              “So Russia, China, and India are European?”

              “NO! Are you stupid?”

              “All I’m seeing is a line on a map. There’s not even a river separating ‘Europe’ from the rest of the continent.”

              “It’s a CONTINENT!!!”

              [shrug]

              Liked by 1 person

              1. “…who vehemently insist that Europe is a continent.”

                And seem to forget that you can -drive- from Somalia to Munich. For that matter you can drive from Beijing to Munich. It’s all one thing.

                Same people who are Very Upset that there’s no appreciable public transit in Canada outside Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver, and no free public wifi.

                Until they get here, and discover to their shock and amazement that once you get half an hour north from the airport there’s nothing but cow pastures, and if you drive north for two hours there is nothing but forest. Forever. (Or until you hit the arctic circle, anyway.)

                In Europe you drive for two hours in any direction, chances are you’re in a different country. And you haven’t left town.

                Liked by 5 people

                1. I once read a European recommending that other Europeans first come to America and get a load of the forests, for practice. Then they should go up to Canada, where there were forests larger than any European country

                  Liked by 2 people

              2. I’m willing to call Europe a continent, out of respect for tradition. Sort of like calling Pluto a planet. And if Europe and Asia aren’t separated by water, they are separated by Russia, which is kind of like an oceanic barrier, but less navigable.

                Liked by 4 people

                1. I have always thought that Europe and Asia are separate continents because the mountain range between the two are caused by colliding continenal plates, and that it’s weird to talk about “Eurasia” as one giant contenent just because they are one big land mass.

                  Liked by 1 person

            2. Do remember that within the last century, Oriental was identical to Asian. In its widest sense. C.S. Lewis described Jesus as Oriental.

              Liked by 1 person

        3. Of course they know what people should be called. They are the Good People, and if they have nothing to Feel Good about, they must make something up.

          Then there are the Fake Good People, who want people to think they’re Good, with the same result.

          Liked by 2 people

    3. ”Look, my translation nannies are giving me your word for your tribe here as ‘The Only People’ and your name for everyone else as ‘Walking Meat’, but I am not going to be using those words.”

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Like how “Sioux” is a pejorative applied to the tribe by other Amerind tribes, which the settlers picked up, when they actually call themselves Lakota: “The People.” Funny how many “The People” there are, who get called everything unkind by the other tribes…and those names stick more than their names for themselves, because the white man hears the insult first and knows no better until later what they call themselves. By that point, of course, the enemy tribes’ epithet is so thoroughly ingrained in the settlers’ lexicon that fussing about it is not worth the trouble.

        Not for anyone trying to make an honest living, anyway. Politicians being dishonest so-and-so’s, honest went out the window a long time ago.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. ”Apache” is most likely from the Zuni word “apachu” which means “enemy”, which is what they told the Spanish when they asked about that next tribe over thataway.

          Liked by 4 people

  13. A meme last week about the most current 101 Dalmatians movie.

    “Contains smoking references.”

    Apparently making puppies into coats is not worthy of mention. But smoking references- AAAAHHHHGGG!

    So dumb.

    Because, in other instances, cute puppies in peril would be a trigger.

    Liked by 7 people

  14. They don’t call a fascists and Nazis because we’re fascists or Nazis. They call a fascists and Nazis so they can kill us. Same damn thing.Control the language and you can control thought … up to a point anyway.

    Liked by 3 people

  15. “experience different things, different events, different emotions and different points of you.”

    I wonder what my points are? (distinguished, I think, from “What’s the point?”

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      1. Of course.

        “points of view” and

        “points of you” sound almost identical when you/I read them to your/myself.

        Like the old saw about a moth at a flame and an old gate …

        “If it keeps on it singes its wings.” and

        “If it keeps on its hinges it swings.”

        I like the sound of people with points, just can’t quite see how to implement it.

        Liked by 1 person

        3. Game ads that pop up on the Tube of You. I thought that game must have a particularly sophisticated politics engine because it was talking about upgrading the War Pensions. Took me entirely too long to realize what they were actually saying.

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          2. Probably the first thing I posted here got me a fish-fly; I was admiring the devotion of the Irish to protecting our finny friends, having Carp Arks all over their cities.

            Liked by 1 person

  16. I no longer remember the author or title, but I read some Romanesque Legion novel in which the battles were gruesome, although without smell-o-print, reality was no doubt far worse.

    As far as I know, there were no trigger warnings (but I also don’t read the stuff in the front of books before the first page). I don’t think it matters. By page 20 there were blood and guts everywhere. That’s soon enough to put the book down (or burn it), if you’re against that sort of thing.

    Liked by 2 people

        1. Yeah.

          IIRC, the Ming had the “executed to the tenth generation” punishment, which meant that everyone related to the target’s ancestral line within ten generations was to be executed. Not nice people. And also why “survived the Emperor-ordered execution of everyone in my extended family” occasionally shows up as the background for one of the characters in a Chinese period piece drama, usually due to the shenanigans of corrupt bureaucrats framing the character’s father or grandfather. The character in question has to be very quiet about his or her ancestry (which is ordinarily an important thing), because the execution order is still in effect.

          On the other hand, at least those deaths would be *clean* ones… The Chinese could get very ugly with their executions.

          Liked by 4 people

          1. They didn’t use it much, but they did have it, yes. Clarification – generally only the men were executed. Women and girl children usually became Imperial slaves.

            One of the characters in The Words of the Night has that background. ;)

            Liked by 3 people

            1. Yeah, I once watched a TV show where the female lead didn’t know her own background. It turned out that she had been kidnapped by child slavers during a trip to the market just before her extended family (and all of the family servants) was executed down to the last member on orders from the Emperor. Not ten generations level (which I would assume was usually reserved for when an entire clan was engaged in massive corruption), but still something that we would never even think of doing.

              And when she finally learns her background, she can’t say anything to anyone except her closest and most trusted friends because the order is still in effect.

              Liked by 5 people

      3. “I should wait. Until I’m not so fragile.”

        That’s me looking at Netflix.

        I don’t even go to the bookstores anymore, all they have is stuff that’s in my library, or stuff that I don’t finish reading the blurb. Comic store? No way.

        Which hacks me off, frankly, because I used to love the comic store and the book store. Spoiled, by a-holes, deliberately.

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    2. I am thankful for nobody inventing smellovision. I asked my father in law, a WWII ETO vet who had gone across the beaches at Normandy on D+10 what was the thing he remembered most vividly about that event, and he told me the smell was indescribably horrible. I don’t need that one in my olfactory memory, thanks.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. There was an attempt back in the mid-60s, iirc. It didn’t catch on. I suspect that the technical hurdles would have been an issue in mass deploying it in any case.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Disney Parks do something like this in the “Soaring over California” ride, where they lightly scent the breeze that blows in the faces of the rider seats with things like redwood tree scent for the trees bit, and salt spray scent for the ocean stuff.

          I have not been for a while, so I don’t know if they added burned houses smell for the part where they fly over Pacific Palisades…

          Liked by 2 people

          3. Disney World if FL still has that.

            Additionally, there are different parts of each park that have added smells (though pleasant).

            Each hotel lobby has it’s own distinct smell.

            Finally, the ride inside the giant golf ball in EPCOT (Spaceship Earth) has smells — including faint burning smells to go along with as I recall the sack of cities

            Liked by 2 people

        3. Had a visitor to our Orthodox Temple note that it smelled like a church. The lingering scent of incense, I presume. We use that A LOT!

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  18. Doing it because of fear or threat:

    bad.

    Doing it as marketing?

    Go for it, especially if you’re in one of those regions that has folks being “clever” with deliberately trying to hurt/defraud their readers.

    Better than me trying to cover all the ground, Crossover did a post recently on the “Truth In Advertising” side of things.

    Liked by 4 people

  19. Padding the corners of the world has never worked. It can’t work long term, and most likely not even short term.

    I read a lot of fiction which probably would trigger a lot of people. I don’t care! I like well written characters with twisty plots. That’s how I got addicted to Darkship.

    For a bunch of folks who feel <= double underlined /> superior to be in reality whining little brats is a trigger for me!

    Liked by 3 people

  20. Sometime ago, I read a book set in Ancient Egypt with the main character (and narrator) being a man of that time. (The story was basically his autobiography.)

    At one point, the Author had the main character talking about slavery and defending it.

    Which was silly as a man of his time would not have seen the need to defend slavery.

    In his world Slavery was a fact of life both in Egypt and everywhere else.

    While this book (forgot author & title) was written decades ago, it was obvious that the Author was concerned that his readers would imagine that he Liked Slavery if he didn’t “let the readers know that it was his character that wasn’t bothered by slavery” (not him).

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Mary Renault handled it better when she had the patriarchy of a classical Greek family reprove his son for looking down on a slave by pointing out it could happen to anybody, at any time. Just one of those things.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Yes. History shows us that either two things happened when a fight was lost (against another army, or a city/village overran). Either the winner had time, and the resources, to gather and march slaves (wherever) OR the losers are slaughtered leaving no or few survivors. As a slave you and yours survived. As a slave you had a chance to not be a slave. Any winner who did not give quarter to take slaves was facing a population who fought to the bitter end, or ran and fought again. The Romans did this. The Vikings did this. The Northern American Indian tribes did this. Southern American Indian tribes did this too, just as a slave one was more likely to be sacrificed than become citizens.

        Yes, more recent history, instead of slavery the option was territorial surrender, tribute, and fidelity to the winning lord/king. A different type of slavery (in the US who does not recognize human royalty, *OMMV).

        (*) Others MMV VS YMMV

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      2. Accurate, too.

        And as often as you reflect how much power you have over a slave, remember that your master has just as much power over you. “But I have no master,” you say. You are still young; perhaps you will have one. Do you not know at what age Hecuba entered captivity, or Croesus, or the mother of Darius, or Plato, or Diogenes?
        —Seneca

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  22. The real question is of false advertising.

    I have heard of a writer who tells other writers you have to put explicit sexual material into your stories but not until the second chapter so the readers are hooked before they hit it. She seems to not grasp the contradiction.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I had one of these tell me that by putting a content statement in the front of my books I’m censoring hers. The logic was that if people start wanting content statements, she’ll have to either lie about the content or lose half her (new) audience. So she would be “forced” to stop lying to potential readers

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Which is why blaming the offended person is not, in fact, the cure-all. Those who act to offend will, if they don’t get the offended reaction, escalate until they do.

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  23. The thing is, victimhood is power these days. So the more things people find to be offended by, the more victim-mana they have.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “So the more things people find to be offended by, the more victim-mana they have.”

      This is absolutely true. Holy crap, what a concept. Victim-mana. I love it! Like aura-farming but for victimhood. Sweet!

      Like

  24. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » SPEAKING OF WHICH:  Triggering.

  25. OK, saw this and immediately thought of the old Navy recruiting slogan;

    “The opportunity to be the someone else far away experiencing “Adventure” (which as we all know is really a series of unpleasant events.)”

    It’s not a job, it’s an adventure!

    Well, I couldn’t complain it wasn’t ‘Truth in advertising’, just because I signed up to BE that ‘someone far away’ !

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  26. And you start wondering, on the serious, if the ideal novel for these people has no plot at all, just people sitting around having a nice meal and talking

    That would aptly describe about half of the “mainstream” novels I’ve tried to read. “Nothing much happens, then it ends abruptly.”

    The other half seem to be stories about hateful people being jerks or trying to stab each other in the back.

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  27. “Anyway, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion all this demand for warnings and screeching about offense isn’t by real readers.”

    Elon’s recent reveal of location data for X accounts indicates Russians, Pakistanis, Saudis and Indians are very upset about things in the Republican Party. Which we always suspected because of how bad their English is, but now we know. Psyop.

    This is definitely the same. “Mary from Idaho” who needs a trigger warning is one of several hundred sockpuppets run by some pink-haired agitator in Berkley. Or, more likely in science fiction, a bot-farm in China. Nobody thinks it was “the fans” that arranged for WorldCon to go to Chengdu.

    IMHO we’ve been suffering a slow-motion Communist psyop in publishing since the 1970s, and they went wide open about 2010 thinking they could shut everything out that didn’t come from them.

    Surprise, no they can’t. People like me will stop reading the Commie crap and start writing our own. I’m not making a huge impact out there (to say the least) but I’m not the only one doing it. Multiply me by all of Indy, and that’s a pretty big deal.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. All reviews should show not only “verified purchase” but poster’s location. Does not have to have address, or even city. But at least country, and state, when countries are huge; with a VPN marker, to show they are hiding location. My 5¢.

      Liked by 3 people

  29. Pingback: We’re not quite at the point that we get trigger warnings for trigger warnings, but … « Quotulatiousness

  31. Trigger warnings should be for things like The Boyz where they opened with a superfast hero obliterating the protagonist’s girlfriend by accidentally running her down, and never stopping to notice. Later they shot a character in the head with very lovingly rendered exploding blood and flesh covering everything. I lasted until the end of the first season where the “heroes” decided to get rid of an immortal villainess by gleefully chopping off each of her limbs. Normally I don’t watch anything with HBO on it because they viewed it their mission to be as offensive as possible to justify people paying for the experience. I couldn’t even get through the first episode of American Gods.

    On the other hand, the silly warnings about smoking, alcohol use, thinking bad thoughts, etc. just make me laugh.

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      1. Yeah, but there are people who will try to collapse the spectrum.

        There is no one solution to what it is reasonable to tell people about, any more than you can decide whether, when a walking person collides with a person standing, which one is to blame by choosing one of them. Each has to be judged on its merits: was the walking person paying attention? was the standing person standing where a reasonable person would realize that no one would expect, or be able to see, someone standing?

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  32. A long time ago in a library far, far away, I read the phrase, “A gentleman never unwittingly gives offense.”

    I had to think about it for a bit to see why that was sublimely subtle snark.

    Liked by 2 people

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