TWOxACROSS
Hot-blooded God of Guns
"Warning. This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore."
Are trigger warnings necessary?
- Thread starter Meg
- Start date
It does matter, but like you said, only to those who genuinely have issues and aren't just going over the top to promote the idea that 'everything can be offensive'. No, things are only offensive if you find those things to be so or you have had any real traumatic experiences in your life where something that just jumps up at you from text or whatever causes you grief. You can't or shouldn't just say things can be offensive "just because" - "Y'know, reasons". Because someone could just come along and say that it isn't offensive.
So, are content warnings enough to get the message across is a good question. And are people honestly being more sensitive about things or should we take it all so seriously in the first place?
So, are content warnings enough to get the message across is a good question. And are people honestly being more sensitive about things or should we take it all so seriously in the first place?
Exactly.
Ex-Goddamn-actly.
It's not vital to censor or warn about content that may or can offend one person, or even a microscopic pool of people...it's a matter of censoring or warning people of what's universally considered innapropriate or graphic.
For instance: when it comes to violence, I'm a pretty sick bastard. I've subjected to enough graphic violence and gore to the point where the violence in Evil Dead and The Thing are pretty much PG-13 to me. But that doesn't mean I consider it "tame", or think it's low-tier enough to have a lower rating or devoid of content warnings.
Why? Because of what people who advocate trigger warnings don't understand: my standards aren't the world's standards, and I shouldn't even dare to presume that they are.
TWOxACROSS
Hot-blooded God of Guns
Juuuust remembering the warning card that appeared before old survival horror games and DMC
Don't mind me.
Not only that, but political correctness is becoming a form of censorship. Technically it is and always has been, but nobody realized it was. It should be obvious even to the brain-dead right about now, though... that it's become less about just how "sensitive" people claim to be and more about how they can exert power over ideas they don't like. I don't know where countries like the UK who have allowed it to run rampant think it's going but you can guess.
Probably from tumblr.
Thing is I don't think many of these people want equality. They want equity. Or to bring everyone up to the same level, thinking that will fix everything... but not everyone can have equality in real life terms in every situation. So what they're going for to some extent isn't even attainable. Like say, trying to make the entire world a safe place for traumatized people. Or children. Just isn't gonna happen.
Thing is I don't think many of these people want equality. They want equity. Or to bring everyone up to the same level, thinking that will fix everything... but not everyone can have equality in real life terms in every situation. So what they're going for to some extent isn't even attainable. Like say, trying to make the entire world a safe place for traumatized people. Or children. Just isn't gonna happen.
@VampireWicked
I think the tumblr hate came from the fact that they are the biggest hypocrites and breeding ground for most annoying special snowflakes. Plenty of other places are also hateful, especially tumblr's biggest enemy 4chan, but none of them really tries to make themselves look as a perfect happy place that appreciates everyone, while even the slightest deviation from herd mentality will earn you anonymous death and rape threats.
Also home to stuff like - "how dare you accuse me of reverse racism for blaming white people on everything from dinosaurs dying out to my grandma's kidney stone!"
I think the tumblr hate came from the fact that they are the biggest hypocrites and breeding ground for most annoying special snowflakes. Plenty of other places are also hateful, especially tumblr's biggest enemy 4chan, but none of them really tries to make themselves look as a perfect happy place that appreciates everyone, while even the slightest deviation from herd mentality will earn you anonymous death and rape threats.
Also home to stuff like - "how dare you accuse me of reverse racism for blaming white people on everything from dinosaurs dying out to my grandma's kidney stone!"
Well put it this way, I put off getting a tumblr account for ages due to its reputation, but I have one now which I use only to post my personal art (never to make social commentary), and there must be less than 20 people that I watch on there, although I don't know them at all. I added them fairly recently. Yet if I go check out the feed from these it's more often than not a stream of stuff popularly reposted with large numbers of likes and notes so I'm assuming it's the "trending" stuff. And most of it is rabid, politically correct craziness. And I see a lot of feminism of the Crazy Variety.
So I gotta at least begin to assume that this is popular stuff doing the rounds on there and tumblr is living up to its reputation. As Viper said, it's its own breeding and validation ground for some pretty screwed up ideas and people. Not saying every tumblr user is, but its a place where that kind of thing is obviously encouraged, and unpopular opinions are stampeded into the dust.
Perhaps it is the mother concerned about GTA affecting her kids but when some of these people get on their high horses and try to lobby publicly against videogames what do they do? They start claiming it's bad for all children, trying to make it seem like they have more than a personal issue with it, and ignoring the fact that kids aren't legally allowed to play these adult videogames anyways. Then, realizing that what they don't like is basically a form of adult entertainment that they can't ban, that kids will find a way to play because you just can't stop kids from doing certain things, they usually start griping about how that entertainment is corrupting and destroying society. Usually the most modern form of it. In the 50s and 60s they said the same thing about comics corrupting kids. In the 80s it was video nasties. Now its video games. I think people like this know their concerns will be ignored if they're just complaining about their own kids, which is why those who campaign against it try to make a case for all of them.
So I gotta at least begin to assume that this is popular stuff doing the rounds on there and tumblr is living up to its reputation. As Viper said, it's its own breeding and validation ground for some pretty screwed up ideas and people. Not saying every tumblr user is, but its a place where that kind of thing is obviously encouraged, and unpopular opinions are stampeded into the dust.
Perhaps it is the mother concerned about GTA affecting her kids but when some of these people get on their high horses and try to lobby publicly against videogames what do they do? They start claiming it's bad for all children, trying to make it seem like they have more than a personal issue with it, and ignoring the fact that kids aren't legally allowed to play these adult videogames anyways. Then, realizing that what they don't like is basically a form of adult entertainment that they can't ban, that kids will find a way to play because you just can't stop kids from doing certain things, they usually start griping about how that entertainment is corrupting and destroying society. Usually the most modern form of it. In the 50s and 60s they said the same thing about comics corrupting kids. In the 80s it was video nasties. Now its video games. I think people like this know their concerns will be ignored if they're just complaining about their own kids, which is why those who campaign against it try to make a case for all of them.
@VampireWicked
In perfect world that would be the case, in this one you are still free to put whatever you want on your tumblr blog, and they are just as free to send you messages, whether normal ones or those who are attempt to trample your self-confidence because the sender can't live with the fact someone out there thinks differently than they do. Just think religious/political fanatics and transfer that to online form. And it's not even necessarily connected to religion and/or politics, video games can be just as much of a serious business as real life.
In fact, as repressive they might seem sometimes, forums are a safer place, given that moderators actually come up and tell people to behave, whereas on tumblr you're most likely going to get "deal with it" or "just don't look at their blog" message from the staff, even if the other side is attacking you on personal level, making sure to abuse any way possible for you to see it anyway. Because free speech.
A blog with pictures of flowers is of course left alone, no one has problem with flowers, but I bet that girl who spoke against Anita got a good deal of messages she doesn't like to talk about.
In perfect world that would be the case, in this one you are still free to put whatever you want on your tumblr blog, and they are just as free to send you messages, whether normal ones or those who are attempt to trample your self-confidence because the sender can't live with the fact someone out there thinks differently than they do. Just think religious/political fanatics and transfer that to online form. And it's not even necessarily connected to religion and/or politics, video games can be just as much of a serious business as real life.
In fact, as repressive they might seem sometimes, forums are a safer place, given that moderators actually come up and tell people to behave, whereas on tumblr you're most likely going to get "deal with it" or "just don't look at their blog" message from the staff, even if the other side is attacking you on personal level, making sure to abuse any way possible for you to see it anyway. Because free speech.
A blog with pictures of flowers is of course left alone, no one has problem with flowers, but I bet that girl who spoke against Anita got a good deal of messages she doesn't like to talk about.
@VampireWicked
If I remember correctly, on tumblr there is option to not allow anonymous messages and there is option to ignore people, but that one really only just prevents them from seeing your posts on their wall, while they can still go to your blog directly. Due to lots of reblogging clogging up the wall, people also adapted tracking their url as a way of being notified if someone posts about them, which I've seen being abused by harassers after they've been put on ignore. There was also nothing preventing the same harassers from continuing to slander you publicly and many of them have followers that often act like betas to alpha in sort of a pack, taking onto themselves the task of harassing you.
If there was some form of punishment for aggressive behavior, I'm sure things would be tons better, this way they expect the bully themselves to suddenly realize he or she is a bully, based on the fact their victim ran for cover, which we all know is just inflating the bully's ego.
Kinda like in school, where a kid is getting beaten up, while the teacher looks the other way cause they don't want to deal with it.
If I remember correctly, on tumblr there is option to not allow anonymous messages and there is option to ignore people, but that one really only just prevents them from seeing your posts on their wall, while they can still go to your blog directly. Due to lots of reblogging clogging up the wall, people also adapted tracking their url as a way of being notified if someone posts about them, which I've seen being abused by harassers after they've been put on ignore. There was also nothing preventing the same harassers from continuing to slander you publicly and many of them have followers that often act like betas to alpha in sort of a pack, taking onto themselves the task of harassing you.
If there was some form of punishment for aggressive behavior, I'm sure things would be tons better, this way they expect the bully themselves to suddenly realize he or she is a bully, based on the fact their victim ran for cover, which we all know is just inflating the bully's ego.
Kinda like in school, where a kid is getting beaten up, while the teacher looks the other way cause they don't want to deal with it.
@VampireWicked: I've got no idea about this tumblr stuff, but have you ever checked out the comments section on, say, any Youtube video? You'll see comments that are just plain trolling. And you know what? You're right. The internet isn't like real life. And just as much as someone has the power to post hateful comments, you have the power yourself to ignore them and move on. It's not the same in the "real world" as it is online. You can choose to block, ignore, privatise your profiles. At the end of the day, there may be those out there giving sites a bad name - but what good is it if people let them? What use is it if people respond to it, rise to it and almost encourage it or contribute to it? - I believe that the best way to avoid these issues is to just keep yourself to yourself. Go and post what you want to, view what you want to or anything else. But don't let idiots get the better of you. We're online, you haven't got to talk to people if you don't want to or answer to anyone. Don't let people spoil your right to be a part of online communities just because they want to invoke hatred.
One message you may find you can look over. Two messages, still good. But a message after message with more and more aggression in them, and then huge blog posts of pure anger painting you as worse than Hitler. There is only so much a human can take. I had a nervous breakdown cause of that.
You can run. But that means burning bridges and leaving behind everything you painstakingly built on your blog. Joining same clubs you enjoyed so much again is a huge risk, cause someone is bound to recognize you, and you are bound to recognize the name of your abuser.
Basically, the victim is the one actually getting punished.
@VampireWicked
That depends what kind of people you meet and what type of online interaction you have. I certainly couldn't go back to roleplaying properly when I knew that person is still out there, talking to same people as I do.
Trolls are usually easier to handle than some of these people on tumblr, for example I have no problem with 4chan, cause even the meanest reply I ever got was more of a joke than anything, something where you can just toss the ball back.
That depends what kind of people you meet and what type of online interaction you have. I certainly couldn't go back to roleplaying properly when I knew that person is still out there, talking to same people as I do.
Trolls are usually easier to handle than some of these people on tumblr, for example I have no problem with 4chan, cause even the meanest reply I ever got was more of a joke than anything, something where you can just toss the ball back.
At the risk of going off topic. This subject reminds me of a news story from the other day.
Basically, a WWII Veteran was kicked out of a Remembrance Day speech because his off-script comments about pacifism offended some of the audience members. When I read that story I was like, really? :banghead:
Basically, a WWII Veteran was kicked out of a Remembrance Day speech because his off-script comments about pacifism offended some of the audience members. When I read that story I was like, really? :banghead: