Trigger-warning Tyrants

By Selwyn Duke

People like thinking the best of themselves, which is partially why we have "trigger warnings," "microaggressions" and claims of "taking offense" – so these complainers don't have to come to terms with the fact they're spoiled, self-absorbed, tyrannical brats.

Here's how it works: When accusing you of "microaggressing," the truth is that, generally, these snowflakes just don't happen to like what you're saying. But shouting "Shut up! I hate that type of expression!" makes you seem intolerant. So to preserve your image and self-image, you use the ploy of shifting the onus onto the one whose speech you want to suppress.

Note that actual ideas are often targeted. Examples are "I believe the most qualified person should get the job" and "Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough," which academia has identified as "racial microaggressions." The principle is: If you can't refute it, boot it.

Since coining psychobabble terms is in today, I'll label this onus-switching "Oppression Transference." The snowflake oppressor stifles the speech of his victim by making the latter seem the oppressor – a microaggressor, an agent of triggered feelings or offender in chief.

Another major factor is that, lacking the power of the state, the snowflake has to use social pressure to impose his will. He might just put you in a gulag were he a Stalin, but he's not, so he shackles you with political correctness.

Since snowflakes pride themselves on tolerance, it should be emphasized that they don't even understand the concept. "Tolerance" always implies the abiding of a perceived negative. You'd likely never have to tolerate a fine car or delectable meal, but you would have to tolerate a stubborn cold or bad weather (unless you're a masochist).

In other words, if, let's say, you like homosexual behavior or just don't care about it, that's not called tolerance; it's called affinity or indifference. A prerequisite for tolerating it is considering it a negative.

Thus, the true measure of tolerance is how well you handle things you don't like. And pro tip: If you're so triggered by "Where are you from?" and "You speak English really well" – which are also labeled microaggressions – that you participate in a Stalinesque effort to purge such things from discourse, you're not just not tolerant; you're not even tolerable.

Snowflakes are also pathetically self-centered and self-absorbed. If your feelings are hurt by the terms "black hole" or "man up," well, you need to man up. If you think The Great Gatsby, Mrs. Dalloway or The Merchant of Venice needs a trigger warning, you're not just a sniveling little wimp. You also haven't learned an important life lesson once imparted during toddlerhood: Your feelings just aren't that important.

There are seven billion people on this planet with seven billion sets of feelings. When snowflakes demand their feelings be the arbiters of policy, they're saying that their emotions should be preeminent, with others who feel contrary being subordinate. Worse still, they're saying that their feelings, which are subjective, should trump what should be the yardstick for policy: the objective, principles such as the imperative of encouraging the expression of Truth.

This is the crux of the matter. Saying that something originating within you (feelings) should take precedence over Truth, which exists outside of you, is a universal and is meant to be feelings' arbiter, is the epitome of self-centeredness.

There is the occasional academic who stands against the snowflake phenomenon, such as Oklahoma Wesleyan University's great president, Dr. Everett Piper, who penned an open letter to his students titled "This is Not a Daycare. It's a University!" But modern universities, which now resemble dens of iniquity where all the hookers have Ph.Ds, are generally the problem.

For instance, the term "microaggressions" was popularized by a Columbia University professor, Derald Wing Sue, who got the idea from a more original Ivy League lunkhead. Brown University was content to let students establish "a 'safe space' that offered calming music, cookies, Play-Doh and a video of frolicking puppies to help students cope...," reported the Telegraph. And institutions of lower learning have created charts of microaggressions so all us bigots can know what not to say. An example is the following from the University of Wisconsin:

[Insert here: http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/microaggressions.jpg]

As for trigger warnings, there's an interesting thing about them. The people complaining about the "graphic violence" in The Great Gatsby weren't raised in a cloistered Amish cocoon; they grew up imbibing the most violent, perverse Hollywood fare imaginable. So I suspect that what really bothers them is something else – such as the more traditional paradigm for society older works portray.

Tragically, the "educators" facilitating snowflakism are ignorant of the harm they do. The University of North Carolina warns that saying to a woman "I love your shoes!" or "[i]nterrupting a female-identified colleague..." can be a microaggression. So can saying to "a person of African descent: "Can I touch your hair?'" because it sends the message "Your appearance is exotic and foreign to me."

Okay, but what if my appearance really is exotic and foreign to the person? When I was 19, I visited a rural Taiwanese town, a place where homes still had straw roofs. I was brought to the elementary school, and it just so happened that the children had recess. Circling around me curiously, it was plain they'd never personally seen a blondish white person before. The friend I was with told me they wanted to shake my hand, and, after extending it, it wasn't long before I had a dozen Chinese lads on each arm screaming and pulling me like it was a tug-of-war. It was a fun experience I'll never forget.

The point is that this curiosity is normal. And here's another life lesson: If you can't understand that or are offended by it, you're abnormal. Thankfully, this abnormality can be cured.

But here's where the harm lies. Is a couple, or two friends, closer when there's nothing they can't discuss? Or when many subjects are off limits and they must walk on eggs?

By creating the latter situation, the snowflake enablers are actually building walls between people. When you can't acknowledge obvious differences among people – whether they relate to race, ethnicity, sex, religion or something else – you're playing pretend. Another word for this is pretense, which has as a synonym "charade." Also note one of its antonyms: honesty.

How do you combat trigger-warning tyranny? Stop being defensive. The people effecting it are trying to shut you up as they purge Truth from your tongue. They're using social warfare against you, so strike back; fight fire with fire and put the onus on them. Call them what they are: intolerant, spoiled, self-centered, evil tyrants. Take no prisoners.

Only when these oppressors masquerading as victims are stilling their tongues, fearing the scorn, ostracism and possible career destruction threatening sane people today, will we know we've made America great again. Remember, people who cannot be reasoned with, can only be fought.

© Selwyn Duke