Trigger Warnings are Harmful

Trigger warnings. They are inserted into a lecture, presentation, or speech, to precede topics that may be offensive. Trigger warnings have emerged on college campuses and in high schools across the world, and I argue they are doing do more harm than good.

Trigger warnings prevent colleges from being intellectual spaces for consideration of controversial issues. They lead students to reject other viewpoints, instead of reaching for arguments and evidence. Students see the warning, yet their ears and brains do not listen: it is in human nature to dislike things that contradict our belief, even though acknowledgement may allow for resolution.

This isn’t a left wing or right wing issue. Both democrats and republicans agree that they are bad. However, trigger warnings only seem to accompany issues that are conservative. There are no trigger warnings about the Big Bang, even though it may offend somebody religious. Why then should trigger warnings revolve around economic, racial, or gender disputes? Honestly, I don’t agree with conservatives. But that doesn’t mean they should go unheard.

Trigger warnings hurt those they intend to help. Trigger warnings are mainly used to attempt to stop historically marginalized groups from being offended. Yet, logically, they don’t do that. They instead demonize the main topic. If there is an “R” rating on a film, it is understood to be mature, violent, or full of cursing. People find this unacceptable for younger age groups. Similarly, because trigger warnings demonize topics, nobody will talk about them because they could be labeled sexist, racist, or worse.

Many times, claims that are not even offensive lead one to be condemned. At the University of New Hampshire, saying “I am American!” could be seen as racist because it only refers to people from the US and not the other Americas. The word “American” simply wasn’t created to offend anyone. Trigger warnings only add to this. Because of them, people don’t say things because they don’t want to be offensive.

In sum, trigger warnings are unproductive. They prevent two-way dialogue and hurt those they seek to help. They revolve around controversial political or social issues and only add to the our growing hyper-political correctness. It is time we stop using trigger warnings. As intellectual and renowned linguist Noam Chomsky says:

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for those that we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”