The whole "trigger" thing started in fangirl culture. Since reading a Harry Potter or Digimon fanfiction still meant you COULD encounter a violent rape scene, authors were expected to put a warning for it at the beginning of the story. Now this kind of makes sense. To warn people, I mean, not to write torturous sexual assault into a goddamn kids' story.
Anyway, since, say, a rape survivor might not want to have memories of their trauma come flooding back in the middle of reading a cute little Secret of Mana story, it was the polite thing to do.
Then Tumblr happened, and the fangirls took it over. First you had to post warnings for posts on rape or murder. Then stuff like eating disorders and mental disorders. Then other people spoke up and said "well I uhh... I'm weirded out by descriptions of eye injuries! Can we trigger warn for that?" then "Oh hey I have a trigger too! I have bad vertigo so can we warn for photos of high places?" then "Um wait! I'm also triggered! I have a phobia of horses! Please post warnings if you're about to mention horses!"
As I mentioned in my other post, Tumblr Social Justice is a game, and woe be unto anyone who loses points for being "insensitive" and not obeying people's wishes for trigger warnings. So it snowballed.
Then you end up with otherkin warning for "human-centric language" and multiples warning for "multiplicity denial" (yes that was an actual TW for the F+ episode) and nobody even knows what trigger MEANS anymore.
Now people post "TW: ABUSE" at the top of their Tumblr posts, and the body of the post will literally just say something like "I am against child abuse." It won't graphically describe child abuse, it won't go into detail on how abusive people behave, it won't be anything like that. It will just say the word "abuse" or "abusive" in the body. MOTHERFUCKER, THAT IS NOT WHAT A WARNING IS FOR. YOU ALREADY READ THE FUCKING WORD "ABUSE" IN THE GODDAMNED HEADER. WHY IS THAT NOT TRIGGERING YOU, BUT SEEING IT IN THE BODY OF THE POST TRIGGERING YOU. THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE.
Furthermore, you get people saying "god I am SO TRIGGERED right now because you said a mean thing to me!" THAT ALSO MAKES NO SENSE. Oh I'm sure it reminds you of the time you tried to glamorbomb your math class but your wings got stuck in the doorway and everyone stared at you like the dumbass caveman you are, but that's still not a fucking trigger. Triggers are not "I am upset right now." Triggers are when you were fucking traumatized and some stimuli cause you to flash back to that moment, giving you the same feelings, making you relive that utter fear and despair. It is NOT "you said a mean thing and that reminded me of another time someone said a mean thing." It is NOT "I am very upset at you right now a nd wach as i ttyp badley to maek you tihnk im haveing a panick attck!!!!" AND IT IS NOT FUCKING "THIS REMINDS ME OF MY MADE-UP BACKSTORY AS A DEMON IN A DOOM LEVEL PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE ME INTERNET KISSES ON MY E-BOOBOO"
That's not how triggers even work. The reason people originally used them was that a scene like that could bring back that kind of pain and fear for trauma victims. Because, you see, triggers spark memories. Trauma victims can be triggered by seriously ANYTHING that reminds them of that horrible experience. You can be triggered by a dog barking if there was a dog when you got into that horrific car crash. You can be triggered by a building's layout if it looks like the bank you were in when robbers busted in and held the place hostage for a few hours. You can be triggered by a wallpaper pattern if it looks like the wallpaper in your old house where your mom used to beat you. THAT is what a fucking trigger is. It's not seeing the phrase "I had to take an alternate route because there was a car crash on Main Street."
But of course since Tumblr's in the business of collecting Anti-Privilege points, you desperately need to claim a trigger. If you don't have triggers, you're privileged, and if you're privileged, your opinions on literally anything don't matter. Even if it's on something entirely unrelated. Furthermore, if you don't respect trigger warnings, no matter how stupid, you get to be on the receiving end of a massive dogpile because OH YAY THIS PERSON DIDN'T OBEY TSJW RULES!! I GET 300 SJ POINTS IF I'M THE FIRST TO CALL THEM ON IT 8DDD
Trauma victims being triggered in real life are a fucking serious issue. Which is exactly why Tumblr ignores it and substitutes their stupid goddamned RPG points in its place.