0 a statement at the beginning of a piece of writing, before the start of a film, etc., warning people that they may find the content very upsetting, especially if they have experienced something similar: --
Trigger warnings are supposed to protect people from post-traumatic flashbacks.
Plenty of evidence suggests that policies regarding microaggressions and trigger warnings aren't as pervasive as they might seem to those who are not on campus.
There were tales of students seeking "trigger warnings" before being exposed to potentially upsetting class materials.
Students at numerous institutions do invoke "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" in ways that undermine free inquiry.
Considered in isolation, trigger warnings may seem straightforwardly good.
We mock professors for issuing "trigger warnings" in the classroom.
The notion that trigger warnings violate "freedom of expression" has a similar smokescreen quality.
That sounds reasonable enough, but it's unlikely to get critics of campus identity politics to stop raving about trigger warnings.
The letter is, in effect, a trigger warning to incoming students preemptively warning them to expect a dearth of trigger warnings in their time on campus.
