Triggered

"Oh no, the snowflakes are triggered."

"Microaggressions. Hah!"

"Political correctness is running amok." 

"People are too sensitive these days."

Chaon says: 

Oh HORSE SHIT!*

What fucking world are y'all living in where people are more sensitive now than they were thirty or fifty years ago? Did you forget, or do you really just have no idea how pissy people used to be about stupid crap? 

Let's look at a few things. These examples are not chosen because they are well-known, or because of the egregiousness of the sensitivity. They just happen to be what my addled Gen-X mind is currently able to dredge up. 

1) Bart Simpson shirts. People were already mad about Bart Simpson just for what he is and what he stands for. But when these two shirts were released: 

"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?"

"Underachiever: And Proud of It, Man."

people lost their goddamn minds.  J.C. Penney had to remove these shirts from their stores. On the upside, it is said that Trey Parker and Matt Stone, upon witnessing this public outrage, thought about it for a few seconds and then said "Hold my bong and watch this."

2) The Parents Music Resource Center. Hearings in Washington DC because of songs like:


(Girls masturbate? Who knew?)


3) Louie Louie **

4) Interracial anything. Loving vs. Virginia was decided in the year I was born. But 15 years later, the sight of an interracial couple mortally offended some people. And by "some people," I mean my grandparents.

5) I'm not even going to number them any more. Gay anything. Men with earrings. 99 Red Balloons. Movies.    


So no. People are not "more sensitive" these days. They're just sensitive about different stuff. 



* Might actually be one word: "horseshit." I don't know. 
** Recent testing of the song using a neural network-powered AI discovered that the actual lyrics in question are:
"Rise up, downtrodden workers of the fields, 
 and behead the landlord tyrants 
with scythes forged in revolutionary fire."