As a nurse in Kingston put it: “I am going to prepare a trigger warning for myself and recite it before every shift at the hospital. ‘Warning: death, puke, poop, phlegm, bile, pus, sweat, family discord, malingering, violence, belligerence, fear, withdrawal…’ Thank goodness there are people like me who face the real world and just get on with it.”

That sums up my feelings pretty well. It also reminds me of a friend who quit drinking and insisted, after we'd shown her nothing but support and spent loads of time with her in places unrelated to alcohol, that we stop going to our local bar every Friday night (which was a tradition of some years amongst us) because she no longer felt comfortable there and wouldn't be able to join us. I was forced to remind her, gently but firmly, that the world didn't revolve around her.

Someone really needs to remind explain this truth to the warning-desirous and the idiots who kowtow to them before life bites them in the ass and they find themselves ill-equipped to deal with it. Academic discourse is based on examination and confrontation, and not all the subjects are pretty. The economy must really be bad for such pandering to have achieved a foothold.