{"id":2267145,"date":"2024-06-13T16:56:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T20:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-we-became-a-society-full-of-traumatized-weaklings\/"},"modified":"2024-06-13T17:05:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T21:05:03","slug":"how-we-became-a-society-full-of-traumatized-weaklings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-we-became-a-society-full-of-traumatized-weaklings\/","title":{"rendered":"How Society Became Filled with &#8216;Traumatized&#8217; Weaklings"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-we-became-a-society-full-of-traumatized-weaklings%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2267145&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In recent years, trigger \u2064warnings about potentially disturbing content have become common \u2062in\u2063 both \u2064streaming\u2063 shows and theater productions. This trend has sparked some debate, \u2064as such warnings can sometimes spoil the suspense\u200b or emotional\u200c impact of the scenes they precede. Shows like &#8220;Baby Reindeer,&#8221; &#8220;Better Call Saul,&#8221; and &#8220;The Morning Show&#8221; issue warnings for \u200dscenes involving\u200d topics like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/france-seeks-to-change-age-of-consent-to-15\/\" title=\"France Seeks To Change Age Of Consent To 15\">sexual violence<\/a> or suicide. Even classic\u2063 content and older shows are not exempt, with\u200b warnings for issues like ethnic prejudices\u200d now appearing in media such \u200cas &#8220;Goodfellas&#8221; and &#8220;All in the Family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Online commentary suggests that these\u200d warnings\u200d can detract \u2063from the viewing experience,\u2064 potentially reducing the dramatic \u200bimpact or revealing plot developments prematurely. The article critiques the proliferation of trigger \u200cwarnings, arguing that they\u200d reflect a broader change in society&#8217;s understanding of &#8220;trauma,&#8221; which\u200d now encompasses a wider range \u2063of experiences including everyday anxieties\u2062 or societal issues. This expansion\u2063 in the definition of trauma has\u200c been echoed in the\u200c medical and psychological communities, which have broadened \u200cthe criteria for PTSD to include indirect exposure to \u2064trauma or even feelings of general unease and negativity.<\/p>\n<p>This\u200c trend, according to critics, results in\u2063 an over-diagnosis \u200cof trauma \u2063and an overmedicalization of normal life challenges, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lt-cols-resignation-letter-goes-viral-bashes-bidens-unethical-immoral-and-tyrannical-vaccine-mandate\/\" title=\"Lt. Col\u2019s Resignation Letter Goes Viral: Bashes Biden\u2019s \u2018Unethical, Immoral And Tyrannical\u2019 Vaccine Mandate\">potentially leading<\/a> to increased prescriptions and treatments. The discourse around \u200ctrauma has evolved significantly, influencing \u2064how media, entertainment, and health professionals address \u2064and interact with\u200b the public on issues\u2064 of mental\u200b health and content consumption.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you spend any amount of time watching shows on streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, then you may have noticed that several big-name productions are now putting trigger warnings on the screen before some pivotal episodes. The show \u201cBaby Reindeer,\u201d for example, warns its viewers in advance of an upcoming scene depicting sexual violence. \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d alerts its audience about an upcoming suicide. Other popular shows, like \u201cSeverance,\u201d \u201cThe Morning Show,\u201d \u201cLife &#038; Beth,\u201d and several others also include similar messages before the show even begins. Even classics like \u201cGoodfellas\u201d and old <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CarmineSabia\/status\/1728958011392036870\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">shows<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  like \u201cAll in the Family\u201d now come with warnings about \u201cethnic prejudices.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Online, these trigger warnings have caused a lot of consternation because they often ruin the episode that people are about to watch. If you know a suicide is coming, for instance, it\u2019s usually not too hard to guess which character might be involved. (Spoiler alert: It\u2019s probably the character that\u2019s been having serious mental problems all season). And even if you\u2019re not sure what character might be involved, it still blunts the dramatic impact of the scene to be told, directly, that something shocking is about to happen. There\u2019s a reason Shakespeare didn\u2019t have some guy go on stage before the fifth act of \u201cRomeo &#038; Juliet\u201d to explain that poisoning and self-harm would occur. There was no stagehand to announce, \u201cIf you\u2019re not ready to see two lovers take their own lives, then leave the amphitheater immediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But we live in a much dumber time now, so trigger warnings like that are no longer unthinkable. In fact, if you go see a play like \u201cRomeo &#038; Juliet,\u201d there\u2019s a very real chance you might run into one. For several years now, theaters all over the world have been incorporating these kinds of advisories. Watch:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That report was from a few years ago, but the trend has only continued. The Sir Thomas Allen theater in Durham, UK, for instance, posted <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20231202062825\/https:\/\/www.theassemblyroomstheatre.org\/whats-on\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">this notification<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  on its website just a few months ago, about the play \u201cI, Joan,\u201d which also premiered at Shakespeare\u2019s Globe:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Content Warning: Loud music \/ Partial nudity \/ Period-accurate transphobia \/ Depictions of war.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So \u201cPeriod-accurate transphobia\u201d is now worthy of a trigger warning, which I guess means that every single play and work of literature that was written before 2015 needs a trigger warning. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I could go on and on about how absurd these warnings are and how counterproductive they are. But there\u2019s really no point. You\u2019ve probably already heard about the research demonstrating that these trigger warnings are worse than useless. More than a dozen <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/health-news\/articles\/2023-10-17\/are-trigger-warnings-useless-new-study-says-yes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">studies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  have shown that these kinds of notifications are either ineffective or actively distressing to people. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is becoming a mainstream position. Bill Maher did a whole monologue about it a year ago. Dr. Phil talked about it with Joe Rogan. And so on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead of retreading that ground, I wanted to look more closely into why exactly these warnings came about in the first place. They seem like a symptom of a much larger problem that\u2019s gone unnoticed, for the most part. I came to that realization after the outlet \u201cVariety\u201d ran a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/tv\/news\/trigger-warnings-spoil-tv-shows-1236025257\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">piece<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  on this a few days ago on the problems that these trigger warnings can cause. Throughout their article, Variety kept using the term \u201ctrauma\u201d again and again: \u201cAs content advisories become popular, Hollywood tries to find a balance between ruining plot twists and helping viewers avoid trauma.\u201d That\u2019s the headline. Then the article continues, \u201cA growing number of programs have opted to inform viewers before showing potentially traumatizing content. \u2026 The goal is to help viewers enjoy TV without trauma.\u201d They even speak to a medical expert about how trigger warnings relate to \u201ctrauma.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This caught my attention because, up until relatively recently, when people heard the word \u201ctrauma,\u201d they thought of serious, violent injuries \u2014 the kind people might suffer in car accidents or on the battlefield, for example. And that\u2019s how the medical profession understood the word \u201ctrauma,\u201d as well. But somewhere along the line, something obviously changed. \u201cTrauma\u201d became a daily occurrence rather than something suffered by people in the most extreme and harrowing circumstances. Everyday discomfort and mild inconvenience has been medicalized and overblown into \u201ctrauma.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/ep-1386-member-exclusive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019ve seen this a lot in the past couple of years. You might remember the whole episode when the tennis player Naomi Osaka dropped out of a tournament and melted down at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/psaki-issues-statement-after-stupid-son-of-a-bh-remark-about-fox-news-reporter-peter-doocy\/\" title=\"Psaki Issues Statement After \u2018Stupid Son Of A B***h\u2019 Remark About Fox News Reporter Peter Doocy\">press conference back<\/a> in 2021. The idea was that talking to the press was traumatic for her, for some reason. PBS ran a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/health\/naomi-osakas-withdrawal-from-the-french-open-highlights-how-mental-health-ranks-below-physical-health#:~:text=Pressing%20problems%20with%20stigma,depressed%E2%80%9D%20after%20losing%20a%20match.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">sympathetic story<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  at the time that included this paragraph: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Osaka, who is Black, Asian and female, may have contended with an even greater sense of vulnerability this past year, in light of the Black Lives Matter protests and the increased violence against Asian Americans. Studies have shown that individuals suffer from vicarious trauma when members of their group are targeted and discriminated against.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, the tennis star was suffering from \u201cvicarious trauma.\u201d Those are two words we\u2019re apparently meant to take seriously, along with other new terms like \u201cintergenerational trauma\u201d and so on. We\u2019ve all seen dozens of stories like this. So when I saw the Variety piece, it occurred to me that the story here isn\u2019t really about the rise of \u201ctrigger warnings,\u201d per se. Instead, it\u2019s about the fact that so many Americans now erroneously believe that they are suffering from trauma. And with that in mind, there\u2019s an obvious question to ask, which is: When did that happen and why? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The dramatic rise of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-gary-sinise-launches-new-initiative-with-home-depot-founders\/\" title=\"WATCH: Gary Sinise Launches New Initiative With Home Depot Founders\">post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a>, or PTSD, might provide an important clue. In 2022, instances of alleged post-traumatic stress disorder in college students in America <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamanetworkopen\/fullarticle\/2819206?guestAccessKey=bc2533bd-e1d2-4991-8500-1da1a731c2a3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">rose<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  by 7.5% \u2014 which is more than <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/30\/health\/ptsd-diagnoses-rising-college-students.html?smid=tw-nytimes&#038;smtyp=cur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">double<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  the rate from just five years earlier. That suggests that something artificial might be going on here that\u2019s making more college kids suffer from \u201ctrauma.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the same time, of course, 2022 was right in the middle of the COVID lockdowns, which obviously destroyed many lives. So maybe you\u2019re thinking that\u2019s related. But PTSD, as it\u2019s generally understood, involves <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ptsd.va.gov\/professional\/treat\/essentials\/history_ptsd.asp#one\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">witnessing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  an extreme and catastrophic injury. That\u2019s why the diagnosis became mainstream following the Vietnam War. And there were no wars directly involving American college students that occurred during the COVID lockdowns. Additionally, violent crime in many major cities was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cam.ac.uk\/stories\/COVIDcrime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">down<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  by nearly a third during the early phase of the lockdowns. So how exactly would COVID have been responsible for more PTSD-related suffering?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here\u2019s one mental health expert at Indiana\u2019s largest nonprofit healthcare provider to explain:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So masks \u2014 which the medical establishment told us to wear at all times, even though they didn\u2019t stop the transmission of COVID \u2014 were actually hell on earth for PTSD sufferers, apparently. This is the explanation they\u2019ve come up with. If you\u2019re keeping track, we\u2019ve gone from \u201cmasks are bad\u201d, to \u201cmasks are mandatory,\u201d to \u201cyou should triple-mask,\u201d back down to \u201cif you wear a mask, you\u2019re torturing PTSD sufferers who happen to look at you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This isn\u2019t exactly a compelling argument. It seems pretty strained, actually. So maybe there\u2019s another explanation for surging rates of PTSD and \u201ctrauma\u201d in the general population. What might that reason be?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It turns out that, back in 2013, leading medical associations radically altered the meaning of trauma. As one Berkeley psychology professor <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/30\/health\/ptsd-diagnoses-rising-college-students.html?smid=tw-nytimes&#038;smtyp=cur\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">recently told<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  The New York Times: \u201cSome changes to the diagnostic manual [of psychological disorders] may have blurred the line between PTSD and disorders like depression or anxiety. .. In 2013, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prolonged-grief-disorder-now-officially-considered-a-mental-health-condition\/\" title=\"Prolonged Grief Disorder Now Officially Considered a Mental Health Condition\">committee overseeing revisions<\/a> to the manual expanded the list of potential PTSD symptoms to include dysphoria, or a deep sense of unease, and a negative worldview, which could also be caused by depression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Times report added: \u201cPTSD was introduced as an official diagnosis in 1980, as it became clear that combat experiences had imprinted on many Vietnam veterans, making it difficult for them to work or participate in family life. Over the decades that followed, the definition was revised to encompass a larger range of injury, violence and abuse, as well as indirect exposure to traumatic events.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In other words, with very little fanfare, the medical establishment completely redefined the meaning of PTSD, and the \u201ctrauma\u201d necessary to qualify for a diagnosis. It\u2019s no longer necessary to personally witness a violent death or injury to receive a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. It\u2019s enough to \u201cindirectly\u201d experience such a violent death or injury. That\u2019s trauma, under the new standard. This is what psychologists are telling their patients.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The only limitation, as far as I can tell from reading through the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ptsd.va.gov\/professional\/treat\/essentials\/history_ptsd.asp#one\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DSM-5<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is that this \u201cindirect\u201d exposure has to involve a loved one. But even then, it\u2019s no longer necessary for your symptoms to involve vivid flashbacks and extreme social dysfunction or anything like that. Now a \u201cdeep sense of unease\u201d and a \u201cnegative worldview\u201d qualifies. That\u2019s it. Never mind the fact that more than half the country now has a \u201cdeep sense of unease\u201d and a \u201cnegative worldview.\u201d That\u2019s all it takes to suffer \u201ctrauma,\u201d according to every major medical institution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is one way in which the concept of \u201ctrauma\u201d has been expanded and over-diagnosed into oblivion. They just changed the meaning of the word back in 2013, probably to enable more doctors to diagnose more patients and prescribe them some more drugs. And then that lingo filters down to the media and everywhere else. If that sounds far-fetched or conspiratorial, consider the fact that another convenient rebranding took place that same year, in 2013. That was also the year that the American Medical Association (or AMA) abruptly decided to reclassify obesity as a \u201cdisease,\u201d just like asthma or diabetes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the AMA privately <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/virtually-every-medical-expert-is-lying-to-you-about-obesity-heres-the-proof\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">acknowledged<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  that obesity didn\u2019t actually meet the criteria to be classified as a disease, because there are no unique symptoms that only obese people suffer from. It\u2019s also the only disease in the world that can be cured, with a 100% success rate, by expending more calories than you\u2019re consuming. Nevertheless, the AMA simply decided that reclassifying obesity as a disease would have a \u201cpositive impact\u201d on society, so they did it. The Lancet documented all of this, as I <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/virtually-every-medical-expert-is-lying-to-you-about-obesity-heres-the-proof\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">outlined<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  a few months ago. And now, just a few years later, Oprah is hosting an hour-long special in which she confidently suggests that Ozempic is the miracle drug that can cure this \u201cdisease.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There\u2019s reason to believe that the same approach has now been applied to \u201ctrauma.\u201d Much like the idea of \u201cland acknowledgements,\u201d this massively expanded definition of trauma has quickly made its way from a handful of elite academics all the way to everyday life. So now we get trigger warnings on Netflix and Hulu and the theater and everywhere else. But much more importantly, now millions of Americans incorrectly believe they\u2019ve suffered \u201ctrauma\u201d when they haven\u2019t. They\u2019re under the impression that their problems are far more serious and uncontrollable than they really are. That\u2019s good for the people prescribing the medications and doing the talk therapy. For everyone else, it\u2019s yet another sign that we\u2019re becoming a weaker and more broken society \u2014 one that, inevitably, will become even easier to control and manipulate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many popular streaming shows, including &#8220;Baby Reindeer&#8221; on platforms like Netflix and Hulu, now feature trigger warnings before episodes with sensitive content. These advisories alert viewers to scenes of sexual violence or other intense themes, enhancing viewer preparedness and safety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":2267146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-944433838.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2267145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/06\/GettyImages-944433838.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2267145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2267146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2267145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2267145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2267145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}