Before I begin, I would like to offer a warning that this column contains material some readers may find difficult to stomach. Its themes include examples of condescension, smug liberalism and woke feeble-mindedness that could trigger feelings of anger, intolerance, and nausea, depending on your lived experience.

Of all the symptoms of the virtue-signalling, belt-and-braces world we appear to have created for ourselves, among the most patronising and self-defeating is the trigger warning.

Issued ahead of films, TV and radio shows, and theatre performances, they list potential moments where audience members might feel challenged, shocked, or upset – the very reasons why most discerning people choose to consume drama.

There are some instances when it may be appropriate for producers and broadcasters to offer guidance, for example, when graphic sexual or physical abuse is depicted, or if the work deals with emotionally hard-to-process issues such as suicide, infanticide, or childhood neglect.

Read more by Carlos Aba

In those circumstances it may be legitimate to issue a content warning in advance or, more pertinently, to direct viewers or listeners to support services afterwards.

However, trigger warnings, which began to replace simple age ratings around a decade ago, are now so widespread as to be near ubiquitous, despite viewers often finding them patronising and irksome, particularly when they include plot spoilers.

This year’s Edinburgh festivals have introduced extensive warnings for performances, addressing a range of diverse “concerns” from "climate anxiety" and "transmisogyny", to “colonisation” and "kink........

© Herald Scotland