I see the notions of "trigger" words and "micro-aggressions" as indicators that our culture is getting close to its nadir. I'm sure it is further away than I think and likely to be a lot worse than I can imagine. Kind of hope I'm not here to witness it.
This is not just a curmudgeonly rant. I think it has everything to do with the idolatry of the self and the cult of solipsism. If the self is the ultimate entity then it follows that it should brook no insult and that any slight against it is blasphemy.
It is human nature to feel that each of us is the center of the universe. It used to be that dispelling this myth was the corner stone of raising a child. Today academia has latched onto this in a big way and formalizes the idea of self importance. When we teach our children that this is true then we do indeed turn them into 'snowflakes'.
When something as tiny as a "micro" aggression is elevated to the level of real or actual aggression and something as simple as a single "trigger" word is seen as an assault the attempt to elevate the self has turned into making the self as fragile and delicate as a snowflake. Ironically, the attempt to elevate the self has weakened it to the point of uselessness and ultimate weakness.
The result is that such delicate egos have to make the world safe for themselves by suppressing the free flow of speech and ideas. Also an irony since those are inevitably the tools of tyranny which a population of snowflakes will be ill equipped to resist.
