A veteran who relives the horrors of war when fireworks go off is not nearly in the same space as a developer who is annoyed that someone misused technical jargon.
Certainly not. While many military personal certainly have faced mind-altering situations, they are far from the only ones who have ever suffered from traumatic events.
Children and Women are the subjects of the most twisted and abusive stories I've ever been able to fathom.
> The word "triggered" should really be reserved for military vets AND those who have experienced traumatic events in their past that would cause severe distress
(emphasis mine)
You can't just cut a sentence in half and then try to form an argument against it. That's not fair.
Simply giving up on definitions means always ceding power.
The entire world is participating in shaping English and we have no Académie Française equivalent. Sometimes the changes are unflattering.
That said, I do appreciate your points and see your intention with empathy about this word in particular.
It's not so much "you shouldn't use that word in that manner because of some linguistic pedantry" but "you shouldn't use that word because the externalities of doing so have outsized effects on certain people," or for the self-centered and machiavellian, "you make yourself look bad when you use it such."
As you say, it is a matter of empathy. The N-word has been around for a while - it's still not acceptable for certain people to say it[0]. As for why, that's a matter of education, and it begins with pointing it out.