Suzanne Harrington: Generation gaps and changing language

"Gen Z may have to weather accusations of "snowflakery", but their absolute refusal to tolerate even casual, unintentional or unconscious instances of -ism or -ia is to be applauded."

In the olden days, when Gen X were growing up in the Seventies and Eighties - when people smoked on buses and told racist jokes on telly - you could only be prosecuted if you harmed someone physically. 

So if you thumped someone whilst calling them a racist / misognyist / ableist / homophobic slur, you’d get done for the thumping but nothing more – for hurting their physical feelings, but not their psychological ones. We were taught about sticks and stones breaking bones, but names never hurting.