A Tut-Tut World

 We have a tut-tut world. My gramma used to say tut-tut-tut in the day, when she saw something she disapproved of. There was no ranting and railing in her day. A mere tiny critique such as tut-tut would do. These days the tut-tuts are word endings with "tion" slamming on meanings according the lastest media rant. Recently, when I happened to disagree with someone on a popular topic that had nothing to do with race or religion or any other freedom we now enjoy, but a rather minor situation, I was charged with "prejudice". Of course, one's opinion is their "prejudice". Check the dictionary. Just as the word "discriminating" is not necessarily the same as "discrimination". If you have a brain, you are discriminating and you might even discriminate but not in a bad way. The word alone is not evil without more specific reference.  I thought that in our enlightened society, we continued to enjoy the freedom of opinion as long as it did not offend anyone else. Now that's a tall order because "offending" someone else, can be a very minor matter. It can be, that I either do or do not eat meat for example. Where I live, an individual who is a vegetarian or vegan, has threatened to move out of the building if he smells any cooking "flesh", as he calls it, on a barbecue. That is a threat to be examined carefully because it could offend someone who might call it discrimination. Discrimination against meat eaters, in this case. The man can be discriminating which is fine. The response to the charge by meat eaters, might be that the vegan person is prejudiced.  Get my point? Private opinion and often is  discriminating, but not discrimination. It's easy to charge someone with a "tion". We are "tion"ing into loss of personal choice and opinion these days as the world wants us all in one smooth bundle while daily separating us with up close examination of everything we do and say that makes us different. We must no longer look at someone and their heritage and certainly not dare to ask about it, because that is considered some kind of "tion". Whether this is a good thing or a bad one, remains to be seen when the dust settles, and we all as one human group, get back to living and being natural once again. Where I want to work and live and recreate and with whom, is my business. Or was.  At present there are hoards of people examining everything that is reported, printed, photographed and said, for the slightest reason to charge  a "tion". Sometimes those of us who are of a past generation, have come from words once thought innocent and are, but are currently said to be wrong. I don't mean the really bad ones, I mean the ones that were commonly and correctly used in their day, but that are now not to be used. Sometimes we elders slip and the word or words, pop out. We hear about it and listen to a "tion".  Before I enter a chat with someone, I have to sanitize my vocabulary so that I don't blurt out the wrong word that could offend some thing or body or place.  In order to keep the peace, it's better to stare at a little screen on a phone or some other piece of plastic junk and text. There are no "tion"s  in texting. Tut-tut Gramma. She had words that would send her to jail now or be sued for millions.