Once upon in a time, no one in the U.S. would have gotten all worked up about reading that a DNC staffer had referred to the Hispanic effort as "taco bowl outreach."

Most people would have filed those remarks under the "silly" file or just a couple of staffers trying to be funny or whatever.  No one would have concluded that there was a racial connotation to any of this.    

Furthermore, no one would have been outraged at Mr. Trump eating a taco salad on "Cinco de Mayo."    

Or thought Speaker Ryan was making a demographic statement with a selfie surrounded by interns.

Unfortunately, we are now reaping the world that the left and P.C. have created.  It is a messy world, not a better one.     

Not long ago, I read an article by comedian John Cleese about how P.C. is killing comedy:

Monty Python member John Cleese has become the latest comedy legend to wade into the shark-infested waters that is the debate over political correctness in comedy.

In a video for commentary website Big Think, Cleese warns that over sensitivity from political correctness is hurting comedy and could lead to a society where free expression is not allowed.

Cleese lays out a theory that "all comedy is critical," in that it in some way comments or passes judgment on something the joke-teller observes, and therefore whoever is being judged by the joke could feel offended by it. 

Cleese objects to offended parties trying to regulate other peoples' thoughts and behaviors, as that leads to a culture where ideas are not allowed to be freely exchanged and dissent is suppressed.

Cleese says that he's been warned against performing at colleges, because it's on university campuses in particular where "the political correctness has been taken from being a good idea, which is 'Let's not be mean in particular to people who are not able to look after themselves very well,' to the point where any kind of criticism of any individual or group could be labeled cruel."

And so true it is.     

As the song goes, "those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end..."

Unfortunately, they've ended, and we are not better off.  We are now living in a culture where people are literally afraid of saying something about a person of a different race for fear of being called a racist.  H.R. departments have bosses and supervisors tangled up in bureaucratic verbiage to avoid turning a review into a civil rights case.

That's not improvement.  That's a disaster that will lead to less talk, less understanding, and a heck of a lot less laughter.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.