Drew, your continual use of foul language in your writing offends me. You should be banned.

The dilemma, Drew, is that easily 90% of humor is at someone’s expense. Chris Rock used to make fun of police arresting him because he is black. Would other blacks today be offended? Would the police be offended?

Political satire is intentionally offensive, but it gets a pass because it is commentary on social and political issues, and that commentary is seen as important. A great deal of other forms of humor is commentary, but humor in general no longer gets a pass. Instead, everyone wants to feel “safe”. No one’s feelings can be hurt.

But maybe the problem is that people are too sensitive today? There needs to be a line of course, but it seems like the line has moved so close to us that any statement at anyone’s expense to any degree is blanket unacceptable.

You mentioned that Trump gets away with it, but he doesn’t: every time he talks he offends the entire readership of the NY Times and Washington Post, and they dependably rise up in hysteria about every foul comment he makes. And the Proud Boys would not be allowed into the home of most people — they appeal to a small segment of America. So really, no one gets away with it.

One of the kinds of hazing that young men used to receive from other young men was being made fun of. Mean spirited mockery is one thing; but guys making fun in fun is normal, and a young man was expected to have a “come back” — to respond with a mock of his own. (I don’t know if young women have done this.) This all-in-fun mocking hardens you so that in the real world, when someone makes fun of you, or criticizes you for real, you don’t fall apart.

Is that hardening happening today? Or is every young person’s feelings so barricaded that they can no longer take a joke? God help us if something truly bad happens…