KAROL MARKOWICZ: Now the speech police are going after small talk.

“What do you do?” is now considered impolite. The Huffington Post has called it a “conversation killer” and the Boston Globe’s Robin Abrahams called it “the lamest party question.”

Abrahams writes: “I’ve had people tell me straight up that they find the question rude. Many folks perceive it as a prestige contest — and when it’s preceded by, say, ‘I’m a spinal surgeon and run a private-equity fund in my spare time,’ it’s easy to feel that way.”

But why does everything have to be a competition? If you come across a spinal surgeon who runs a private-equity fund that should be the best conversation of your life. Why would anyone refuse to take the opportunity to learn something from someone so accomplished?

Also, if you’re hearing that answer, that means you’re the one who asked the question. If you don’t feel great about your professional life, small talk makes it easy to steer away from the topic or change the subject once it’s introduced. That’s the thing about small talk: It can go anywhere you’d like.

In the last few years, my go-to question — “Where are you from?” — has also become unacceptable. Apparently it’s racist or anti-immigrant or any number of problematics to ask someone where they grew up.

There’s nothing committed busybodies can’t ruin for everybody else.