Taboo as propaganda

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You would think that if there was worthy a social cause, breaking down taboos would be the order of the day. However taboo is such an effective tool for controlling a narrative, creating them goes hand in hand with activism these days.

There is not a lot of difference in technique used by China, North Korea or the Khmer Rouge. The principle works the same way. You are a bad person if you don't toe the line.

If an issue is a hair-trigger, that you couldn't possibly be sensitive enough to speak, then you may have no option not you considering expense of becoming an pariah in your community.

If people are told their perspectives should matter less to redress some injustice, or they need acknowledge a part of themselves that makes them tainted through a guilt by association, these people are less likely to speak up, especially in an environment like a lecture theatre or where their job could be threatened.

This idea that you can't speak on a subject you are not supposed to know about, yet the reverse doesn't apply to those you wish to question, you cannot freely challenge these ideas in such a climate.

So sure these group will seek break down some taboo within a limited narrative, but in the process they will create more of them, to sure up their ideas from criticism.

This is similar to conspiracy theories... they may be discussed, but ultimately they're so paranoid they'd think there's an agenda if they are discussed, so sometimes the situation is hopeless... anything could be discussed, but ultimately if it's a proposal to somehow take the rights of half of the population away then they really shouldn't think it conspiratorial that most of the media would be against it, although extremities always exist.

Mootoo, I'm not exactly sure what you meant by what you wrote. I can guess, but rather hear it from you. Can you clarify a bit? Who is 'they'. Maybe write it differently so I can understand.

I'm cool with pretty much anything anything being discussed. So long an is a open marketplace of ideas.

They is just the conspiracies. I think online there is barely any taboo... even extreme subjects are discussed... but whether everyone agrees on them or even subscribes to some blatant delusions like the Nazis had with their occultism, is another matter... I suppose even if discussed, flat-Earth e.g. couldn't be given the same amount of credibility as evidence is just not forthcoming.

Many people aren't particularly ethics-bound. Put them under stress with something to gain from being unethical and nature tends to take care of the rest.