Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by StavrosK 2167 days ago
But it's kind of moot what he, specifically, wants to say, no? Shouldn't we instead try to work towards a society where no opinion is taboo?

It seems to me that the biggest reason why some opinions are taboo is that we're worried (usually for good reason) they'll find supporters. Instead of making opinions taboo, we should work on an educational system that doesn't let harmful opinions take hold of people.
1 comments
gjulianm 2167 days ago
> Shouldn't we instead try to work towards a society where no opinion is taboo?

There will always be taboo opinions. For example, I can't imagine a civilized society where an opinion like "capital punishment for every minor fault is ok" is not taboo.

> Instead of making opinions taboo, we should work on an educational system that doesn't let harmful opinions take hold of people.

How? I think the problem is that this is impossible at all. Not every opinion is based on reason and education will not be a shield from them.

link
StavrosK 2167 days ago
> I can't imagine a civilized society where an opinion like "capital punishment for every minor fault is ok" is not taboo.

This one isn't. Here, I can say "there should be capital punishment for every minor fault!" and nobody will bat an eyelid. Nobody will agree, which is why it's okay to say this.

"Taboo" means "opinions you can't talk about", not "opinions that won't be popular". Many taboo opinions are extremely popular, such as "homosexuality shouldn't be a crime" a few decades ago.

link
gjulianm 2167 days ago
It's not taboo because you are not taking it seriously. Now, would a newspaper let me write this? Would my family treat me the same if I were serious with this opinion?
link
StavrosK 2167 days ago
Maybe I don't have a good grasp of the cultural context, but it seems to me that you would be much better off tweeting "I believe that capital punishment should be used for even minor crimes" than something like "I think it's okay to own black people".

Hell, I spent a full thirty seconds wondering whether I should even post the latter under my name, even if it's clearly in a hypothetical context and I'm just mentioning it as an example.

link