There's a type of person that believes breaking taboos is the height of intellectual bravery and while many taboos are dysfunctional traditionalism taboo itself has a meaningful function. Something being socially unacceptable doesn't make it automatically good. 1/2

Playing off of ppls inability to parse this distinction is the whole game of the contrarian IDW, alt-right, and dirtbag left. Using "I'm just saying what everyone thinks!!!" to obscure why some things are shamed is dishonest Freudian id grifting. 2/2

Also FYI the word taboo comes from the Maori and Polynesian concept of Tapu which has to do with an implied restriction related to spiritual sacredness. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapu_(Polynesian_culture)

Maybe the deeper question in this thread (that I don't have an answer to) is when taboo is collective harm reduction (like contagion of memetic viruses) vs harmful repression. Former is like saying racist things is bad. Latter is like mental health issue stigma. Both r taboos.

Does something have to be true to be taboo?