That’s the paradox: “taboo” statements like black crime statistics are to some extent “taboo” for sound, rationalist reasons. But “taboo” is not taboo: it’s about context. People who think that such statements are taboo are probably bad at communicating, and people often think they’re racists and misogynists because they probably are on good rationalist grounds. If you want to talk about statistical representatives on the topic of race, be ready to understand that those who are listening will have background knowledge about the other views you might hold.
That may hold for the bar conversation you describe, but it doesn’t once media distortions are introduced.
And when you consider the things that public figures can talk about, then which ones are “taboo” is pretty clear: it’s the things that can be stripped of context and used as ammo for accusations, or just for a nice and attention-grabbing headline story.
This kind of distortion is what people (like me) who are annoyed by “taboos” are most concerned with. Yes, your Bill’s statements may be valid evidence of some questionable characteristics, but such a statement by Bob stripped of it’s context and pushed in the media is much weaker evidence: maybe there were plenty of caveats attached, but the journalist preferred to get rid of them, so Bob gets judged as if he was Bill.
The Stephanie Grace case is a pretty clear example where all the context was stripped for maximum outrage. Or here is Chomsky talking about how he was taken out of context (I believe he’s a frequent victim of that).
That may hold for the bar conversation you describe, but it doesn’t once media distortions are introduced.
And when you consider the things that public figures can talk about, then which ones are “taboo” is pretty clear: it’s the things that can be stripped of context and used as ammo for accusations, or just for a nice and attention-grabbing headline story.
This kind of distortion is what people (like me) who are annoyed by “taboos” are most concerned with. Yes, your Bill’s statements may be valid evidence of some questionable characteristics, but such a statement by Bob stripped of it’s context and pushed in the media is much weaker evidence: maybe there were plenty of caveats attached, but the journalist preferred to get rid of them, so Bob gets judged as if he was Bill.
The Stephanie Grace case is a pretty clear example where all the context was stripped for maximum outrage. Or here is Chomsky talking about how he was taken out of context (I believe he’s a frequent victim of that).