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There should be a word for the phenomenon whereby people try to make things sound more interesting than they really are by pretending they're disallowed, banned
by hugh 18y ago
There should be a word for the phenomenon whereby people try to make things sound more interesting than they really are by pretending they're disallowed, banned or censored. The phenomenon is common enough and annoying enough that it'd be great to say "Oh, that's just [insert new word here]".
In this case, these questions aren't really "questions you can't ask". It's true that people are a little over-touchy on a few of them, but most of them are just fairly dull questions which are rarely asked because either:
(a) They're dumb suggestions (active population control, abolishing corporations)
(b) They're based on false assumptions (e.g. people are "anti-sex", whatever that means), or
(c) We're sick of the question already
A couple of the others (rights of AI, why people make decisions subconciously and then make rationalizations) are questions which get asked all the time.
- tocomment 18y agoThat's an excellent point. We do need a word. How about "romples"? I think that's free.
- dcurtis 18y agoI have never heard anyone ask about AI rights or free will/rationalizations to a politician. What makes you think they get asked all the time?
- unalone 18y agoIt's because neither one is an ISSUE for a politician. What laws could POSSIBLY require thought as to either one? AI rights? Yeah, save my Roomba. Free will/rationalizations? Let's just assume that nobody has a choice in anything. Where's that lead us then? Nihilism? Dude, how exhausting would THAT be?
- willchang 18y agoHow about: Oh that's just conspiracy talk? In any case, some of these questions are tedious and uninteresting, but some are not, and calling them dumb seems to be just a way of persuading others not to discuss them. For example, I think active population control is one of those unaskable questions that should be discussed more. Even the crude, corruption-prone way in which the one-child policy was implemented in China seemed to have helped the nation modernize. Here in America, having children out of wedlock is linked to poverty, and our foster care system is a wreck, but we somehow don't care to entertain even the search for humane and effective policies along the lines of population control. No doubt this is because history is filled with cruel and paternalistic implementations, but this would seem to be exactly the baffle in the free flow of ideas.