RP's #1 Issue: Does He Lack the Mentality of Taboo?

[Matthew5]

Taking into consideration that Ron Paul has always tended to run an educational campaign (not this time, imo) and he's always getting in trouble for dropping "truth nukes" like the Civil War was unnecessary, repealing the Civil Rights Act, and the blowback concept; would it be safe to say that Ron Paul lacks the Mentality of Taboo? For those of you unfamiliar with this term, professor Steven Pinker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker) explains in the following article (http://thefire.org/index.php/article/12310.html) : (http://thefire.org/index.php/article/12310.html):)


It brings up a phenomenon called the Psychology of Taboo, the sensation that certain ideas are evil to think...Hence, we have the often emotional reactions to purely intellectual questions in all of these spheres of activity, and the dilemma of whether in these truth-seeking organizations, the right of inquiry should be absolute. That is, should we dismiss our taboo reactions as a primitive part of our psychology, which would just get in the way of the mission of these modern institutions of truth-seeking, or do they deserve some respect that carries over to these formal spheres?

Here's some examples of academic questions that often meet resistance due to this psychology:


Are Ashkenazi Jews on average smarter than Gentiles because their ancestors had been selected for the shrewdness needed in money lending?


Do women, on average, have a different average aptitude in mathematical reasoning than men?(I wrote my first collegiate paper on this one :))^^^^^


Do men have an innate tendency to rape?

This is the battle, I believe that we face. Because many topics are full of moral obstacles, they are ingrained in us as taboo because they force us to think evil thoughts. Please read the article for full context, but, this is the problem we are facing in this primary, especially. Can enough Americans overcome it? Should Ron Paul shy away from these types of concepts?

[Delivered4000]

I think people need shock therapy. The more you truth nuke them, the more they get used to it, and the more it becomes acceptable.


That being said: the Civil War was unnecessary

[Expatriate]

This "mentality of taboo" IMO is one of the worst things around at the moment. Because of it, sacred cows appear that nobody can criticize or even question without receiving an immense amount of resistance and even being ostracized by their peers.

Personally, I suspect its prevalence is due to most individuals growing up within a system that makes peer pressure the ultimate authority in their life; i.e. the public school system.

[Napolitanic Wars]

There are some people on this forum that fall under "Psychology of Taboo, the sensation that certain ideas are evil to think...Hence, we have the often emotional reactions to purely intellectual questions in all of these spheres of activity." It's embarrassing to think about but even those in RPF are this un-cereberal.

[Expatriate]

^^Well, often people on this forum react that way because they don't want taboo topics displayed publicly on a forum that is associated with Ron Paul. The MSM could use things like that to smear him.

[123tim]

^^Well, often people on this forum react that way because they don't want taboo topics displayed publicly on a forum that is associated with Ron Paul. The MSM could use things like that to smear him.
This,^^

[Moo2400]

Ron Paul talking about these supposedly taboo subjects was a big factor in me being drawn to him, as I'm sure it was for many other people. I say keep doing it. I think the people who are truly looking for something different in Washington D.C. will embrace it rather than be repulsed by it, and now more than ever the former may outnumber the latter.

[Diurdi]

I don't think he has ever said that he would repeal the civil rights act. He said he would probably not have voted for it at the time because of it's way of defining public vs. private property.

One of the great things about Paul is that he's made alot of these formerly taboo subjects more open for discussion and less taboo.

[Napolitanic Wars]

^^Well, often people on this forum react that way because they don't want taboo topics displayed publicly on a forum that is associated with Ron Paul.

Granted, but that's not what I mean. "It is unwise to discuss this here" is a far cry from "AHHHHH YOU SHOULD NOT TALK ABOUT THAT SUBJECT THAT MAKES ME UNCOMFORTABLE!!1"

[hazek]

How else are people going to see that the emperor has no clothes?

[MaxPower]

Taking into consideration that Ron Paul has always tended to run an educational campaign (not this time, imo) and he's always getting in trouble for dropping "truth nukes" like the Civil War was unnecessary, repealing the Civil Rights Act, and the blowback concept; would it be safe to say that Ron Paul lacks the Mentality of Taboo? For those of you unfamiliar with this term, professor Steven Pinker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker) explains in the following article (http://thefire.org/index.php/article/12310.html) : (http://thefire.org/index.php/article/12310.html):)

Here's some examples of academic questions that often meet resistance due to this psychology:



(I wrote my first collegiate paper on this one :))^^^^^



This is the battle, I believe that we face. Because many topics are full of moral obstacles, they are ingrained in us as taboo because they force us to think evil thoughts. Please read the article for full context, but, this is the problem we are facing in this primary, especially. Can enough Americans overcome it? Should Ron Paul shy away from these types of concepts?
Yes, this is definitely the case; Ron Paul has a far broader mind than most people do, and simply does not limit his thought processes or public statements to things which fall within the boundaries of our culture's prevailing groupthink. Questioning things like the necessity of the Civil War or Civil Rights Act is simply off-limits to most people, and many will not only not so much as consider the possibility that such a thing could be valid, but will also pass moral judgment on the person who questions such a tenet of the civic religion, regardless of the reasoning or arguments put forward by the questioner. This does, unfortunately enough, hurt Dr. Paul electorally; it is a major reason why there are so many people viscerally opposed to him and absolutely certain he is insane, even though they have only the most superficial understanding of his positions and would be totally unable to offer adequate responses to his arguments.

I've experienced the way things often play out when someone without the taboo mentality talks to someone who buys into it, as when I discussed politics with my aunt, who was the most successful fundraiser for Obama in the state of Virginia in 2008; most every time we came to a new issue, she would try to defeat my argument from principle by raising some "boundaries-of-acceptable-thought" barrier she apparently expected I wouldn't cross, then scoff and act taken aback when I firmly defended the "unacceptable" thought. When I criticized the federal government's illegal usurpation of power by way of a thoroughly disingenuous interpretation of the Commerce Clause and argued that they did not have valid authority to violate the sovereignty of private individuals and businesses, she jumped to the Civil Rights Act, asking if I agreed with "that kooky doctor" (Rand) on the subject, then becoming agitated and starting to interrupt and talk over me when I acknowledged that I did and tried to explain the underlying rationale of my position. When I brought up the national debt and its looming repercussions, her counter was that Reagan had increased the national debt (since I would surely think that if St. Reagan did it, it must be okay).

We went over a variety of topics, including the nature of currency, national banking, public schooling, etc., and time and again it was thoroughly clear that she had never studied or considered the libertarian positions on any of these issues and could not refute many of my arguments, but she still seemed to consider said positions self-evidently "ridiculous." Why? I do believe it was because it is simply off-limits to question something like the fundamental structure of the financial system or the necessity or justification of public schooling; the taboo mentality forbids people from even giving unconventional ideas a hearing, instead emotionally-tethering them to an orthodoxy which they will unquestioningly fall back on.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

You mean how talking about Israel without worshiping the nation makes you anti-semetic and talking about any minority issue makes you a racist bigot?

[Jingles]

Nothing should be taboo to talk about. How are we going to do anything/fix anything/reduce the size and scope of government if we can't talk about it?

[Matthew5]

Nothing should be taboo to talk about. How are we going to do anything/fix anything/reduce the size and scope of government if we can't talk about it?

True, nothing should be taboo, however, even in academia, we find that people have sacred cows. Perhaps we shouldn't labor Dr. Paul's points, rather, we should address people's taboo mentality. When people scoff and say, "I can't believe you could think that!", address their unwillingness to cross that boundary. Once you've done that, you've got the keys to the kingdom so to speak. :D

So basically, subtly point out that perhaps RP isn't the issue, but their own approach. If we can steer that conversation instead, we may make more breakthroughs.

[Watch]

Who decides what is taboo?
Society?

Hah!

[noneedtoaggress]

The State is unnecessary.

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lol.

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