Is Political Correctness a System of Taboos?

[Flavus Aquila]

Exactly ... which would make it even less likely to attract funding simply due to the nature of the study not because it was about taboos...you just proved the point I was making.


eta ... I got distracted by my lunch and realized that you called forensics a waste of time rather than the taboo study.

I don't know how many people get murdered in Australia, but there are quite a lot of folks in the US who do. My advisor was also (at the time it may have changed) the leading expert in the world of juvenile remains. So you know helping convict child killers is not really exactly a waste of time ... at least in my opinion.

You're poking around dead bodies, and every potential cent comes either from police departments, or museums. The only PC stuff your employer may have to deal with is going to be about cultural sensitivities about corpses.

The police will fund you, but that's no different from funding finger-print experts.

OK, PC and taboos don't apply to forensics (so long as you're not a necrophiliac). The point is that it does heavily influence and restrict actual research in fields that shape the future and try to lead progress. These fields are funded by the private sector, but half the time research funding is stymied by PC activists. Think of every research field that gets dreadlocked protestors: all of them are funded by the private sector (except perhaps nuclear research).

 

[Jet]

You're poking around dead bodies, and every potential cent comes either from police departments, or museums. The only PC stuff your employer may have to deal with is going to be about cultural sensitivities about corpses.

The police will fund you, but that's no different from funding finger-print experts.

OK, PC and taboos don't apply to forensics (so long as you're not a necrophiliac). The point is that it does heavily influence and restrict actual research in fields that shape the future and try to lead progress. These fields are funded by the private sector, but half the time research funding is stymied by PC activists. Think of every research field that gets dreadlocked protestors: all of them are funded by the private sector (except perhaps nuclear research).

Um ... yeah no ... the research to get to that point in knowledge comes from body farms which are highly controversial and difficult to fund. I mean outside of the US there are no other body farms (I know Australia had finally gotten approval to build one last year but I don't know if the funding went through). I had to do excavations on pig carcasses because my university didn't have permission to use human remains outside of the bone lab. The actual work may be funded by the police/investigation force ... but the research is not.

PC and taboos are an element of culture which you know hmm... what do they call when they want to study culture, oh yeah Anthropologists (or sociologists depending on the subject matter). You think marketing people are good at spin, you should see some of the stuff Anthropologists can put out to make a companies actions more palatable to the local national population where they are working.

As for public vs. private sector funding ... I'm going to assume you are aware of all the various restrictions that many public funds come with (due to the norms of that society and what is/isn't appropriate) and that depending on the field it may be far more efficient to receive private funds right? Also, where would you like those public funds to be reallocated from? RND funds are limited and right or wrong the US currently prioritized military RND over things like genetics especially considering the special interest many politicians have of keeping everything medical related in the US privatized.

 

[slant]

you should see some of the stuff Anthropologists can put out to make a companies actions more palatable to the local national population where they are working.

My anthropology professor tried to blame deforestation in the african rainforrests on the fact that residents will sometimes chop down trees to trade them for food!

REALLY?