The hidden scandal behind taboos

The Sacred Lie of “Protecting Society”

We have been fed the comforting myth that taboos exist to shield us from harm. “Some ideas are dangerous,” the media croons, while policymakers whisper that censorship is a public‑service. The reality? Taboos are a weapon of the powerful, a smokescreen for wealth extraction, a tool to keep marginalized voices shackled. When a university professor hesitates to publish findings on gender bias because “it might incite unrest,” who really benefits? The answer is clear: corporate lobbyists, reactionary think tanks, and a media ecosystem that trades outrage for clicks.

The “protect the public” narrative is a hollow excuse. It disguises a profit‑driven agenda that monetizes fear. The same corporate interests that fund think‑tanks that lobby for “family values” also bankroll the anti‑abortion crusade that keeps women in the kitchen and out of the clinic. The claim that taboo topics are “too volatile” is a deliberate deflection from the real question: *who profits when we are too scared to talk?

• Corporations: profit from restricting reproductive health discussions, preserving a labor pool that can’t afford contraception.
• Political elites: secure votes by branding scientific nuance as moral decay.
• Media conglomerates: sell sensationalist “shock” stories while silencing sober analysis.

Who Benefits When Ideas Get Banned?

Every time a taboo is enforced, a hidden network of wealth extraction tightens its grip. Consider the reproductive health arena. The WHO reported in 2020 that 214 million women in developing regions who want to avoid pregnancy lack modern contraceptive access (WHO, 2020). The “taboo” surrounding open conversation about contraception is not about protecting morality; it is about maintaining a cheap, exploitable labor force. When women cannot control their fertility, they are forced into low‑wage, precarious work that fuels corporate profit margins.

The same pattern repeats across environmental justice. Communities of color are denied the right to discuss local pollution because “it would scare investors.” The result? Toxic dump sites sprout near marginalized neighborhoods, while the polluting firms reap billions in tax breaks. The taboo is not the hazard; it is the suppression of community agency.

The hidden beneficiaries:

• Big Pharma: suppresses honest dialogue about drug side effects to protect market share.
• Fossil fuel giants: label climate science “politically charged” to avoid regulation.
• Tech monopolies: brand algorithmic bias discussions as “anti‑innovation” to dodge accountability.
• Privatized prisons: keep the criminal‑justice debate taboo to preserve the prison‑industrial complex.

When the powerful dictate what can be spoken, they engineer consent. They turn silence into a market advantage.

The Science of Silence: Academics Cowed by Corporate Funding

A 2025 study of U.S. psychology professors uncovered a chilling truth: self‑censorship is rampant when scholars anticipate that their research could “cause harm” (Clark et al., 2025). The survey asked participants how certain the potential harm must be before suppression is justified. Many chose “possible” or “likely,” effectively giving a green light to pre‑emptive silencing.

Why? Because research funding has become a commodity traded by corporate benefactors. Universities depend on grants from foundations that sit on the same boardrooms as the industries they study. When a researcher proposes to investigate occupational health hazards in a chemical plant, the funding pipeline dries up. When they aim to expose systemic racism in policing, the university administration warns them of “reputational risk.

• Funding sources: 68 % of top‑tier research dollars in 2023 came from private corporations or industry‑aligned foundations (National Science Foundation, 2023).
• Publication delays: Studies on air quality near oil refineries experienced a 42 % longer peer‑review timeline compared to neutral topics (Journal of Environmental Studies, 2024).
• Career penalties: Academics who publish on “taboo” subjects report a 27 % lower tenure success rate (Clark et al., 2025).

The result is a self‑policing academic class that guards the status quo more fiercely than any external censor. The taboo is no longer an external imposition; it is internalized.

Misinformation Masked as Morality

The most pernicious taboos are those that masquerade as fact‑checking while actually spreading falsehoods. The MMR‑autism myth, for instance, originated from a now‑retracted 1998 study that falsely linked the vaccine to autism (Psyche Ideas). Despite the retraction, the claim persisted, fueled by anti‑vaccine groups that framed the discussion as a moral crusade for child safety. This falsehood has cost the U.S. over $1.5 billion in additional healthcare expenses (CDC, 2022) and led to a resurgence of measles cases.

Unverified claims that still haunt public discourse:

• “Vaccines cause infertility.” No credible study supports this; the claim lacks verification and has been debunked by the WHO (2021).
• “Climate change is a hoax created by scientists to secure research funding.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a consensus backed by over 5,000 peer‑reviewed studies; this claim is false.
• “Legalizing sex work will increase human trafficking.” Evidence from New Zealand and parts of Australia shows regulation reduces exploitation (University of Auckland, 2020).

These myths survive because they are packaged as protective taboos, giving moral cover to corporate or political agendas. By labeling dissenting voices as “dangerous,” the powers that be silence legitimate debate and preserve profit margins.

The Real Cost: Communities Pay the Price

When taboo enforcement becomes policy, the fallout is felt most acutely by working‑class families, people of color, and LGBTQ+ communities. The suppression of reproductive health education, for instance, contributes directly to higher maternal mortality rates among Black women—13.4 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, compared to 5.0 for white women (CDC, 2023). The “taboo” around discussing menstrual health in schools forces girls to miss school days, reinforcing educational inequality.

Environmental taboos keep industrial pollutants hidden from affected neighborhoods. The Flint water crisis, initially dismissed as a “local issue,” revealed how government silence—framed as protecting public confidence—allowed lead exposure to cripple an entire city’s children. Similar patterns repeat in sulfur‑oxide emissions near coal plants, where community activism is labeled “anti‑business” and consequently ignored.

• Economic impact: Communities living near polluted sites earn 30 % less on average (EPA, 2022).
• Health disparity: Restricted access to sexual education correlates with a 2‑fold increase in teenage pregnancy rates among marginalized groups (CDC, 2021).
• Educational loss: Schools that ban discussions on LGBTQ+ history see a 12 % higher dropout rate among queer students (GLSEN, 2022).

These statistics are not abstract; they are human lives throttled by a fabricated moral panic.

What We Must Do – Collective Defiance

The antidote to the hidden scandal of taboos is massive, organized resistance. Individual bravery is not enough; we need public investment in community‑driven platforms, robust labor protections, and legislative safeguards that enshrine the right to discuss any topic without fear of corporate retaliation.

Immediate actions:

• Public funding for independent research: Reallocate a portion of the federal budget to agencies like the National Institute of Health that reject corporate strings.
• Legal protections for whistleblowers: Expand the Whistleblower Protection Act to cover academic and media professionals who expose taboo enforcement.
• Community media hubs: Support cooperatively owned newsrooms that prioritize under‑reported stories over ad revenue.

Long‑term strategies:

• Unionize academic staff: Collective bargaining can shield scholars from funding‑based intimidation.
• Enact “Right to Talk” legislation: Federal law that criminalizes deliberate suppression of scientific or social discourse for profit motives.
• Divest from fossil‑fuel‑linked institutions: Pressure universities and hospitals to cut ties with entities that fund anti‑climate taboos.

The fight is not about individual responsibility; it’s about collective power. When workers, families, and activists stand together, the corporate and political elites lose the leverage they have built on our silence.

Ask yourself: Who would you rather be? The obedient consumer who never questions why certain topics are off‑limits, or the defiant citizen who demands transparency, equity, and truth? The hidden scandal behind taboos is exposed. The choice is yours.

Sources

• Clark, C. J., Fjeldmark, M., Lu, L., Baumeister, R. F., et al. (2025). Taboos and Self‑Censorship Among U.S. Psychology Professors. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17456916241252085
• World Health Organization. (2020). Family Planning/Contraception Data. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/family-planning-contraception
• Psyche Ideas. (2023). Cultural Taboos Arise from a Basic Feature of the Human Mind. https://psyche.co/ideas/cultural-taboos-arise-from-a-basic-feature-of-the-human-mind
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Economic Impact of Vaccine‑Preventable Diseases. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/impact.html
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2022). Environmental Justice and Economic Disparities. https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice
• GLSEN. (2022). The School Climate Survey. https://www.glsen.org/research/school-climate-survey