[tandfead] Harm through censorship

One of the most interesting social phenomena is when many intelligent, well-meaning people, not being coerced to behave in a certain way, end up doing harm, sometimes tremendous harm.

Why?  How?

While I don't know the complete answer, I suspect one important component is lack of freedom of speech, of free discussion, regarding a piece of information which would have been relevant toward preventing harm: "We do not discuss such things."  Perhaps sometimes, "It's private."

But there's probably much more going on, including how such a culture of silence developed and is maintained (probably game theory).

For every instance of such a taboo, one can probably follow a thread to discover the harm it is causing.