The fact that Johnson overruled Westmoreland actually shows the power of the so-called taboo in this case.https://twitter.com/kroenig/status/1048599315193778176 …
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You could argue that the taboo would be stronger if no one ever even proposed use, but then we wouldn't know what would happen if someone did. Anyway, that is not humanity as we know it; people propose crazy things. That they are stopped is how the taboo, aka deterrence, works.
Taboos are of course tricky things — one need only look at the statistics on porn usage to know that people love the flirt with the incest taboo all the time, even if they don't act on it nearly as often (one hopes)...