Is asking about a controversial matter on-topic here?

Question

For instance, think about the cause of death of a famous person. Some claim it was a suicide and some claim it was a murder. Can I ask about it? For example, "Did X commit suicide?" or "Was X murdered?" or "Was X murdered or did he commit suicide?"

Or about a suicide that some claim it was accidental and some claim it was intentional.

Answer 1

Controversial matters are encouraged and should be at the forefront of this Stack Exchange.

If you are getting downvoted for asking controversial questions, while there is nothing that I can personally do to mitigate that, I will certainly vote and support your endeavour to bring it to the forefront. If you fear of getting banned because of how the vote system works [Which is reasonable], my personal advice is to:

Speak up, but without resentment.

My advice also when it comes to broaching controversy, is to do it with love and empathy for the persons you are addressing. If you do not fundamentally love and wish the people you are speaking to, the best in life, regardless of their disposition towards you or your interests, then your skepticism will come across as lacking empathy.

Answer 2

To date, we haven't found any taboo topics here. Questions haven't been closed because the subject being questioned is inappropriate.

The closest I have seen are:

• Some images not included, but instead put behind a link with a "not safe for work" tag, or similar content warning.
• Guidelines for the discussion of suicide
• We had trouble int he past with a persistent Holocaust Denialist troll. The subject is still permitted and we have several good questions about it, but the questions tend to get greater scrutiny, and mods tend to have a hair-trigger on that subject.