[Taxacom] panbiogeography suppression

[Ziv Lieberman]

John,
Your question "why not, for example, call for the suppression of Māori
science?" is, at best, poorly thought through, and at worst an intentional,
dishonest conflation of issues which is deeply disrespectful. I choose to
not infer where your intentions fall on this spectrum.

While I actually don't agree with the recommendations of Waters et al.
(2013) to not publish panbiogeographic works as a blanket policy, there are
some obvious differences in the scenario called for in this paper and your
hypothetical situation. Waters et al. (2013) lay out a cogent,
evidence-based, and highly specific criticism of the panbiogeographic
approach. They give explicit reference to epistemological and
methodological conflicts between panbiogeography and the modern approach,
which they illustrate with particular examples. In other words, they
clearly justify*—*or at the very least, explain*—*their contention that "as
it stands, panbiogeography is not a useful approach for evolutionary
biology" (p. 3). They provide a structure which could be responded to,
point by point, with evidence of your own.

Obviously, no such logical structure could be erected to dismiss research
produced by a (real or perceived) racial or ethnic group. Of course,
history has seen many such attempts to justify eugenics and other
scientific racism. But such arguments would be patently untrue, i.e. unable
to withstand logical, scientific, and moral refutation.

In summary: your choice of language and analogy degrade your point as a
whole, discredit your position as a critical thinker, and represent
co-option of social justice issues into an unrelated scientific discussion.
In fact, the use of this analogy makes it seem like you lack an
understanding of the problem you are criticizing, whether that is true or
not. This tactic also detracts from the realities of the marginalization of
indigenous peoples, which ironically contributes to upholding the kind of
(historical and present) exclusionism which you are taking advantage of to
express your outrage.  You cannot behave this way while simultaneously
calling for scientific integrity and credibility.

-Ziv Lieberman