Taxacom: Policing the scientific lexicon: The new colonialism?

Thu Jun 15 16:41:03 CDT 2023

David,
I don't think cancel culture is as rational as you are trying to make it. If someone does something objectionable to them, then that person becomes objectionable. They don't say, well he was good from this or that point of view! I'm sure Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby or Jeffrey Epstein arent going to be honoured for any of the positive things that they have done in the past!
As for sarcastic patronymy, I seem to remember some slime mold beetles named after Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney!
Anyway, the point here is just that we don't want taxonomy/nomenclature to be infected with cancel culture or woke politics.
Stephen    On Friday, 16 June 2023 at 02:56:51 am NZST, David Campbell via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:  

 Perhaps more to the point for taxonomy, I doubt that the taxa named for
Pink Floyd were intended to endorse the political views of each band
member, but rather reflect either someone liking their music or a fancied
connection between the taxon and the band.  I know of two fossil mollusks
named after people who later gained some fame for their roles on the losing
side of the US civil war, but the names were given in light of their
contributions to science well before the war.

Simplistic categorization of people as bad runs into issues.  I do not
remember the particular name, but encountered reference to a bird named
after a colonial governor, killed in fighting with locals.  Sounds rather
unpopular currently until you add the detail that the locals he was
fighting were the local slave traders, whom he was opposing.

Also, one might question whether having a taxon named after one is
necessarily an honor.  I don't know whether Utterback's sense of humor was
such as to appreciate Utterbackia imbecilis, which results from recognition
of an older synonym.  Linnaeus's anatomical sense of humor led to species
names such as Venus meretrix, which in turn was split into the tautonymous
genus Meretrix.  One wonders what Deshayes thought of Lamarck when he named
Meretrix lamarckii, "Lamarck's prostitute".  Then there are the taxa where
the organism itself might be less than complimentary.  I'm working with a
lot of unnamed bloodsucking parasitic snails but think that I can do better
than to use a list of politicians as namesakes.

On Thu, Jun 15, 2023 at 2:59 AM Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

>  Again, that is a matter of interpretation and opinion. Listen to what
> Waters actually said to the UN about Ukraine, e.g. search on YouTube
> for Pink Floyd's Roger Waters Tells The UN Attacks On Ukraine Were "Not
> Unprovoked" | English News
> Stephen
>    On Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 06:50:40 pm NZST, Daniel Whitmore <
> whitmore.daniel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Roger Waters appears slightly less concerned about human rights in
> Ukraine, but I guess everyone picks his own human rights battles…
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On 15. Jun 2023, at 08:23, Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > Yes, indeed! The point though, in case it gets lost, is that there is
> nothing wrong with Pink Floyd or Roger Waters, yet some people do claim to
> be offended by their alleged antisemitism, which is in fact based just on a
> human rights criticism of Israel's policies on Palestinians. To my mind,
> this illustrates that the notion of offensive patronymy is way too
> subjective to act as a basis for renaming taxa. As I said, one man's human
> rights campaigner is another man's antisemite! Science needs to be above
> politics. Having said that, patronyms might more sensibly be restricted to
> people actually relevant to the taxon, rather than the taxonomists
> favourite band!
> > Stephen    On Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 06:12:15 pm NZST, Alfredo
> Vizzini <alfredo.vizzini at unito.it> wrote:
> >
> > .....and what about the spider genus Pinkfloydia.....
> > Alfredo
> > Il gio 15 giu 2023, 08:06 Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> ha scritto:
> >
> >  John,I think the list server may have formatted my reply to you badly,
> so I'll try again. You say
> > Yeah - best to keep examples taxonomic. I never knew that there was a
> singular 'The' Jewish Lobby. Never knew that they all thought alike
> > My example was taxonomic. Accusations of antisemitism against Waters
> relate specifically to Pink Floyd's 1979 concept album "The Wall", so those
> two pinkfloydi patronyms are likely to be in the offensive category
> according to some people who misunderstand that the album was satirising
> fascism. Some lyrics from the album:
> > That one looks Jewish and that one's a coon, who let all this riff-raff
> into the room, there's one smoking a joint and another with spots, if I had
> my way I'd have all of them shot!
> > There is a specific entity called the Israel Lobby, to which I was
> referring. You can look it up on Wikipedia.
> > Anyway, the point is that there is always going to be passionate debate
> and irresolvable disagreement over what names are offensive and why. Do we
> really want this political debate to destabilise nomenclature?
> > Stephen
> >    On Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 05:46:54 pm NZST, Stephen Thorpe via
> Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> >
> >  Israel lobby in the United States - Wikipedia
> >
> >
> > |
> > |
> > |
> > |  |  |
> >
> >  |
> >
> >  |
> > |
> > |  |
> > Israel lobby in the United States - Wikipedia
> >
> > The Israel lobby, also known as the Zionist lobby, are individuals and
> groups seeking to influence the United St...
> >  |
> >
> >  |
> >
> >  |
> >
> > My example was taxonomic. Anyone who calls Roger Waters antisemitic is
> likely to find pinkfloydi patronyms "offensive".
> > Stephen
> >
> >
> >
> >    On Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 05:05:07 pm NZST, John Grehan <
> calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >  Yeah - best to keep examples taxonomic. I never knew that there was a
> singular 'The' Jewish Lobby. Never knew that they all thought alike.
> > On Thu, Jun 15, 2023 at 12:30 AM Pavel Gol'din via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Actually I find offensive your speech rather than names like pinkfloydi.
> I
> > would be happy if different metaphors will be used in the discussion.
> >
> > On behalf of the World Government,
> > Pavel
> >
> >> On Thu, 15 Jun 2023, 07:12 Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom, <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>  I think that the woke agenda is starting to undermine itself now, by
> >> going too far and also by blatant weaponisation of terms like
> antisemitism
> >> for obvious self-interest agendas. I'm not talking directly about
> taxonomy
> >> or nomenclature here, but about the broader issue. A current
> nontaxonomic
> >> example concerns British musician Roger Waters, who has been branded as
> an
> >> antisemitic nazi by the Israel Lobby. In fact, Waters' father was
> killed by
> >> the Nazis when Waters was still a baby. What Waters is doing is
> criticising
> >> the human rights policies of Israel in relation to the Palestinians,
> >> comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians with the Nazis treatment of
> >> the Jews. Anyway, let's just hope that taxonomy can keep out of woke
> >> politics. It has no place in science. One man's human rights advocate is
> >> another man's antisemite. Therefore, many patronymic names will be
> >> offensive to somebody, but it is best ignored. I'm not sure if there are
> >> any patronyms for Roger Waters, but there is Cephalon
> >>  omia pinkfloydi and Synalpheus pinkfloydi, patronymic for Waters'
> former
> >> band, Pink Floyd. The Jewish Lobby would probably find these names
> >> "offensive"!
> >> Stephen
> >>      On Thursday, 15 June 2023 at 02:43:34 pm NZST, Dilrukshan
> Wijesinghe
> >> via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>  Policing the scientific lexicon: The new colonialism?
> >>  Rohan Pethiyagoda
> >> Fish Section, Australian Museum, 1 William St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010,
> >> AustraliaWildlife Heritage Trust, 1 Lake Crescent, Colombo 00200, Sri
> Lanka
> >> Email: rohanpet at gmail.com; https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Forcid.org%2F0000-0001-7215-9617&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C2b7cb30fbb9942259a3208db6de93954%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638224620683302869%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=PQqC8urQzAlGp%2B93tGrjHzU2OkzSdWxz0ZTfKWC8xaU%3D&reserved=0
> >> doi.org/10.11646/megataxa.10.1.4
> >> Not sure if this has been seen/commented on.
> >>
> >> Priyantha
> >>
> >> D. P. Wijesinghedpwijesinghe at yahoo.com
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> >>
> >> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> >> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
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> >>
> >> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> >> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
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> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
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> >
> >
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> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
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> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
> >
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> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
>
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>
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for
> about 36 years, 1987-2023.
>

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Associate Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
110 S Main St, #7270
Gardner-Webb University
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Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for about 36 years, 1987-2023.