[Tweeters] re Historical Perspective on Re-naming Birds

[J Christian Kessler]

Mr. Egger --

I can only speak for myself. While I don't entirely agree with Dennis or
Diane, I understand their point of view, and agree on some elements of it.
Your argument is fundamentally different than theirs:  you accuse all who
advocate for "bird names for birds" in any form of being "intellectually
lazy", and then proceed to conflat any proposal (beyond renaming McGown's
Longspur and it appears a few others) with the most extreme sorts of
proposals (some of which I have not heard being advocated by anyone, or
even referred to seriously, prior to your note).

Perhaps you could explain (1) how any/any proposal at renaming birds
(again, beyond the renaming of McGown's Longspur and a few similar cases)
is "intellectually lazy," and (2) how your your conflating virtually all
imaginable proposals for change as being essentially the same is not itself
"intellectually lazy".

Chris Kessler



On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 12:52 PM Mark Egger <m.egger at comcast.net> wrote:


> Agree completely with Diane and Dennis. This trendy name-changing

> obsession lacks any sort of nuance or reason and suggests the efforts of

> lazy people who want simplistic solutions to complex questions. As a

> life-long birder AND a dedicated botanist, this issue is one involving all

> naturalist pursuits. There are current purposals to not only alter common

> names but to ban all scientific names memorializing people AND to re-name

> all existing names of that sort. I find these proposals to be deeply flawed

> and absurd. There is absolutely no reason why these re-namings, some (e.g.

> McGown) that are quite justified, but in most cases blanket re-naming seems

> both intellectually lazy but a deep insult to an enormous number of

> biologists and naturalists who were very fine human beings and who devoted

> their lives to enriching our knowledge of the natural world and

> biodiversity.

>

> On Nov 24, 2023, at 12:01 PM, tweeters-request at mailman11.u.washington.edu

> wrote:

>

> Historical Perspective on Re-naming Birds (Diann MacRae)

>

>

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-- 
"moderation in everything, including moderation"
Rustin Thompson
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