‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't

595 points · 181 comments · DarkContinent

  1. znpy · · focus · HN ↗
    > at the time, he [Linneaus] was probably mostly thinking of “white European cultures”

    How boring this is, makes me want to close the page immediately.

    The guy, Linneaus, lived in the 1700s and “white European cultures” were all there was to him. Us wasn’t even a whole nation yet and there wasn’t much scientific cooperation with other civilisations.

    Also, at the time latin was the lingua franca for the scientific world.

    Stop judging people by the customs of their time, it’s a moronic endeavour.

    1. KaiserPro · · focus · HN ↗
      If you read a bit further, they author then explains why they put that in:

      > The fucker [Linneaus] created a beautiful system, and it works. And that’s why we still use it. I say this because a few unthinking “performative leftist” nitwits as of late have decided to attack the science of taxonomy itself).

      I think its in there to head of compliants from people who would otherwise say that latin scientific names are bad. The author goes on to illustrate why thats bad

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.