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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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Botany
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Americans somehow handle "Nigeria". These plants were named before the word became offensive. We shouldn't be putting scientific nomenclature on the euphemism treadmill, IMO.
And what would be different if we changed it?
Right, nothing.
Science is and always has been about updating information. That is what differentiates it from say religion, which stays in the exact same spot no matter what. Let's not be like religion.
Once you get on the euphemism treadmill, you're going to have a hard time getting off. They're already talking about making more changes:
IMO the only hard line, and the one that should have been drawn, is that scientific names are only changed due to new discoveries in cladistics. Following wherever the winds of popular culture happen to blow isn't "updating information" in a positive sense.