The Renaming Game- Re-writing history

On November 1 2023, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) made an announcement regarding a significant change in the English-language names of birds within it's geographical jurisdiction, names that dated back to two or so centuries ago. The decision was fuelled by the acknowledgement that the naming conventions established in the 1800s were tainted with racism and misogyny, Many individuals commemorated in these names were associated with slavery, the displacement of people and genocide.  

Interestingly, the timing of the AOS announcement coincided with the escalation of a major displacement and massacre, often termed a genocide, perpetrated by the American-backed Israeli government on an ethnic minority. This juxtaposition sheds light on a disconcerting aspect of the US establishment. Rather than rallying against the complicity of politicians in the ongoing crisis, some academics appear to be immersed in unearthing alleged abuses on individuals long deceased, diverting attention from urgent contemporary issues. In a way, that distraction assists in massacre, modern day slavery and human displacement today ironically exposing those engaged in rewriting bird names and this rewriting of history as modern day slave masters themselves, projecting their guilt onto their long dead forebearers.  

This renaming of birds is framed within a broader context of an agenda propagated by an extremist left-wing group seeking influence in the Western World.  This agenda encapsulated in critical race theory and intersectional identify politics interprets everything through the lens of a Patriarchy and Colonial context, a context that needs to be dismantled. The renaming of birds named after Patriarchs and Colonial figures is part of that dismantling. Critics argue that this hard left agenda functions as a parasitic entity attaching itself to late-stage Fundamental Western Capitalism, aiming to sustain and grow itself through synthetic resistance against perceived immorality and injustices. The parasite  

feeds by creating controversy that attracts attention and traffic which is capitalised while encouraging others to virtue signal and posture while remaining overall complicit in a declining Capitalist state e.g. it is much safer and obedient to change the name of a bird, dishonour ghosts and extract value through academic activity than it is for academics to challenge flawed US foreign policy. This kind of synthetic and fake resistance acts like a secondary infection hastening the decline of a social organism already plagued by inherent flaws. 

This ideological movement extends its influence into various spheres, including birding, with initiatives such as rewriting history through changing bird names and in movements like low carbon birding. In many ways it's insanity, a response to the stress of fundamental collapse at a global scale. Therefore it is important to remain sane and retain established strength and powers.  The name Pallas's Warbler has become a magical and mythical name in its own right, not a single birder I know ever gave a monkies who Peter Pallas was as we worshipped this magical gem. Pallas's Warbler has become its own identity, elevated orders of magnitude above its flawed human namesake and if we are to get into identity politics as birders- we should fight to preserve the identity of these now established mini magical power houses. Pallas' Warbler is a powerful bird with an established identity and brand and its sublime beauty has converted many humans onto the birding path- a genuine path to solving the existential crisis that our species faces and a path that can save some of us from slipping into the insanity which is rising all around us. Pallas's Warbler and other well established bird names needs to be swiftly upheld and defended and attention turned back to the slavery,  ecocide and genocide occurring this very minute I write this.