Yaegan Doran Falsely Accusing The Sys-Func Moderator Of Racism

Yaegan Doran wrote to sys-func on 18 Nov 2020 at 11:12:

At risk of being banned from sysfunc for criticising the moderator, I feel that in the context of a discussion about colonisation, however fiery, posting the ‘what have the romans ever done for us skit’ is not appropriate. The skit itself is of course very funny on its own, but in this context it feels insulting at best, and incredibly dismissive of another’s views, bordering on outright racism at worst. Chris, I think you should withdraw this and apologise.

Blogger Comments:

[1] Here Doran implies that the sys-func moderator would unsubscribe a member merely for criticising him, despite this never being the case for his entire 20 years as moderator. The truth of the matter is that the sys-func moderator was himself unsubscribed from the sysfling list by its (now former) moderator for presenting arguments that invalidate the theory she espouses. See here.

[2] The youtube video in question can be viewed here. The reason it is appropriate is because it satirises the political game being played by Doran's departmental colleague, Mahboob.* Other listmembers informed the sys-func moderator that it was entirely appropriate, and thanked him for posting it.

[3] Here Doran negatively judges the act of insulting while simultaneously engaging in the very same act himself; see [1] [4] [5] and [6].

[4] Here Doran falsely assumes that the sys-func moderator has dismissed the listmember's views without having first read them and critically evaluated them. To be clear, Mahboob's claim (see below) is that the reason people kill and exploit each other in the name of religion is that Europeans enacted socio-semiotic violence on non-Europeans by turning a verb into a noun for the purpose of dividing and subjugating them. For Doran, this absurdity, which discriminates negatively on the basis of race, warrants serious consideration.

[5] Here Doran falsely accuses the sys-func moderator of a racist act, and does so without providing the reasoning on which the claim is based. (The sys-func moderator has mixed European, Jewish and indigenous Australian ancestry.)

[6] Here Doran positions the sys-func moderator as his inferior. Doran is a junior academic, whereas the sys-func moderator is a retired academic who was excluded from lectureship positions by a neurological impairment he inherited from his father.

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* The following quotes from Mahboob's essay (here) condense its overall argument and demonstrate why it is an appropriate target for satire of this kind: 

Why is it that while religions teach peace, people kill and exploit each other in the name of religion?

A one-line answer to this question: The term religion leads to a confusion between two things: 1) practices (action/verb), and 2) a category (entity/noun).

The notion of religion as a category evolved during European colonisation as the colonisers, who travelled by sea, captured more lands and peoples, who had different practices. …

The nominalisation of religion as a noun and as a category was and is an act of socio-semiotic violence that divides populations and lead to conflict. …

If our exploiters turned practice into a category in order to divide and subjugate us, then, we can reduce and end this exploitation by turning the category back into practice. We can un-nominalise religion and relearn relegere: practice.

That is, according to Mahboob, the reason why people kill and exploit each other in the name of religion is because European colonisers committed an act of semiotic violence by turning a practice/action/verb (relegere) into a "category"/noun (religion) in order to divide, subjugate and exploit non-Europeans. That is, as far Mahboob is concerned, it is Europeans who are to blame for people killing and exploiting each other in the name of religion.

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When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

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See also Yaegan Doran Failing To Recognise The Interpersonal Function In Mathematics

and The Purpose Of Martin & Doran (eds)