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Comment by Gareth321 | Hacker News Reader

It's absolutely bizarre. I've got a friend working in healthcare in New Zealand and she was given a mandatory class which taught that "Western science" is "imperialist" and that Maori traditional knowledge is "just as valid." For reference, Maori traditional knowledge is stuff like ghosts (taniwha) and spiritual energy (mana).

It's like they're taking the noble savage trope to the craziest ends and just running with it; public outcomes be damned. Some really unhinged ideologues are in positions of power right now.

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Any details on that? Having worked in health in New Zealand in a patient facing role for all my working life, I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ve worked in public, private and research/academic roles.

Taniwha aren't ghosts, and mana isn't spiritual energy, you've got it confused with mana in computer games.

At least go on Wikipedia for five minutes on this stuff, eh?

Taniwha can be considereed ghosts, in that they are creatures from stories - a leprechaun could be considered a ghost for the same reason.

That's a really long bow to draw.

So what are they then if that's a really long bow to draw?

It makes sense to just call the creature what it is in its cultural context as opposed to trying to put an ill-fitting separate cultural notion on it, imo. If something is a taniwha it's a taniwha, and if someone is curious what a taniwha is they can look it up themselves and understand its a creature from a specific region's folklore.

I feel that trying to rename culturally-specific things that don't have a neat translation, like folkloric beings, is generally always poorly fitting. It's like when the qilin is called a unicorn, when a qilin is a fish-scaled deer or ox with lizardly facial features and no affiliation with femininity or maidenhood. So basically almost nothing like a unicorn.

Like I said leprechaun, taniwha, unicorn... all mythical entities - just like ghosts.

Isn't it funny how people can draw these various mythical creatures but only after another person has shown them how.

Exactly.

It is puzzling that those individuals feel the need to attempt to suppress what they elect not to agree with.

This is like a plain text version of a Facebook meme.

It's political correctness gone mad!

https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/09/10/has-politic...

> At best, the notion of political correctness having gone too far is intellectually dishonest; a fallacy similar to a straw-man argument or an ad hominem attack. At worst, it serves as a rallying cry to cover up the excesses of the most illiberal in our society.

It's also a slap in the face to non western scientists who ended up contributing despite all odds. Imagine telling Satyendranath Bose that the theory of Bose condensates is just as valid as random tribal animism.

> Some really unhinged ideologues are in positions of power right now.

Yes this may be true, but Jacinda won the election fair and square

Any source for this? I am in contact with a number of health science professionals in New Zealand and they haven't seen anything like this or science denial based on race. Generally you tend to see more science denial from the right wing parties such as the NZ National party. I'm not saying labour or for that matter any political party is "good" - but other than homeopathy and friends - science dentist sits pretty firmly on the right.

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