Abstract Calls for civility have been on the rise recently, as have presumptions that civility is both an academic virtue and a prerequisite for rational engagement and discussion among those who disagree. One imperative of epistemic decolonization is to unmask the ways that familiar conceptual resources are produced within and function to uphold a settler colonial epistemological framework. I argue that rhetorical deployments of ‘civility’ uphold settler colonialism by obscuring the systematic production of state violence against marginalized populations and Indigenous peoples, relying on the colonial conceptual framework of ‘civilized’ vs ‘savage’, and excusing death-promoting rhetoric under the guise of liberal disagreement.

中文翻译：

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“文明”与文明工程

摘要 近来，对文明的呼声越来越高，人们认为文明既是学术美德，又是持不同意见者理性参与和讨论的先决条件。认知非殖民化的一项必要条件是揭示熟悉的概念资源在内部产生和发挥作用的方式，以维护定居者殖民认识论框架。我认为，“文明”的修辞部署通过掩盖针对边缘化人口和土著人民的国家暴力的系统性生产，依靠“文明”与“野蛮”的殖民概念框架，并在打着自由派分歧的幌子。