Bravely, I Cope With Rejection
In the comments, John draws attention to this item from Personnel Today, a publication for the inhabitants of HR departments, regarding recruitment criteria for the Royal Air Force:
I’m assuming, perhaps charitably, that the word “useless” was with reference to meeting “diversity” targets. The word in question was deployed by former head of recruitment Elizabeth Nicholl, who resigned in protest at such targets being “impossible” to achieve. But still, an unhappy phrasing.
Much of the article covers ground that may be familiar to regular readers:
Because brownness and womb-having are much more important, obviously.
At which point, I’m tempted to ask how these target percentages relate to any actual expressed interest or aptitude – say, among school-leavers – or to any tactical utility, according to which an unusually high number of women and racial minorities would somehow confer a military advantage. Or are they, as seems to be the case, entirely arbitrary?
The paragraph immediately above was posted as a comment on the Personnel Today website. It was held for moderation, then disappeared.
Update, via the comments:
TomJ notes the proliferation throughout the RAF of pointedly gender-neutral terms, along with the ensuing complications, adding: “These are but annoyances, though they no doubt absorbed a lot of admin effort that could have been better directed… It now seems somewhat indicative.” Indeed. Time and resources better spent on the actual, you know, function of the organisation. Which is not, lest we forget, race-and-sex bean-counting.
Perhaps we’re to hope that such frivolous uses of time and resources will result in mere distraction, a loss of focus, and some inadvertent comedy. As if distractedness and waste, and chasing futility, might be the best available options. As opposed to the more typical effect of such endeavours, and of the mindset they reflect, which is the active and rapid corrosion of almost anything they touch, not least in terms of realism, standards, and competence.
Update 2:
In the comments, Jeff Guinn adds,
Gaining entrance to pilot training requires doing pretty well on a battery of aptitude tests. There is a very strong correlation between performance on the tests and likelihood of successfully completing pilot training… In particular, mechanical reasoning, spatial orientation, and math skills are strongly predictive. Like it or not, statistically speaking, men are far better at those things than women. And very few black college grads scored high enough to be selected. (Plausible offered explanation: the military couldn’t compete with the private sector for them.)
The conclusion? The Navy was choosing student pilots rationally, and the reasons for lack of diversity were far beyond the Navy’s control, unless the Navy lowered performance standards… The RAF’s announcement is a sure sign it prefers pre-determined ratios over performance. Nothing good will come of it. Piloting talent is not uniformly distributed.
And so, the closer the RAF comes to these modish but seemingly arbitrary demographic ratios, the more reason there will be to suppose that standards have been lowered and corners cut, and to question the competence of the supposed beneficiaries. As has been the case in just about every other sphere – from academia to firefighting – where this nudging and fudging has been done.
Needless to say, this policy of supposed fairness seems somewhat unfair to those female and minority pilots who, while few in number, are very competent indeed, and whose credentials and reputation may subsequently be called into question as a result of emerging patterns. But hey, progress.
Update 3:
Depending on mood, one might find humour in the practised dishonesties of the progressive campus, where notions of demographic ‘correction’ are commonplace. But when extended to the realm of firefighting, policing, or the military, or medicine, or pretty much any vital infrastructure, then the funny side of things becomes harder to spot. And it’s perhaps worth noting that the mandatory pretence seen in academia, and all but perfected there, has given leverage to inadequates who do not welcome, and seem unlikely to tolerate, any attempt at realism or putting things right.
Given the vigour with which such demographic targets are pursued, and given the corners that are being cut in order to pursue them, on any number of fronts and at considerable expense… then checking the basic assumptions of those pursuing such goals doesn’t strike me as improper.
And yet, as seen in the pages of Personnel Today, some basic questions are not to be asked.
Also, open thread.
They’re actual mad people.
Historian Victor Davis Hanson, who has dual careers as an academic and a farmer, has observed much higher rates of neurosis in academia than among working people.
So… I wonder what fraction of academics have sexual dysfunctions.
Something very close, I think. Neurotically pretentious, certainly. As I said not too long ago,
As the archives here demonstrate, sometimes vividly.
And again you fail to adequately explain what happens to all those cars
An odd way say to say “I’m being deliberately obtuse”, but OK.
Its lunatic bubble.
Meanwhile in New York, “We are a sanctuary city welcoming all, say, you have a spare room, don’t you?”
Sadly, female pilots flunk out of flight school at a high rate. They have trouble with the g-forces, have trouble making quick decisions, and are prone to panic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Hultgreen#Death
Many studies show that there is much higher mental illness (neuroticism, anxiety, depression) on the Left. Liberal women have been getting less happy for decades. Why? First, conservatives embrace a lifestyle that actually fits with human needs. People are much happier when married with children. Women especially are quite unhappy when single. Conservatives also have a set of values that is coherent. Second, more conservatives have jobs that are practical, hands on. But importantly, as David notes, the Woke ideology focuses on fear (climate change), envy (race inequality) and politics–all things that are upsetting–and uses a “theology” that is incoherent and contradictory.
Go boil your head, you ass.
Well, not to further the flames…
(and after 4+ decades on the production side of autos)
once someone decides it’s toast, said vehicles are disassembled and scrapped (in the US, somewhere over 14M/year), or, as has been pointed out, shipped to … wherever (last I saw was approx 700K vehicles, mostly pickups/commercial vehicles). It’s quite the industry, and goes on out of any limelight.
(edited to add the 4… whoops)
Once you divorce form from function, as it were, it’s hard to imagine how it could be anything but arbitrary.
And whatever is arbitrary can only ever fail to satisfy because whatever is vague and ill-defined has no expectations to live up to.
Hence, I suspect, Marcus Ryder‘s dissatisfaction with Disney’s live action remake of The Little Mermaid in a post on his blog here.
You can see him struggling with the contradictions inherent in the whole project of diversity and inclusion as it’s playing out in Hollywood:
What does that even mean?
How can the film be celebrating what it ignores? Or be blind to what it celebrates?
And if it is beautifully “colour blind” how is that not a contradiction of what he’s only just said a few paragraphs earlier which is that for his son
In making Ariel a black woman, they also transferred the story and setting from northern Europe to the Caribbean.
But having now been transported to the Caribbean, something as far as a I can tell he would have approved of before seeing the film, he discovers that what he thought he wanted turns out to be not quite what he wanted after all:
His solution is interesting for what it implies and it’s not entirely clear whether or not he’s even aware of the implications:
In other words, what starts out as a call for greater plurality and diversity along dimensions beyond the cast and setting appears to end up indistinguishable from a plea to cater to a much more narrowly defined ideal audience.
I couldn’t care less about this as a children’s movie or about Disney’s willingness for self-destruction.
What concerns me more is who is overhearing these conversations and what conclusions they are drawing from it.
I cannot see it leading anywhere good.
Haiti, where all the white people had been massacred, even those who had opposed slavery? That is a very strange–perverse–idea of racial harmony.
LOL You troublemaker!
Set the mermaid story in Haiti: oh sure, a country so failed that there is no longer a single elected gov official and the remnant gov depts barely function.
Apparently. Again, the comment, or attempted comment, was just this:
Faint sarcasm aside, these are not particularly contrived or outlandish questions. Given the vigour with which such targets are pursued, and given the corners that are seemingly being cut in order to pursue them, on any number of fronts, and at considerable expense… then checking the basic assumptions of those pursuing such goals doesn’t strike me as improper.
And yet.
Ignorance is never so self-satisfied as it is among the chattering classes.
Someone is seriously ignorant of the history of that tragic country.
Black ‘Equity’ director:
But she’s ‘anti-racist’, obvs.
Well, you can imagine my surprise. No, wait. The other thing. Wearying predictability.
This came to mind:
Among many, many others.
At the same time the Little Mermaid’s father is White while her Mermaid sisters are of various different races and ethnicities
Which, to me, suggests Little Mermaid’s mother was fucking around
Meanwhile in New York, “We are a sanctuary city welcoming all, say, you have a spare room, don’t you?”
‘The Camp of the Saints’ was just a novel, right?
Right?
‘The Camp of the Saints’ was just a novel, right?”
Si.
“As you said, in the US&A, at a manufacturer dealer, the cars coming off lease generally go to the used lot, however finding a car more than a few years old, especially older than about 2010, at a manufacturer dealer is most likely not going to happen, because they want to sell/lease new cars, and don’t want to put money into prepping used cars for sale.”
A curious answer. My local Ford dealer sells used cars as well as new. A check online of their inventory, limited to 2005-2010 shows:
They have 119 results for used cars from 2006 to 2020.
It’s only one data point for sure, but still.
The RAF announced that it had hit government targets to increase the flow of female recruits to 20% of the total, and 10% for ethnic minorities. The Force then said it would aim to lift those ratios to 40% and 20% respectively by 2030.
Back in the day, said day being 20 some-odd years ago, I commanded a US Navy primary pilot training squadron. During my tour, there was a Commanders’ Conference that focused on the lack of diversity among student pilots: 95% male, nearly 100% white.
The presentation, prepared by Navy HR, was, of course, presented by a minority officer. Consequently, I was expecting pablum. And was pleasantly surprised.
Gaining entrance to pilot training requires doing pretty well on a battery of aptitude tests. There is a very strong correlation between performance on the tests and likelihood of successfully completing pilot training. (Kind of like standardized testing is very predictive of success in higher ed …)
In particular, mechanical reasoning, spatial orientation, and math skills are strongly predictive. Like it or not, statistically speaking, men are far better at those things than women. And very few black college grads scored high enough to be selected. (Plausible offered explanation: the military couldn’t compete with the private sector for them.)
The conclusion? The Navy was choosing student pilots rationally, and the reasons for lack of diversity were far beyond the Navy’s control, unless the Navy lowered performance standards.
In my experience, female students graduated at the same rate as their male counterparts.
However, females were significantly overrepresented in the bottom half of the class. This was largely due to lower performance in aerobatics (probably due to unwillingness to practice the maneuvers on solo flights) and formation flying. Women were very likely to be intimidated by being in very close proximity to another airplane while in all manner of unusual attitudes.
Consequently, very few women chose tactical aviation. Not only did they generally not finish high enough to have the option, but even those who did wanted no part of the rigors associated with flying fighter aircraft. (My squadron was subject to a DACOWITS investigation over this issue.)
The RAF’s announcement is a sure sign it prefers pre-determined ratios over performance. Nothing good will come of it. Piloting talent is not uniformly distributed.
LOL; A “queer Yiddish anarchist vegan diner” which loudly proclaimed “F*** the police” is closing for good. Due to “burnout” and continuing “struggles” to finance the business. Who would have guessed that a suicidal business model would fail? It’s a good bet that every one of the owners have serious mental problems.
Wow – that’s hot on the heels of the anarchist coffee shop folding in Toronto. It’s hard to believe – almost like there’s something lacking in the anarchist business model?
And so, the closer the RAF comes to these modish but seemingly arbitrary demographic ratios, the more reason there will be to suppose that standards have been lowered and corners cut, and to question the competence of the supposed beneficiaries. As has been the case in just about every other sphere – from academia to firefighting – where this nudging and fudging has been done.
Needless to say, this policy of supposed fairness seems somewhat unfair to those female and minority pilots who, while few in number, are very competent indeed, and whose credentials and reputation may subsequently be called into question as a result of emerging patterns. But hey, progress.
I have to admit a grudging admiration for adding Yiddish to the usual word salad of vegan, anarchist and queer. A case of intersectionally boldly going where no man (or woman) has gone before, well not in Govan anyway, and quite a brave move considering the forceful intolerance occasionally displayed in Glasgow by proponents of a religion which doesn’t speak Yiddish.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37032419
I will tell you this, Rab C Nesbitt would not be shedding tears at the departure of this fatuous piece of pish.
[ Post updated again. ]
Thanks, Jeff.
By the way, if anyone is wondering just how far some are willing to take their quest for fairness, we need only look to Ballou High School in Washington, DC, where, thanks to “equity” policies and lots of “social justice,” students who are barely literate and rarely seen in class were all somehow graduated, if only in name, and with no evidence whatsoever of any learning taking place. And not only graduated, but accepted by a college or university.
If it all sounds rather insane… well, hold that thought.
That.
Somewhat related.
Man Arrested While Attempting To Read Bible Verse At Pennsylvania Pride Event
Don’t you people understand that “protected class” means protected from you?
They blame their closing not just on ‘burnout’ but also on ” ‘right-wing backlash’, ‘antisemitic vitriol’ and harassment.” without giving any clues as to ethnic and religious nature of the antisemites. (But of course we only have their word that they have been targets of antisemitic harassment, and we know that leftists lie incessantly about such things.) White liberal journalists would want us to assume that the Jew-haters are native-born white people, and many of the white liberals I have known want social and legal punishment for those who point out that Islam is the chief problem here. (I assume that Scots are no more inclined towards antisemitism than the English, the Welsh, the French, or even–horrors, say the Pythons–the Belgians.)
For further amusment: The URL for the “queer Yiddish anarchist vegan diner” is “.gay”, not “.com” or “.uk” or even “.scot”.
If he was indeed yelling loudly enough to interfere with the speakers at that event, then he was indeed harassing them. But that only reminds us that the police won’t apply that standard to leftists harassing and disrupting events they disapprove of.
I had to look that up:
So, a bit like Monty Python’s The Poet McTeagle, but without the class and sophistication.
Under most legal definitions he was certainly not harassing them, since it requires continued or repeated behaviour.
It’s interesting that the First Amendment to the US Constitution protects your right to speak and protest, but not so loudly as to be heard by any member of a “protected class”.
Speak quietly, and don’t even think about picking up a stick, eh?
It’s rare for an American public radio station to pay anything even resembling honest attention to that problem.
At which point, I remembered this.
[ Glances at Sam Duncan’s currently unoccupied bar stool. ]
It’s difficult to be sure of the incident without a video, but it seems to me that yelling loudly enough to prevent the speakers from being heard ought to qualify. Antifa does that all the time, with yelling, chanting, singing, and noise-making devices. (Remember when leftists were using vuvuzelas for that purpose?
Rab C Nesbitt for the uninitiated
https://youtu.be/8k7VoFiagfs
Translation not available
Gregor Fisher who plays the eponymous Rab is otherwise best know for his role as the tragic Tom Parsons in the film version of 1984 who is turned in to the thought police by his own daughter.
Authentic (northern) frontier gibberish.
…almost like there’s something lacking in the anarchist business model?
That, or any leftist business model.
There might be an add for Corning in there, though.
But it is profitable for the government- and NGO-funded homeless industry.
“His volume was at a level that he was heckling a preplanned and permitted event,”
Er, whut? Heckling is not allowed anymore? Since when? How many perceived “right wing”, “conservative”, or just plain “not left enough” speakers are shouted down, and sometimes, out, of their venue? After they’ve been invited to speak? No planned permitted event protection for them! Wasn’t there recently a judge, an invited speaker that was shouted out of his venue? And what was that college in the UK where the heads wouldn’t even allow the planned debate event to take place because one of the invited participants thinks a woman is an adult human female? How many times have we seen the trans mafia and their ilk heckle, shout down, and prevent speech from planned, permitted, invited speakers and events? How can people think this is ok, that only some heckling is allowed? I guess they believe in wrongthink.
The RAF’s announcement is a sure sign it prefers pre-determined ratios over performance. Nothing good will come of it.
Of course, the unvoiced consequence will be a big increase in accidents, fatal and non-fatal, and a massively increased cost of wrecked expensive aeroplanes.
It must be said that, at times, even white male pilots can chicken out. Many years ago I was an instructor navigator on the RAF Phantom operational conversion unit. One first tour student pilot I was due to fly with on his first trip without an instructor pilot in the back seat simply froze during the start-up sequence, unable to get as far as engine start.
There’s also the issue of morale. When people perceive invidious double standards in play, they don’t generally appreciate it. And when people identify with an institution – as I’d imagine pilots and other staff do with the RAF – they probably don’t welcome the thought of it becoming needlessly compromised or degraded, or attracting sighs and eye-rolling from the general public.
[ Added: ]
In much the same way that the public perception of the police has been hugely degraded in recent years, perhaps irretrievably, chiefly by similar initiatives, and not least by the spectacle of physically unimposing policewomen being tossed around like dolls. With YouTube videos, endlessly shared, showing teams of two and even three female officers struggling to impede just one burly male wrongdoer. It’s farcical and demoralising. For the public, certainly – and I’d guess for quite a few police officers too.
The URL for the “queer Yiddish anarchist vegan diner” is “.gay”
They should have borne in mind that in Yiddish that word means “go.” As in gay avek, “go away,” which now they’ve finally done.
“Leasing in the US became popular in the ’90s”
And (rabbit hole here, so avoid if at all possible) after carriage/chauffeur laws were dismantled in several states. You see, in the early 20th, wealthy folk being sued after a crash would pass off said lawsuits to their drivers/chauffeurs (with fewer assets), so legislators ruled that the owners of vehicles causing crashes would be liable (and in leasing, the lender owns said vehicle). Several automaker’s lending arms were surprised to find themselves as the target for post crash lawsuits… thus the efforts to change said laws. T’was an interesting time for the lending firms.
Have you not been paying attention? Since the establishment of legally “protected groups“.
Too many to list, but the most recent attempted censorship of Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union did finally go ahead (can’t say I agree with her conclusion).
Woo!
Damage to the reputation of the police seems more to do with their highly selective enforcement of the law than the physically unimposing policewomen. The latter does them no good but it’s the former that demolishes public confidence.