The “woke” (literally translated to “awakened,” but “enlightened” is probably better) culture that dominates the Western world includes some funny and extreme cases — for example, when an African American’s poem is not allowed to be translated by a white translator. Some of them are actually dangerous too, when people have a duty to protest firmly on the basis of normality (for example, subjecting preschoolers to sex education and nudity, which is fashionable in the U.S., or on this Dutch television show*). United Airlines’ latest move checks both of these boxes.
The Russian news site RT, which is receptive to these types of issues — it must be met with skepticism because it’s skewed toward Moscow sometimes, yet at other times it is a refreshingly censor-free news outlet — reported on the crazy Twitter post that beautifully illustrates how the Western world is made stupid by its calm and prosperity.
According to the post, United Airlines would like its pilots to reflect what has long been true of its passengers, the holy and divine Diversity (the capital letter is intentional). And there is no better solution than to train 5,000 pilots over the next 10 years based on a predetermined quota, where at least 50% will be women and people of color according to the company’s plans. Even if it goes to hell!
The statement made by United also said that the program welcomes everyone, no matter the qualifications. If you meet the requirements (which will now include skin color and the anatomy between a person’s legs), they’ll make a pilot out of you. It may seem right to object that if someone does not pass the exams, they will not become a pilot, so neither our safety nor Diversity will suffer damage. But let’s take a look at the hiccup! If there is already positive discrimination during selection, where it already shouldn’t be, what is the guarantee that it will not happen during the exams?
Right now, United Airlines has about 12,000 pilots; 7% are female and 13% are people of color. What the latter means is unknown; they usually use this word for every non-white person in the United States. Whether United is using it to refer only to African Americans, we don’t know.
Positive discrimination is not necessarily a bad thing, especially not for a minority. There is nothing wrong with encouraging and supporting women and minorities to fill certain positions (these are usually comfortable, white-collar jobs. Inclusivity programs like these are rare in uranium mines). There is an issue when it becomes counterproductive, when someone receives a position not for their abilities and achievements, but for the color of their skin or the type of chromosomes they have — be it that they’re white, Black, female, male, left or right-handed.
The even bigger problem here is that we’re talking about a position where one has to take responsibility for human lives.
Forced equality, selection based on gender or racial identity instead of merit, is still nonsense even if we admit that minorities certainly start at a disadvantage (I don’t need to explain it here in Felvidék**).This might be oversimplifying the problem, but the absurdity of the situation is well illustrated by the fact that we don’t know what will happen to those non-PoC and non-female pilot candidates who would do better on the tests. They would keep passengers alive and the plane in the air, but are not hired because of the quota.
This isn’t even the biggest problem, there’s more! It’s endless. …
Popular, progressive sociologists constantly dissect minority grievances, meaning by dividing it into smaller parts and multiplying it, they can share minority status and its benefits forever. Right now, women and people of color get 50%, maybe in 10 years gay women of color will get 25%, then after some more decades gay women of color raised by a single parent rightfully get a 12.5% share of an airline’s pilot training time — and we haven’t even mentioned the systemic repression of left-handed individuals (needless to say, we must end repressive structures like this immediately).
To me, it seems more and more like there is no getting off of either a runaway train, or the charter flight of madness.
Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts!
*Translator’s Note: The author is referring to the Dutch television show “Gewoon. Bloot.”
**Translator’s Note: Felvidék is a former region of Hungary that is now Slovakia. The author is referring to the Hungarian minorities, like himself, who live in this region.
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