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DEI must Die!

Entry 2333, on 2024-03-27 at 12:05:13 (Rating 4, Comments)

Well, apparently the opinions expressed here haven't been controversial enough lately (I'm beng sarcastic, after the recent Hamas vs Israel post) so maybe it's time to get into something genuinely problematic. Let's try diversity, and especially diversity quotas!

A trend in recent years, which actually originated back in the 1960s when a lot of this trendy critical theory nonsense started, is for organisations and companies to be particularly aware of diversity and quotas for "disadvantaged" groups in society.

Originally this was often called "affirmative action", which sounds good, doesn't it? I mean it's a lot better than "negative action" or "affirmative inaction". But, as is almost always the case, the nice words hide something deeply problematic.

Now the same basic concept is known as DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion. Similarly to what I mentioned above, the alternative of uniformity, inequity, and exclusion sounds so much worse, but again, the reality behind the facade is far from what it might appear to be.

According to current theory, especially in the area of postmodernist and critical theory, if a group in society is not achieving as well as the dominant group then it must be because the dominant group is unfairly repressing the others. In effect, because this is only ever applied to modern Western countries, old white guys are stopping women, black people, trans people, etc from achieving what they could do otherwise.

I'm sure there are some situations where is some truth in this, and it was probably more common in the past, but it isn't the primary issue any more, assuming it ever was. Let's look at a few examples...

Women aren't as widely represented in engineering as we would expect given that they make up 50% of the population. According to critical theory this is because men stop them from achieving in that area. Note that there is no need to provide evidence for this assertion because critical theory just inherently assumes it is true.

But, of course, it isn't. Women are over-represented in other areas which might be considered more prestigious than engineering, such as medicine. What happened there? Did the old white guys fail to apply their evil influence? In reality, men and women are different, and women are more interested in "people centered" professions like medicine, and men are more interested in "thing centered" subjects like engineering. Note that there are plenty of men interested in people, and plenty of women interested in things, but there is a general trend which explains the differences we see.

So when there are demands for more women in STEM fields (often related to engineering) we are making at least 5 big mistakes: First, we are suggesting women should do something they may not be naturally interested in. Second, we might choose women in preference to men who would be better at the job. Third, we drive down the general level of competence in that profession. Fourth, when we see a "minority" group in a non-traditional job, we might be tempted to think they are there because of quotas rather than skill. And finally, we apply these rules unevenly, because there doesn't end to be any programs trying to get more men into medicine!

I'm sorry to have to say this but I will, because it's probably not just me who feels this way. When I see a woman engineer I presume she is not fully competent and got there through quotas. When I see a Maori doctor I presume he or she is less competent than others, and again is in the job to fulfil a quota. I know that I am often wrong, because there are plenty of good female engineers and good Maori doctors, but on average I would be right.

So DEI is not even really doing the "minority" group a favour, because it just creates suspicion and resentment. Note that when I see an old white guy in any role I assume he is competent (although he often won't be) because there are no extraneous processes favouring him!

In recent years DEI has been applied to some critical areas, such as air traffic control. In the same time, accidents and near misses have increased noticeably. Now correlation does not necessarily imply causation, and there could be other reasons for the increase, but again diversity quotas cause suspicion.

There is a "competency crisis" heading our way as diversity is used more as a selection criterion than competence is. If we don't hire the most competent people, standards will drop. If we revert to using competence, that might mean that most engineers are men and most doctors are women, but what's wrong with that? People get to do what they are naturally best at, and we get higher standards as a result. DEI must Die!\

Comment 1 (7628) by Jim Cable on 2024-03-28 at 10:57:15: It's disgusting.

Comment 2 (7629) by OJB on 2024-03-29 at 18:03:26:

I find it more ignorant and inflexible than disgusting. They genuinely think they re doing the right thing, and maybe at some point they were, but they have become that which they hate. They are the racist, the fascist, the violent thugs, but they cannot see it thanks to the toxic belief systems (CRT, etc) their minds have been captured by.

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