Multiculturalism, which started off with the proposition that all differences must be respected, eventually developed into something like a sacrificial religious cult. Over the last two decades, it has claimed many victims.
The prime example is the Pakistani rape gangs scandal in the UK. Over the course of thirty years, an estimated 250,000 working-class girls were abducted, drugged, serially raped, and prostituted by Pakistani “grooming” gangs. The scandal is that British authorities on every level knew what was happening but did nothing to stop the crimes for fear that they would be considered racists or Islamophobes.
According to former Minister for Immigration, Robert Jenrick:
“The rule of law was abandoned to sustain the myth that diversity is our strength, destroying the lives of thousands of working-class white girls in the process.”
Don’t think that the multicultural dogma has been abandoned in England now that everyone knows what happened thanks to Elon Musk’s call for a new investigation. Just last month, a proposal to launch an in-depth national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal was defeated in the House of Commons by 364 votes to 111.
One would also be mistaken to think that the multicultural dogma is confined to England. Many Americans in positions of power still cling to the toxic idea that all people are created equal in intelligence, ability and emotional stability.
Take the recent controversy over the mid-air collision over Reagan National Airport. When President Donald Trump suggested that part of the blame lies with DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) hiring policies adopted by the FAA, Congressional Democrats responded with anger and disbelief. It was as though Trump had violated all Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights in one fell swoop.
Senator Tim Kaine called Trump’s suggestion “outrageous and stomach-turning.” Senator Chris Murphy said “Everybody in this country should be outraged that Donald Trump is…lying to you.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Trump’s remarks on DEI “just turns your stomach.”
The Democrats were especially put off by remarks Trump made at a White House media briefing. Jobs like air traffic controller, said Trump, should be done by “naturally talented geniuses” and he criticized the Biden administration for allowing people with “intellectual and psychiatric disabilities” to work for the Federal Aviation Administration.
When I heard this, I assumed that Trump was improvising. Surely, the FAA wasn’t putting low-IQ psychopaths into the control towers. But sure enough, Trump was right. Whether or not the FAA had actually put seriously disabled people into positions where they controlled planes carrying hundreds of people, that was what they were aiming to do.
An archived 2013 version of the FAA’s website dealing with “diversity and inclusion” says that part of their mission was to hire those with “targeted disabilities.” These targeted disabilities included “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism”. Keep in mind that these targeted conditions would not disqualify an individual, but would improve his or her chances of being hired.
The mind reels at the dangerous possibilities: the epileptic who suffers a seizure just as flight 007 is coming in for a landing; the low-vision controller who can’t be sure if an approaching object is a small aircraft or a flock of geese; the paranoid schizophrenic who believes that his co-workers are all demons.
I exaggerate, of course, but the FAA’s list of targeted disabilities looks like an outline for an SNL skit. But ideologues are not known for their sense of humor or for their common sense. It’s telling that when Trump was asked why he thought that DEI policies played a role in air disaster, he replied “because I have common sense and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”
An example of a lack of common sense is provided by Maria Town, the president of the American Association of People with Disabilities. She recently said that “preventing the FAA from hiring people with disabilities does not make planes more safe. It just removes opportunities for disabled people.” Most people would disagree. They realize that hiring people with “severe intellectual disability [and] psychiatric disability” as flight controllers does put fliers at increased risk. They realize that when weighed in the balance, the safety of millions of air travelers is far more important than “opportunities for disabled people.” They don’t have to ponder the question for hours. It’s just common sense.
Speaking of people who don’t have much time to ponder their decisions, let’s talk for a minute about pilots. Pilots sometimes have to make split-second life-and-death decisions and, thank God, in the vast majority of cases they make the right decision.
One fact that increases our confidence in commercial airline pilots is that many of them come from military backgrounds. They received their initial training from the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force.
A military background used to be a plus, but that may no longer be the case. Nowadays, in addition to flight training, a military pilot’s education includes many hours of indoctrination in “woke” ideology. Consider the case of General Charles Q. Brown, the current head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Air Force Chief of Staff.
Brown has an almost obsessive concern with diversity and inclusion. During his tenure as head of the Air Force, the USAF’s fleet of F-35s suffered a massive decline in readiness due to a shortage of “operating engines.” But an even more serious problem was the lack of operating pilots to fly them due to General Brown having purged the Air Force of white officers and airmen.
Brown instituted new quotas intended to reduce the number of white male pilots from 86 percent to 43 percent while increasing the percentage of Black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Hispanic/Latino pilots. The new quotas also aimed to increase the number of female pilots. But the vast majority of Blacks, Asians, etc. did not seem terribly interested. Thus, the Air Force’s dangerous shortage of pilots. Predictably, General Brown’s incompetence earned him a promotion. He was appointed to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S.
The Blackhawk helicopter which collided with the American Airlines passenger jet was an Army, not an Air Force plane, but today’s Army is almost as “woke” as the Air Force. The crew of the Blackhawk were described as well-experienced, so it may be that DEI was not a factor in the crash. Still, common sense dictates that training which emphasizes diversity over competence is bound to result in more tragedies.
Fortunately, Trump understands all this. He has issued an executive order called “Keeping America Safe in Aviation” which orders the heads of the FAA and the Department of Transportation to “immediately return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.” His order also directed the airline industry to immediately rescind diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs.
Let’s hope that Trump’s “reverse-engines-and-change-course” policy will steer us far away from the suicidal strategies of the Biden administration.
Pictured above: Air traffic control tower
Picture credit: Pixabay
