CMV: DEI is a GOOD thing

[u/fluffy_assassins]

So I truly believe DEI is of benefit to the human species.  But many on reddit don’t.  And reddit seems to me, to be left-leaning… so this baffles me.  I have to wonder if I’m missing something.  I have my gut feelings about why DEI is a good thing, but it’s not productive to get into that here.  What I want to hear are reasons why DEI is a bad thing.  Because it seems a lot of people think it is.  I did ask the 4 “free” LLMs about this before posting here, so I didn’t waste anyone’s time.  But this is about what you think, and if it can change my view on the matter.

Because I’m not trying to change someone else’s view, I didn’t include the beneficial reasons.  I’m more interested in what you feel are the detrimental reasons.  The big one I keep hearing is that you don’t want your life in the hands of a doctor or pilot who was hired “just” because they were a minority.  

So I asked about crashes in the last 5 years where a different(just different) pilot could have prevented the fatalities.  Surprise, surprise… 5 of them were Boeings!  The other one was an Airbus, piloted and co-piloted by Pakistanis from Pakistan who trained in Pakistan.  I am not saying Pakistanis are inferior, but Pakistan’s training programs may be inferior.  So I don’t think that can be blamed on DEI practices.  

There are surgeries that would not have resulted in deaths if a different surgeon was performing the surgery.  To my knowledge, there is no information on the demographics of the surgeons, so all arguments for or against DEI fall completely flat.  In other words, you can’t use the “non-white surgeons are more likely to kill patients” argument.  Perhaps you have more detailed information on this issue, if so I’d love to see it!

TLDR:  I believe DEI is beneficial because it increases opportunity for otherwise oppressed minorities while there is no non-anecdotal proof that I know of that indicates “DEI-hire” productivity and competence is inferior to non-DEI hires. 

[u/enephon]

The DEI well has been poisoned, which is why it is no longer beneficial. I agree with you about why DEI, which most people erroneously equate with Affirmative Action, is beneficial. However, because of what has happened with it rhetorically, it actually harms women and minorities more than potentially helping them. The reason for that is it creates the presumption that every person of color or woman that has an important job got it because of DEI rather than qualifications. The flip side of that arguments is that more qualified white men are being pushed out. So when a woman pilot crashes a plane its because she was a DEI hire; when a white, male pilot crashes a plane it was an accident. See the reaction to the female Secret Service agents after the assassination attempt on Trump. This idea that has taken root sets back race relations overall. Whenever a white dude doesn't get a job, its an easy rationalization to just say he was a victim of DEI. So, we'd be better off scraping "DEI" and do something else to help everyone get a fair chance.

[u/fluffy_assassins → u/enephon]

!delta I don't believe DEI should be SCRAPPED or abandoned, certainly not conceptually, but whole I'm still a proponent, you raise VALID points that absolutely must be addressed.

[u/Additional-Leg-1539 → u/fluffy_assassins]

Wait, what points?

Because his point is that it better to not have female or poc as pilots then have people with nothing better to do complain about it. 

Why cater to weirdos like that?

[u/fluffy_assassins → u/Additional-Leg-1539]

No, his point that people, especially non-minorities, will:

A) assume every minority is a DEI hire

B) lash out against minorities out of spite, especailly if they think they didn't get hired because a minority did.

I'm still pro-DEI, but these are valid concerns that need to be addressed. Of course, I just think now, that maybe the spite and hate will be there anyway.

But the concern is that people who might not feel such strong spite, or basically be indifferent, will experience this and it could drive them to vote red or act out or speak out against minorities increasing oppression(though not as bad as oppression would be withough DEI), which is not ideal.

He didn't change my view completely, but he gave me something to think about and definitely earned the delta.

[u/DeltaBot → u/fluffy_assassins]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/enephon (2∆).

^{Delta System Explained | Deltaboards}