A variety of Facebook friends today posted their respect for Chuck Yeager, who died yesterday at age 97. Some had been in meetings with General Yeager when he was serving in various high management roles and talked about the pointed intelligent questions that he asked.
What about on days when a hero such as Yeager did not die? The same folks post approvingly of rules to forbid the assignment of high management roles to Americans such as Yeager who identify as straight white males. For example, “Nasdaq to Corporate America: Make your boards more diverse or get out” (CNN):
Nasdaq is proposing a rule that would require at least some measure of diversity on the boards of directors of companies listed on the exchange.
The rule, which needs the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission to take effect, would require companies to have at least two diverse directors, including one woman and one member of an “underrepresented” minority group, including Black people, Latinos or members of the LGBTQ+ community. Smaller companies and foreign companies on the exchange could comply with two woman directors.
(separately, how do the money nerds at Nasdaq evaluate whether someone is a “member of the LGBTQ+ community”? Will it be like the gay evaluation scenes in the Kevin Kline movie In & Out, e.g., a quiz on the titles of Barbra Streisand‘s recorded oeuvre? Does a person meet the B victimhood designation within LGBTQIA+ if he/she/ze/they merely finds people in multiple gender ID categories attractive, but doesn’t act on this attraction by having sex with those people? Similarly, what constitutes “Black people” as far as a Wall Streeter is concerned? Will Nasdaq start looking at Quadroons and Hexadecaroons and decided how many of them are required to add up to the business wisdom of a single “Black” individual?)
(Also, what about Elliot Page? We are informed that a man who was born with XX chromosomes is no different than a man who was born with XY chromosomes. Mr. Page identifies as a man currently. Mr. Page may also identify as white. If are going to give maximum respect to transgenderism, shouldn’t Elliot Page therefore be excluded from boards due to being a white male?)
From the National Air and Space Museum, an X-15 points at Yeager’s old X-1:
(Both the downtown D.C. Museum and the Dulles Airport annex that celebrate Americans willing to risk their lives in the air are currently closed due to coronavirus fears.)
Jackie Cochran, the first woman to break the sound barrier, was also highly successful in business. Equality achieved.
They can celebrate him but it’s even more virtue signaling. Chuck Yeager wasn’t formally educated past high school and he had more courage and ability in his little finger than Facebook has in its whole body. The future belongs to the douchebags.
Alex: well said!
What I don’t understand (and I had a dream about this last night) is: if gender identity is fluid and unfairly subdivided among 150+ different choices and identity itself is questionable with technology, why point does identity politics make? We sit behind screens all day long using avatars and pseudonyms. What does it matter to a University or a company who someone really is when they can change any parameter of their existence at any time?
NASDAQ will bring Dan Savage on board to adjudicate:
“You’re a straight guy, you’re attracted to women, and some women—as you now know—have dicks. Are you into dick? Could you develop a taste for dick? Could you see yourself making an exception for her dick? It’s fine if “no” is the answer to one or all of these questions, COCK, and not being into dick doesn’t make you transphobic.”
https://www.thestranger.com/savage-love/2017/09/19/25423690/savage-love
What do you think of Sarrasine by Balzac?
@Mememe: One of the great ones! But who needs Balzac when you have the LGBTQIA+ curriculum at the local elementary school? Heck, I remember when this song was controversial and even scandalous; it’s boring and tame now. Whew knew in 1980 that Dan Savage was going to be helping write the curriculum for school kids?
I mention Sarrasine because it is a central text for the whole new sexuality movement. You shoild go easy on young people. Weird sexuality is a symptom of overcrowding and diminished resources.
If you want to set America straight, sharply curtail immigration and the subsidizing of oldsters through social security and medicare: less crowding, less of the young foregoing present and future prosperity to enrich the old.
We have bequeathed our children an impoverishing new world order .
@Mememe: Hmm. Food for thought. I have some extra thoughts about what you say but I’ve already taken the thread pretty far afield. We’ll have another chance to expand on this subject in the near future here at the Greenspun blog, I’m sure. 🙂