In early 2020, every sensible young woman vowed to avoid Delta Airlines like the plague.
It was not because of the company’s failure to comply with social-distancing standards or mask mandates. Lockdowns and regulations were still not a thought in anyone’s mind. There was no specific recall of any aircraft—nothing like recent Boeing 737 fiascos. Nothing sketchy or even unusual came out about the flight attendants. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao kept a mostly low profile.
The reason for Delta hesitancy was, believe it or not, The Bachelor.
Season 24 of ABC’s number-one reality dating show featured Peter Weber, a commercial airline pilot “looking for love.” Weber was excruciatingly disappointing—a mix of indecisive and irrational. Millions of viewers got to see the weakness of someone who might be manning their plane 35,000 feet above the ground. Safe to say, it was not great PR for Delta, Weber’s employer, or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a whole.
If you were turned off from flying commercial because of a realty TV star’s personality, the latest news from the FAA may keep you grounded for the foreseeable future.
The FAA, under the tutelage of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, has joined the U.S. military and big corporations in swapping competence for equity and merit for Marxism. Today’s FAA Diversity and Inclusion hiring plan would have been, just a few decades ago, the list of disqualifications for any potential new hires.
“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”
As if this is a good reason to hand the completely paralyzed a pilot’s license, the FAA site claims that people with “severe” mental and physical disabilities are the most under-represented segment of the federal workforce.
Even if what makes you special and diverse could cause irreparable harm, hop in the cockpit. Or become an air-traffic controller.
The sky is no longer the limit!
Perhaps it sounds harsh to say, “Blind people shouldn’t fly planes.” Perhaps it is a bit harsh. Maybe, though, at this point, “harsh” is what America needs.
Airplanes already represent man’s conquest of nature. It’s okay to believe some impossible things should remain impossible.
The FAA, it seems, tried to circumvent the accusations, claiming they hire the severely mentally incapacitated for “oversight” and “administrative” roles or “critical safety functions,” as if that makes it any better.
If the agency were to admit that they only hire the disabled to do things at an appropriate level, they are admitting to discrimination. And in leftism, the confession itself is the sin.
These same people excusing the airline hiring practices that prioritize identity over competence are the ones who would, just months ago, throw you off a plane for not donning a surgical grade mask.
Back then, they were so worried about “safety.” What happened?
Today’s workforce is made up of grown-up Participation Trophy kids. Sometimes standards are lowered, like physical requirements for women in law enforcement or the military, or test scores for college admissions. This poses a problem if America wants to maintain the same level of military strength or intellectual output.
But the bigger problem occurs when the standards are wholly transformed.
Take Spirit, for example. Possibly the worst airline for passenger enjoyment, they’ve got their eyes on the prize—that is, social favorability—in this new Woke world.
Peer into Leftism’s dream future, and the top airline will not be the one with the highest safety standard or even the most comfortable amenities. The top airline will be one with employees perfectly matching the American population’s racial, gender, and sexuality demographics. The ESG rating (whatever that completely arbitrary classification means) is perfect. The plane somehow nets zero carbon emissions.
Sure, they screwed up your layover. There’s turbulence, the cabin pressure gives out every so often, and the pilot can’t make up his mind in stressful situations.
But John Kerry’s face is on every pillow and the snacks are vegan. Isn’t progress great?