I always have mixed feelings when I see stories with headlines like this: “Connecticut Law Would Axe Fitness Requirements for Female Firefighters“.
My first reaction is to laugh. Not solely at the absurdity, but in a warped sense of happiness, because the headline confirms one of the predictions I have been making. And as we all know, if a theory makes good predictions, it has earned at least our respect, if not our trust.
So I’m pleased with myself for being right.
This pleasure soon sinks into sadness when I imagine the bodies that will roast in the DIE and in the great fires Connecticut will undergo.
Naturally, other states, anxious not to be left behind in the race to see who can DIE hardest, will also soon face the same.
Here’s the story (my emphasis).
Connecticut Democrats are working to lower the physical fitness requirements for female firefighters, saying that less onerous standards will make fire departments “more diverse.”
A law introduced earlier this month in the Connecticut State Assembly would let women skip the Candidate Physical Ability Test, a timed gauntlet used by fire departments across the country. The test, which only 10 to 15 percent of women pass, requires candidates to complete intense physical tasks while wearing a 50 pound vest. It’s designed to simulate the experience of navigating a fire in heavy gear—and to weed out those unable to do so.
Shall we recite our Standards Litany once again?
A “disparity” is noticed: not enough Official Victims have attained a desirable goal. Demands for redress are made.
It is promised Standards will not be lowered.
Standard are then lowered.
It is then announced that the Standards were never really necessary.
Later, it is discovered the “disparities” mysteriously remain.
It is then promised remaining Standards will not be further lowered.
Guess what happens next.
That Litany is a prediction based on the theory of Equality. This states that all people are fundamentally identical, interchangeable, really, and that until proportionally many more Official Victims than non-Victims achieve some goal, the ideal of Equity has not been reached. Because of the aching desire for this Equity, Standards, which are variously described as “racist”, “sexist”, “homophobic” and so on, are blamed.
It is always proportionally many more Official Victims, too. Take women in college. At one time women were in the minority of students, and were thus, under Equality, Official Victims. Now they are a hard majority, and yet men are not also Official Victims. They deserve whatever evils come to them for once having been Official Oppressors.
Or take, say, professional basketball. There is no hue nor cry to lower standards and fix the disparity of proportionately too few white men. But there are cries, at least from time to time, for there to be women.
There is no word from the legislators why women should not undergo physical testing that male firemen must endure, except that dropping the testing will lead to a greater number of Official Victims in firehouses. Here it is in their own words:
Statement of Purpose:
To allow for a more diverse class of candidates for firefighter positions at municipal and volunteer fire departments by recognizing that additional female candidates would qualify for such positions based on revised physical standards that offer an alternative to the fifty-pound simulated vest test component of the Candidate Physical Ability Test.
This move toward Equity is seen as a good in and of itself. As if when this glorious state is reached the sun will shine a little brighter, the winds will blow a little sweeter—and the fires will, well, what’s the difference what the fires will do?
Of course, they can also eliminate literacy requirements, age requirements, even respiratory requirements to achieve their goal. Yes, respiratory. I mean, what’s the difference if the fireman is dead or alive if he doesn’t need to put out fires? Might as well do all we can to reach Equity.
I imagine, though, that Connecticut, at least for a time, will still require women to attend fires for the sake of appearances (good pun!). Putting on the gear and carrying heavy objects is out, so what will the women do at the fires?
Glare at them? Give them the silent treatment? Lecture them on how fires are examples of patriarchal combustion and male toxicity?
Buy my new book and learn to argue against the regime: Everything You Believe Is Wrong.
Diversity is WOKE. 6-7 years ago CSPAN interviewed PJ O'Rourke about WOKE. He was asked if WOKE would continue to play an important cultural and political role. PJ said, "No, it's too stupid."
RIP PJ. You were wrong. WOKE is still paramount, and it's not viewed as stupid. Rather, it's seen as morally clever. And it's not funny, not even to the low IQ Persons who worship it. WOKE is like it's mascot, Biden: It's stupid but not too stupid and not at all stupid to below average people. And it's not funny, either to the low IQ Persons who worship WOKE or to the above average IQ population which empowers it.
Weird stuff. I had trained a bit as a firefighter while working as a seaman. There are many jobs firefighters do that can be done by both men and women. The physically demanding job of entering a building as a smoke diver is only for some men (many men are also too weak). Most importantly, you have to be able to get your partner fireman out should he be injured. It goes without saying that very few (maybe no) women can carry a full-grown man through rubble and debris. But many jobs as a firefighter involve operating machinery and equipment which assist the firemen inside, doing emergency medical service and rescue missions. Plenty of things to do for women. Why not have different exams/tests for different jobs?
Another point is that I do not think that women that are too weak will like the job as a smoke diver because it is hazardous, and if they mess up, it has real consequences. And to be honest, I don't see why women want to be firefighters at all. It is risky and comes with health hazards and a psychological toll. A person that has been burned to death is not a pretty sight.