Woke Air Forces

[RB Thruster]

Originally Posted by NutLoose

I'm all for them, the only time I find it all dissapointing is when companies set recruiting targets and that can be detrimental, If you need 100 people and 70 of them are women turn up, employ them, if 70 are men, employ them, but not to take on 20 of the 70 men or women if your company has recruiting targets of 50 / 50, that's wrong.

So true, it needs to be about best person for the job, full stop. If we want more diversity then its a society problem to ensure more of the "best for the job" people come from the areas/groups we are talking about. Training and education, rather than filling in the numbers to tick a box.

[Non Linear Gear]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

- I suspect these aren't a new invention . Being 'woke' is just the latest wave to surf on, it'll pass. I might just be unlucky but the youngsters I come across (teens/twenties!) seem to be a harder working, more sensible and better informed lot than me and my peers were at that age.

Yes, would agree on that statement. They have to be to get decent jobs now. My daughters put in way more time in their school days to doing homework and it showed in their GSCEs, A Levels (eldest took the sciences and passed the lot, even with her female form tutor being the most negative person to her, that I found discusting), both now have BSc's in medical degree's and jobs in their chosen professions. Lots of their friends were similar. All I did was encourge them, pay for them to do clubs and take them, plus get them involved with the local ATC Squadron (that was attached to their school) that certainly broadened their horizions.

[Easy Street]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

- I suspect these aren't a new invention . Being 'woke' is just the latest wave to surf on, it'll pass.

Agreed! I find the butt-snorkellers on #miltwitter amusing more than concerning; they're like performing seals clapping each woke pronouncement by seniors, but with a combined followership of a few hundred (mostly consisting of other #miltwitter accounts) they are very much in their own echo chamber.

[The Nip]

For those interested in some facts about how the current RAF is encouraging everyone, no matter what colour, religion, gender etc, then a quick follow on Twitter could open your eyes.
@rafyouthengage

I am not part of this team. Their reach and engagement with young people is in the millions.

[Corporal Clott]

Originally Posted by Asturias56

Well Clott I hate to tell you but it isn't going to get any "better" from your point of view. the world changes and if you talk to anyone under 30 (or better under 20) all you'll hear are the things you seem to hate.

I actually think you are wrong there. Of all the Gen Z and Gen A Service Personnel I have chatted with, they too don’t want the current agenda. These <30 year olds seem to be closer to Gen X than Gen Y. The problem is, from what I can see, is that we have a generation from around 30 to about 45 that seem to be rubbing against the Gen X, Gen Z and Gen A. The most vocal in the Twattersphere seem to be those 30-45 year olds, and they also seem convinced that everyone wants what they are driving for, when actually they don’t. Obviously, I generalise in those observations.

I do believe it will get “better” and I also would like to avoid the current pain where we seem to be pulling our collective selves apart within the various Services for little benefit.

[Finningley Boy]

It's beyond argument to make all career options open to everyone and allow all the chance to succeed in the ambitions they've set their heart on. It is another matter entirely for the people at the top to expend a single second on trying to engineer everyone's thoughts and mannerisms and to limit everyone's vocabulary by imposing the use of non-gender specific terms etc. The battle today isn't about equal rights its about making sure everyone is sufficiently enthusiastic, not about diversity, but that we are all compliant with an approved same outlook on life and to ensure we all arrive at approximately the same judgement of others. Perhaps we'll never disagree again and that's the aim eventually!

FB

[highflyer40]

Originally Posted by Corporal Clott

It’s been said a few times on here in recent months that we in the UK are heading for a Woke Air Force. I hear similar from other Air Forces and other arms of the military too. This article was recently published on an ex-copper’s blog that was written by another copper who has just left the Police Force. They felt that they were already in a wrong place and that they were now leaving because of it after 20 years. Are we all heading the same way?

https://mattjohnsonauthor.com/2021/0...jqUHk6q1tGa5Pw

Of particular note was this bit.



It struck a cord with me and also I wonder if initiatives like ‘Astra’ or the British Army’s ‘Castle’, and the constant insincere drive for extreme-levels of D&I by some of the butt-snorkelers chasing promotion, is missing the mark for recruitment of Generation Z and Generation A - who are not the social justice warriors and ‘wokes’ that the millennial Gen Y can be. Are these ‘next generation’ initiatives missing the future military generation by a country mile because they are aimed at the wrong next generation? If you were trying to aim for something fit for 2040, would you ask 30-40 year old Gen Y millennials or 20-30 year old Gen Z (or even the newest Gen A)? It seems that these initiatives are being driven and shaped by Gen Y?

Now I don’t condone for one minute the shocking events that have occurred across HMForces over the past few years (the latest revelation being the RAF Regt this past week) - behaviour that belongs nowhere in any military. But are we going too far, are the butt-snorkeling promotion chasers ‘firing for effect’ and does it actually reflect what we need and who the military should be? Does the constant drive to try be all-inclusive of the importance of each Branch, Trade and Specialisation blunt our combat edge significantly and provide a false narrative that will eventually need to be reversed? For instance the new Any Branch Station Commanders seem to generate a need to bolster each and every one with a peer ‘aircrew operator’ on a flying station, thus doubling the number of OF-5s required! Or is there really this utopian world out there that our current woke-ish vectors seem to be leading us towards and the Gen X dinosaurs need to just do one!

Asking for a friend...

I think this is exactly what we are missing. Police who talk to the public. Understand the public. Are community oriented. I think the police have become to militaristic and unapproachable. Call it woke or whatever. Police now think they are a law unto themselves. I used to have much respect for the police in my younger days... now? Not so much.

[highflyer40]

Originally Posted by The B Word

ExAscoteer2



Well maybe if you stopped calling them ‘girls’ then that might be a start? Secondly, surely that is society’s fault, probably a cultural issue in certain areas of society, that stereotype their females so badly that they feel they cannot be “ aircrew / engineers / scientists / military / whatever “? Why should the various Forces (and I include the Emergency Services) have to allow grandstanding and as Clott puts it ‘virtue signalling butt-snorkelling promotion seekers” to seem to use it for their own benefit?

The first thing society should stop doing is buying gender stereotyping toys and painting all bedrooms pink for a female and decorating them with dolls, fairies and princesses. Secondly, make sure that everyone is just treated as they are - no more “look at Wendy, she’s a woman or lesbian, she flies Typhoons, isn’t she so amazing” - it’s been done already and many have gone before Wendy over the past 30 years. Finally, we must stop the shameful use of quotas and targets for BAME and gender. The best human or person for the role should get the job, where so-called ‘positive action’ is ceased where it picks the female or BAME candidate over the non-female or non-BAME candidate. If that is not discrimination on grounds of race or gender, then I don’t know what is!

The role of Armed Forces recruiting, selection and training is to feed and provide a cohesive fighting unit (in the Emergency Services they need similar levels of cohesion). Some of today’s actions are eroding that, and it also does diversity and inclusion no good at all as it isolates a large group who no longer feel a wanted part of the organisation due to the fact that they are not ‘diverse’ due to no fault of their own.

Give me a break. I’m sorry but anyone that has been in the services knows this this is complete bollocks! There is an extra step that women, BAME, lgbt has to jump through to even begin playing on a level playing field.

[Non Linear Gear]

Originally Posted by highflyer40

Originally Posted by Corporal Clott

It’s been said a few times on here in recent months that we in the UK are heading for a Woke Air Force. I hear similar from other Air Forces and other arms of the military too. This article was recently published on an ex-copper’s blog that was written by another copper who has just left the Police Force. They felt that they were already in a wrong place and that they were now leaving because of it after 20 years. Are we all heading the same way?

https://mattjohnsonauthor.com/2021/0...jqUHk6q1tGa5Pw

Of particular note was this bit.



It struck a cord with me and also I wonder if initiatives like ‘Astra’ or the British Army’s ‘Castle’, and the constant insincere drive for extreme-levels of D&I by some of the butt-snorkelers chasing promotion, is missing the mark for recruitment of Generation Z and Generation A - who are not the social justice warriors and ‘wokes’ that the millennial Gen Y can be. Are these ‘next generation’ initiatives missing the future military generation by a country mile because they are aimed at the wrong next generation? If you were trying to aim for something fit for 2040, would you ask 30-40 year old Gen Y millennials or 20-30 year old Gen Z (or even the newest Gen A)? It seems that these initiatives are being driven and shaped by Gen Y?

Now I don’t condone for one minute the shocking events that have occurred across HMForces over the past few years (the latest revelation being the RAF Regt this past week) - behaviour that belongs nowhere in any military. But are we going too far, are the butt-snorkeling promotion chasers ‘firing for effect’ and does it actually reflect what we need and who the military should be? Does the constant drive to try be all-inclusive of the importance of each Branch, Trade and Specialisation blunt our combat edge significantly and provide a false narrative that will eventually need to be reversed? For instance the new Any Branch Station Commanders seem to generate a need to bolster each and every one with a peer ‘aircrew operator’ on a flying station, thus doubling the number of OF-5s required! Or is there really this utopian world out there that our current woke-ish vectors seem to be leading us towards and the Gen X dinosaurs need to just do one!

Asking for a friend...

I think this is exactly what we are missing. Police who talk to the public. Understand the public. Are community oriented. I think the police have become to militaristic and unapproachable. Call it woke or whatever. Police now think they are a law unto themselves. I used to have much respect for the police in my younger days... now? Not so much.

Because the Police have been undermanned for years. Beat Bobbys chopped. PCSO's chopped. I was based at an airport with a secuirty team member that was a PCSO in my home city. He did the job of a beat bobby. While he could not arrest, he was boots on the street with a radio. He knew the trouble makers and guess what? He had a radio. Chopped by the local council due to central government cuts. Central government had a cap on local council funding as well. We reap what we sow.