162 Comments
author

Do y'all think more companies will follow Boeing's lead and start abolishing DEI departments?

Expand full comment

Jordan Peterson postulates that they're not actually getting rid of the ideology. They're shuttering the department and it's name because it's become so toxic, but they're just moving the DEI workers to other departments and hiding the marxist movement as they continue their work.

Expand full comment

Also, Peterson is in Canada - I've NO DOUBT that's what will happen there. They are farther down the commie path than we are in the US, from what I'm seeing.

Expand full comment

I find that statement more than a little ironic because DEI is exactly what China and the CCP would NEVER do. For them, hiring, firing, promoting based on say, homosexuality, would seem insane.

Sooner or later someone will have to square that circle and decide which group, the CCP or the SJWs are the Marxists, because it can't be both.

Expand full comment

It's how the Communists got to where they are. James Lindsay is my favorite go-to connecting the dots. https://newdiscourses.com/2024/11/communism-2-0-industrial-communism-james-lindsay/

Expand full comment
deleted21 hrs ago
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

And all use demonization of a group / groups to gain & keep power.

Expand full comment

Seems they're all on that crazy train.

It's so bad that the MAID* program is going to end up fulfilling Gates' fantasy of population reduction. It seems Depressed or suffering people are offered the chance to be scheduled for MAID by social workers, nurses, nurse practitioners, and lots of apparatnicks in Canada. That's what I'm reading. It's not even safe to be an autistic lonely child.

_______________

*Medical Assistance in Dying

Expand full comment

Yes, they are killing off the depressed, old, sick, etc. Isn't euth great? Just like Kurt Vonnegut promised us. I think he called them Suicide "Salons".

Expand full comment

commie sounds like a negative word here.. is that a retro mccharty type expression that still has relevance in the usa?

Expand full comment

James Lindsay believes that critical race theory will lead to genocide against white people. He's a nut.

Expand full comment

I'd love to see that quote. I've never run across it. So, I'll just call bullshit on your knee-jerk assessment.

Expand full comment

commie is perfectly appropriate to describe these actions. why try to change history? Just don't forget it and relive it.

Expand full comment

You're kidding, right? You are not defending, in any way, communists, are you?

Yeah, "Mcchartyism," that's it....

Expand full comment

I don’t think McCarthyism is linked to the actual evils of communism. He was overzealous and hurt many Americans in his zeal for private beliefs that brought no harm. McCarthy- bad, Communism- bad. Not an oxymoron.

Expand full comment

the word gets used very loosely - like the 'capitalists' word... don't worry - i am not alan lomax, or pete seeger who you probably would have chased out of town if you were around at the time...

Expand full comment

Pete Seeger was a fake, virtue-signaling, self-righteous old commie prig. I would have no problem chasing him out of town.

Expand full comment

That's probably what some companies are doing - but I am guessing the corporations who are only giving it lip service at best and have more autonomy might just kick it to the curb.

Expand full comment

😳

So continuing to feed the bugs in the system.

Not good news for astronauts and frequent fliers.

Expand full comment

In Canada the Trudeau government often requires DEI if the company wants to get contracts from the government.

Expand full comment

I don't know. I think if there is a tipping point - yes. There can also be a pushback - which could make it worse. I am banking on the former! Honestly, why is such a proven disaster still in use??

Expand full comment

Being in academia for 30 years, I can tell you they will find a way or make one as Hannibal said.

Expand full comment

You poor thing. I was in academia (in administration) for 5 years and that's all I could stand. Esp. when covid hit - yikes.

Expand full comment

Adam Smith wrote: "there's a lot of ruin in a nation" I suspect the same thing applies to large corporations. Will they change? Only if they face an existential crisis, and for a large company, that can take a while.

Expand full comment

I think that if they lose enough money, they will. It would also help if more people harmed by these policies would come out with their stories, even anonymously. There are also companies who never wanted it to begin with who felt pressured, so they have an out right now if they seize it. Lawsuits for discrimination are important, too. Two things companies don't want to do are lose money and have bad publicity. Unfortunately, many Americans are followers and for those companies, you have to laugh and mock them. It's the only thing that works.

Expand full comment

It would be nice to see

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Christopher F. Rufo, Catherine Maxwell

It is still terrifying to think that companies we entrust with our lives accept mediocrity and even worse, incompetence, for the sake of nonsensical social goals. So glad this seems to be winding down.

Expand full comment
author

Yes

Expand full comment

Not winding down fast enough in education!

Expand full comment

easier to root it out in industries with tangible production. Most "education" isn't productive anymore.

Expand full comment

Education has been going downhill since before DEI, so it's hard to figure how much of it is the DEI. But DEI is certainly part of the decline of education.

Expand full comment

agreed. Removing the Federal government from its management, as well as increasing competition with charter and other private schools, would go a long way towards improving the results of public schools.

Expand full comment

Positively! As this article points out--meritocracy is the key to quality and success --and COMPETITION (school choice) will definitely improve education while being fair to all.

Expand full comment

Public education started going downhill with the creation of the Department of Education--and I say this as a former school board and State Board of Ed member. President-elect Trump just announced ending the Dept. of Ed and sending education decisions back to the States. Two great results from that: (1) Parents will have a bigger voice in their children's education...quality should improve (2) the teachers Unions will be gone.

Expand full comment

ESG/CEI scores are what drives this. Example: Southwest Airlines suffered a $2B loss at the end of 2022. Executives still received a $9M in combined bonuses, only fueled by good ESG scores. Despite it being the most profitable year in SWA history prior to the meltdown, employees received peanuts in profit sharing because of the major loss.

Expand full comment

As you know better than most, Socratease, what is rewarded is done. The idea that airline companies will be great because of high ESG and DEI scores is thorough nonsense. They could easily have high scores as the planes are crashing all around them. We must ask, How long is stupid behavior going to occur? The Friendly Skies have become much riskier……

Expand full comment

Apparently, firing people is being mistaken for revenue generating activity

Expand full comment

That has been the norm for a long time!

Expand full comment

Absolutely. Mind-blowing, isn't it?

Expand full comment

Why were so many people afraid to say: "the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.." for so long? Because the hyped up, screaming, uninformed liberals along with MSM ..and the weaponized government (going after parents at school board meetings) made it too difficult. Great that we can speak the truth now.

Expand full comment

I don’t know….many airlines are looking to DEI to produce superior airline companies. No flight experience? No problem: the pilot has her DEI certificate! Thank goodness we can now relax and eat peanuts…..

Expand full comment

It’s little better than a slower suicide, as that is the new “product”.

Expand full comment

What "companies" do you entrust your lives to by choice?

Expand full comment

Hopefully, None!

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell

Memorize and share this brilliant and remarkably apt quote from the Boeing insider: "DEI is lazy thought leadership best practiced by companies in smooth waters with margins large enough to afford the associated inefficiency."

Expand full comment

in other words parasites feed better on healthy hosts.

Expand full comment

Or state run departments where profit is not what's needed, only toeing the received wisdom line. Our government departments in the UK are a prime example of this. The more DEI we get the worse the service they deliver gets.

Expand full comment

Ha! Just did, without seeing your comment. I also thought it was an excellent summation.

Expand full comment

Yes--the last paragraph is a great summation

Expand full comment
founding
Nov 13Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

As a former business executive, this seems so obvious. It’s mind boggling how long this has persisted, pushed by people who think 2+2=5.

Expand full comment
author

It’s insane, but most companies accept DEI, even when they know it undermines the business

Expand full comment

Some of those companies know that if they bite the government hand feeding them contracts, they might be tossed off the money train.

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell

“… people do not want to be beneficiaries of bias any more than they want to be victims of it.” Except for the likes of Claudine Gay!

Expand full comment

and Obama

Expand full comment

There’s actually quite a lot of people who do!

Expand full comment

That is such an obvious downside of this policy. No one wants to be considered an “Identity Hire.” Especially when they have been hired on merits. I think it should be abolished for that reason alone.

I hope to hear the Trump administration announce that it is abolishing equity as an all of government policy, and returning to our Constitutional rights of equality under the law.

Expand full comment

Exactly right. Under DEI, one can only assume that any minority is a diversity hire—it must be so. It pretty much says so in its own doctrine.

There’s a new-ish drama series about Julia Child. Her producer at PBS is a young black woman. In Boston. In like 1963. Let’s pretend the Civil Rights movement never happened; it was totally unnecessary!

Expand full comment

... who are legion.

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell

The ridiculous implementation of DEI is ruining the brands of corporations. I suspect the C suites have known this for a long time and are letting out a sigh of relief that it is becoming socially acceptable to admit it. It has created a monster where management became paralyzed from conducting efficient and profitable business.

Expand full comment
author

I don't know if the stories about Boeing's planes failing or falling apart were ever definitively linked to DEI, but it's sure a bad look to pour money into diversity while you can't keep aircraft in the sky.

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell

How can it not be if all other variables are steady? Remember the whistleblowers, one shot in his car.

Expand full comment

gay, race communism never was going to be good for business long term

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell, Christopher F. Rufo

Thank you. So perfectly written and presented. Personally, I am encouraged. The majority are seeing it. I believe the Left will slowly and eventually eat their own if we just keep them away from our vital processes and pay them no attention. They're like mosquitoes. Somehow a part of nature. But irritating nonetheless. Keep the screens on your windows and the Deet handy.

Expand full comment
author
Nov 13·edited Nov 13Author

Thank you! Your support means we can keep exposing this DEI nonsense.

Expand full comment

Because DEI killed Boeing

Expand full comment
founding
23 hrs agoLiked by Catherine Maxwell

Retired Boeing engineer here: I am a white female who was a successful software Engineer for 31 years, the last 21 at Boeing - achieving the rank of associate Technical Fellow in the late 20-teens. I “retired” at 57 in 2016 after many years as a pariah for being too outspoken about mismanagement such as daring to suggest so-called “diversity” groups (racially segregated) were the opposite of diversity. This discrimination against white people and rejection of merit started at Boeing around 2010 long before George Floyd. Incidentally I was also required to sign a paper saying I would not sue Boeing for age discrimination as a criteria to receive severance pay. No shock years later when planes were dropping out of the sky (I knew immediately it was a software bug) and we now have astronauts marooned on the International Space Station - I also worked on that project as a software lead but was let go after a successful CDR (actually notified during the CDR while on travel) because my salary was deemed “too high” (project was heavily staffed with contractors making 1/4 my pay with no benefits). Boeing has a long road back to being the company they were.

Expand full comment

WOW ---thank you for the inside story

Expand full comment

This: "There is no way to keep production in focus while also allowing an externally focused bureaucracy with weak ideas to drive culture." I know Robby Starbuck has been instrumental in bringing down DEI in companies like John Deere. Did he have any impact on Boeing?

Expand full comment

Totally spot on. And yes, DEI will eventually die because it’s totally dumb and value destroying and insulting to both its beneficiaries and its victims.

Expand full comment
author

And thankfully it looks like companies are starting to realize that--or at least now they feel like they can get rid of it.

Expand full comment
founding

They'll get rid of it - quietly.

Expand full comment

Corporations across the board can save millions by cutting the H/R depts. that have expanded into DEI workshops. Stop the required self flagellation of employees that only builds resentment towards the C suite for making them do so. Nobody wants to sit in a class and listen to how bad their ancestors were or be graded on their Privieledge.

Expand full comment

And, have they even bothered to measure the number of really great employees they are NOT attracting by having this absolute nonsense front-and-center? I am a stellar employee with a lot of talent, and I was very close to not taking my current position (which I excel at) because of this crap. An more principled person may not have.

Expand full comment
23 hrs agoLiked by Catherine Maxwell

All corporations are about profitability and pleasing the stockholders. From a corporate perspective DEI seemed to make sense to 1. Reduce risk (discrimination lawsuits) and 2. Improve marketing efforts (virtue signaling to consumers). I doubt most corporate executives really cared about the claimed social values of DEI. After implementing DEI and after a few years, corporations are beginning to recognize that 1. the marketing aspect of DEI is, at best, a double-edged sword, 2. There are unproductive expenses associated with DEI, 3. DEI is divisive and not going to help a corporate culture and 4. in some cases DEI hires will not be qualified to produce quality work.

Expand full comment
23 hrs ago·edited 23 hrs agoLiked by Catherine Maxwell

Until we address where the monetary incentives are coming from, and put an end to it, I truly don't see DEI going away. Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street are major stock holders in all of these companies. Having the fiscal power larger than most countries, it will be difficult to break up these monopolies because they also have control over governments that are helping to push this crap.

Expand full comment

they don't "hold" the shares, as much as they vote the shares of actual investors holding their index funds and etfs. We need to change the laws so that only direct shareholders can vote their shares.

Expand full comment

...and while we're at it, we should ban lobbying so that the average citizen has more of a voice with their elected officials. Grassroots can rarely, if ever, beat a lobby group. COVID Vax mandates were a great example of that.

Expand full comment

But why, if the DEI nonsense does not make the company more profitable? Surely the bottom line is what's important to an investor?

Expand full comment

Is the cozy corporate fascist state we live in. Govt can't control speech (in theory) but they can lean on corporations to control speech. Happens every day! Unfortunately, that method of control doesn't leave the person once they go home. They take it home with them and it filters into our community. The main prob with DEI is that there are so many Title VII protected classes, that anyone could fit into, at least, one. If that's the case, what authority does a corporation have to determine who is more protected (let's say some with closely held personal beliefs vs. a LGBTQ person disagreeing at work). The answer is the corporation doesn't. So if we're all protected, then no one is protected. "Our side" needs to learn how to stand on our rights better.

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell

Who would ever guess that hiring based on virtue signaling, race, and gender - rather than ability and acumen - would turn out to be a poor business model? Eliminating vast swaths of talented applicants, due to nebulous and artificial standards, can result in nothing other than mediocrity and inefficiency.

Expand full comment
Nov 13Liked by Catherine Maxwell, Christopher F. Rufo

Bravo, DEI must die!

Expand full comment
author

👏🏼

Expand full comment