₦airaland Forum

bemeruca:
Why does the EU and NATO countries want the US to help contain Russia while they simultaneously reject helping US contain Iran?

The reason is because an attack on Ukraine is a threat to Europe, and the idea of NATO is that a threat to one is a threat to all.

Iran was however not a threat, as in, they haven't attacked any member of NATO yet, and NATO policy is not "USA attacks, so NATO must attack too", as dump thinks it must be and is being told it isn't.

Do note that no NATO member has attacked Russia in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine. That's because Ukraine is not a NATO member. If Russia attack a NATO member, all other NATO members are obliged to go to war against Russia.

But of course, you ben, will now spend the rest of the day arguing against this very well known fact. You'll forgive me if I limit my response to the minimum.

DeepSight:
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Nonetheless asking to be addressed as "they/them" does speak.

I believe it does speak, though I do not specifically ask anyone to address me as they/them. You'd notice I'm addressed as he and her by contributors here, and I don't correct either.

Let those with ears hear whatever they want to hear and speak as they please. buda lives regardless.

DeepSight:
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So you are a student of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

I long admired those. Nonetheless the prescription of Buddhism to kill our desire is somewhat "anti-life" to me.
Life is all about passion and desire and taking them away takes away the very essence of living.

In this regard, there is something nihilistic about Buddhism, dont you think?

There is only something "nihilistic about Buddhism" for those who lack understanding. Such people likely miss the entire point of the non-nihilistic Middle Path.

The Middle Path (or Middle Way) in Buddhism is the balanced spiritual path between the extremes of self-indulgence (sensual pleasure) and self-mortification (extreme asceticism). It centers on the Noble Eightfold Path—covering ethics, meditation, and wisdom—leading to liberation, enlightenment, and the end of suffering, representing a lifestyle of moderation and non-extremism.

DeepSight:
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So you believe that the mind is tied to the physical brain and ceases to exist once the physical brain perishes?[/color]
Yes, I do. Once I die my mind will function no more.

What my mind has created here will however continue to exist as long as seun maintains Nairaland. My mind will not function though, not in my own head at least.

[quote author=DeepSight post=138971550]+
I ask.
But I am guessing it's by leaving sufficient memories of you and your thoughts like droplets around the world and in the minds of others, like seeds that will germinate and live on.

You, Sir, are indeed very deep!

Jesus is alive, only because of the droplets he is written to have left behind and that have been spread around the world, and I choose him as my mentor in this regard. I'd even go as far as claiming we crucify him all over again and again when we refuse to learn from what we have of him.

DeepSight:
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Nonetheless, surely something or the other sits at the root of reality?

Hmm. Now this "root of reality" requires some thought.

Reality, in my own opinion, is like beauty, and is in the eye of the beholder. We often create our own reality and assume it is the actual reality, when most often we have just created crap in our own heads and believe it to be real.

So, the first question should be, what is reality? For one should first know what reality is before seeking its root, in my opinion.

But let us assume the reality we are discussing here is the beginning of this universe. It's like almost 14 billion years old, I'm told, so I hope you'd forgive me for being ignorant about it's root, since I'm relatively ignorant about like 20,000 years ago and even just yesterday.

I still haven't finished listening to the crap that dump said yesterday, note.

DeepSight:
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It stands to perfect reason that for anything at all to exist, something or the other must be self existent. Do you dispute this. But first, do you understand the rationale for it?

I do very much dispute this your "perfect reasoning" indeed, though I do understand the human rationale for it. It is generally presented as the Watchmaker Analogy, and is a popular argument against atheism.

My own undisputed existence does not in any way make me infer that "something or the other must be self existent", because it is well known that I exist because my parents did something in their bedroom to create me, and their parents did something in their bedroom to create them, and their parents did something in their bedroom to create them, and their parents ad infinitum, and at no point can I say that the parents of my parents or the parents of the parents of my parents ad infinitum just sprang into existence by their self.

But know that I have not yet gone as far back as 2 million years ago when the broader Homo genus that my parents ad infinitum sprang from to check. Just that there is no reason nor evidence so far for me to assume that my existence or that of anyone I know or anything for that matter, must "be self existent".

The big bang is claimed to have occured like 14 million years ago, and I struggle with yesterday and 20,000 years ago, but it is my opinion that the current universe as known is not self existent, since something big must have existed priori to have gone bang. And I would expect something small to have grown before it grew large enough before it went bang too. Ad infinitum.

Basically, I refuse to fill my ignorance due to my own laziness and my inability to go that far back and fill my head with imaginary crap that I create in my own head. I'd rather spend my time on today and the immediate past of yesterday, or rather, and as Jesus said, and on you, "these brothers and sisters of mine" that I see before me now than that which is very very long ago that I can likely never ever see.

My own sighting is not deep enough for that. And I'm far too lazy.

truthera:
As long as indigenous people can't exercise their consent over Nigeria's unity, you've no real democracy in Nigeria.... I will not argue with you any futher because it is only a matter of months between now and 2027..... You are going to face the same electoral sabotage issues from other Nigerians once you vote due to lack of patriotism and national unity.... By the time INEC releases compromised election results, Nigerians like you who know better but choose to pretend not to know the root cause of their national issues will once again act surprised, complain on social media while Tinubu and his APC party rejoice over their massive victory.... There is nothing to gain from doing the same thing and expecting a different result....

You can exercise your consent or not for whatever and as much as you desire. It is of course unfortunate for you that no serious politician is campaigning against Nigeria's unity, but you can always become a politician yourself with a manifesto of disunity.

Just know that your antivote stance is what guarantees Tinubu's "massive victory" in 2027, since you refuse to vote him out. And INEC does not need to sabotage or compromise any result because you compromise and sabotage the process yourself by not bothering to vote!

Also note that you are the one complaining on social media here. And in my own opinion, you are the root cause for not participating in democracy and voting.

DeepSight:
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Ugh. I have heard.
Pls try not to bring it up again (with me). Assume I know.

I shall try really really hard, Deep, I promise. But know that any time you use that word with me, my bull will red flag it, or I'll just assume you don't know what you are talking about and will treat what you say accordingly.

It's because I have regard for a person who has deep sight. I can not accept shallow sight from one as deep as you.

DeepSight:
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But that is simply not the meaning of the word "believe." And in many cases, people have reasons for their belief. I don't speak of religious beliefs here. I speak of belief generally.

So if I say I believe that X politician is corrupt, I likely have reasons to believe that.

But I hear you loud and clear and understand what you mean in terms of religious beliefs.

In most cases people do not have reasons for their beliefs, Deep, especially where religions are concerned and where the word often crops up, though your "believe that X politician is corrupt" proves my pedantic point.

You only believe X politician is corrupt because you don't actually have sufficient evidence to know. After all if X politician had been tried in court and been found guilty by you on the jury or a judge and sent to prison, you wouldn't merely 'believe' X politician was corrupt because you'd now know that X politician is corrupt (unless you disagree with the court of course).

But to simplify. You wouldn't say you believe it is raining if water is falling on your head from the sky, unless you think it might not only be rain, like perhaps it's just some god p1s5ing. And you'd only believe you have a million pounds in your bank account because you have not yet checked. And as soon as you do check your bank account, you'd stop believing because you now actually know.

But like I said, pedantic me. See it as demystifying buda to you.

truthera:
You are free vote if that makes you happy even when you know hopeless under Tinubu's government..... IMHO, no sustainable progress can be made until Nigerians push and actualize the decentralization or disintegration of the British contraption called Nigeria.....

I think that's the difference between us. Unlike you, I am not hopeless under any government because I do not rely on government for my food. I make my own progress sustainable by the sweat of my own brow.

Nigeria is a democracy, albeit imperfect, where Nigerians should push with their vote. And if you are hopeless under Tinubu, that's the more reason to vote him out, I'd have thought. But your antipathy to voting shows you are not hopeless enough for that at the moment, and you've settled for the status quo and just peddle empty meaningless words, which would most definitely guarantee Tinubu a second term and APC a fifth and sixth which might make you hopeless some more.

By then I hope Nigerians actualize and vote en mass or seventh and eight and ninth and tenth will surely follow with the hopelessness it brings to some.

A family member is married to an electrician.

She was a teacher in a UK secondary school, and still is. They have two wonderful master educated children and 5 houses in London.

Just thought to mention. And sorry, I didn't bother with the video.

DeepSight:
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So funny.

I get your distinction between believing and knowing but honestly I tire of you hammering on about it. There is nothing wrong with the word "believe" and neither is it really the whole sale admission of ignorance you say it is.

There's quite a lot wrong with it in my book, but I guess pedantic me would need to settle with you getting it.

Just know that every time I see 'believe', I'm hearing "I don't really know because I have not sufficiently checked, and just assume it is true".

It's absurd to ask someone to believe what you don't know to be true or not. Jesus would accuse such people of giving stones to those seeking bread, and would likely say woe to such people.

raumdeuter:
They dont care enough about the UK like UK obsess over US
You are not very important to be in our national conversation

You are very free to believe and think as you do, Raum.
Your baiting is failing to work today.

Our King will be visiting you very soon. We'll see if you fawn over him or not.

DeepSight:
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I see your love of the Parable of the Good Samaritan which is also a personal favourite.

I don't believe in turn the other cheek through. I think it is irresponsible and breeds evil.

Yeah! My good old pagan non-God believing Samaritan whom Jesus told believers to go and do as he did. Unfortunately, many miss the point and go "Lord! Lord!"

My 'other cheek' fascination is not a belief (and by all the gods do I so not like that word), but a practise. I often turn the other cheek to those who insult or are rude to buda in Nairaland and watch them tire of insulting or being rude to buda. Most end up being close Nairaland friends who would share a bottle of vintage red with me.

That said, I have a close family member who never seems to tire slapping. They reported me to their pastor who I respect much, and I asked her why they never tell the slapper to stop. She told me she preached "slappers, stop!" for her next sermon, but doubts my slapper got the point.

raumdeuter:
Cute that people in UK are obsessed about Trump. Almost 80% of Americans do not even know the name of the UK prime minister

We know how uninformed almost 80% of Americans are.

They elected dump.

tesseract:
Not completely true. For political reasons, yes it cannot work but structurally, No, it can work and has the required capacity to produce industrial grade steel. I speak based on authentic insider information.

Steel mills that age that worked in other countries are being decommissioned much less one that never worked at all. No it can not work! And its outdated.

But do kindly share your "authentic insider information" to outsider me. It might reveal how cash cow this mill is.

ono:
The administration can do better.

My two cents.

It can not do better, ono. It's dump's administration!

DeepSight:
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Even agnostic me likes Jesus of Nazareth very much. At least the concept of him as presented, with his simple teachings through parables.

Of course I don't believe in the virgin birth, the trinity or the sacrificial death as redemption.

I do believe in his simple teachings though. Such as the Beatitudes / Sermon on the Mount. Parable of the Good Samaritan. Parable of the Talents. Etc.

Add, "turn the the cheek". It's not a parable par se, but it's my favourite often used Nairaland tool, though I confess slipping lately.

Here is a thread about how buda feels about Jesus, if you are interested.

https://www.nairaland.com/5178192/questions-budaatum-how-follow-jesus

Cc: KobolanderSegun

KobolanderSegun:
Iv done everything you have done, and I have thought everything you have ever thought

No you haven't! And stop with your assuming and your lying!

You do not know everything I have done and have thought, so you can not make such a statement and expect to be taken seriously!

KobolanderSegun:
Sadly to continue down this path is like saying ...

Sorry, but have you read the title of this thread at all?

Does it say, preach to buda?

Please create a thread if that's your intention. I have no interest in being preached to in this thread, thank you.

benalvino3:
You are arguing thay: you moved from talent needs opportunity to show to therefore talent is nothing but opportunity. That is the problem with your premise.
FINALLY, THE PROMPT YOU ARE GIVING AI IS FLAWED.

The problem is with your understanding.

Talent is not "nothing but opportunity", ben, and I never said it is. You can have all the opportunity in the world, but you wouldn't develop a talent for anything without commitment to practice and the application of effort. And a talent is not innate, but a thing you must commit the effort to learn and practise to develop.

In fact, without opportunity and learning and a lot of practice, you'd have no significant talent whatsoever.

I can provide you with opportunity by putting a piano in front of you but that opportunity will not enable you to play it well if you do not learn how to play it and practise much too.

If a talent or ability is innate, you'd just pick it up and know how to do it well with no training or practice, which no one has been recorded to be able to do with just about anything.

Lionel Messi became one of the greatest football players through a combination of, immense early talent (meaning he learnt quick since he was not playing football before he learnt to walk), rigorous training (which is effort), and a high football IQ, (which is a learned skill since football IQ is not a thing one is born with). Developing his skills from age four, he moved to Barcelona's La Masia academy (for the opportunity to learn), refining his low center of gravity for dribbling, perfecting free kicks, and utilizing a "stop-and-start" movement to dominate defenders.

All the bolds above imply learning through practise and effort. Messi was not born with the innate ability to walk, not to talk of kick a football. And he still continues to practice and learn and develop his skills on the training ground, hence his ability and his talent.

Provide your own AI prompts so we can see your unflawed AI, please. Just saying mine is flawed is not convincing.

benalvino3:
So ur argument only proves that talent needs opportunity to appear, not that talent does not exist.
If a child neve sees a piano, we may never discover musical ability. If a country has no ice rinks, we may never discover elite hockey ability. But that is not the same as saying all children would reach the same level once exposed.

Talent itself does not exist without opportunity and practise, is the point. Your gift giver does not look at the opportunities available before dishing out gifts. And no one develops gifts that they have no opportunity to practise and develop. That alone shows your innate ideology is false, since you never come across a person with an innate ability they lack the opportunity to practise and develop, while the opposite is true when opportunity to learn exists. You can not have an innate ability to play a piano if there is no piano for you to develop it on. Provide that child a piano early enough and with the right support and commitment they might give Mozart a run for his playing

Exposure alone is however not what makes the difference in children being talented or not. You said it well that one can teach children the same and not all become prodigies. I can sit children in class and teach them the same thing and some will definitely learn quicker than others and some not at all, but before we jump to innateness, we'd look at their interest in the subject, their commitment, how much effort they put in, their home environment, their relationship with their parents and their parents with each other and wealth and even size of family and home and etc etc etc.

Parents who fight each other constantly, for instance, will disadvantage their kids and kill whatever might become innate in them. A home where parents struggle financially might not provide a piano for a kid who might otherwise be a piano prodigy. A child in whom interests in a skill is not cultivated will struggle to develop that skill. A child whose parents are maths professors is more likely to prodigy in maths than a child whose parents can not count. That child whose parents can not count can however still be better than Einstein if they apply themselves and are taught well and are in the right environment to learn. And the child of maths professor parents could hate maths and refuse to apply itself.

Without opportunity, a child can not develop what you claim is innate. And not developing a talent would make you conclude that ability is not innate in that child, when you could have innated it into that child by providing the opportunity and support.

When you read the below, understand that its going to be very difficult for a 5ft 3in tall adult to have an innate ability to dunk a basketball. Muggsy Bogues at that height is however considered the best short basketball player in history, enjoying a successful 14-year NBA career. He was a dominant point guard for the Charlotte Hornets, known for elite speed, steals, and recording over 6,700 career assists. What he lost in height he gained by learning other valuable skills that made him as good as he was.

Hundreds of kids I've taught through many years disprove your innate theory, but I guess I can not make innate in you what you seem to have no experience of and put no effort into learning, so I'll better leave it at that, especially since you are refusing the DEI I'm offering you so you may catch up.

benalvino3:
Black people built America, immigrants built America, etc. All nonsense.

Now Muslim, and every immigrant from asia built Great Britain 😂😂😂😂

https://twitter.com/HamasAtroc ities/status/2039356849275744391

According to some random ǐdǐot on X, ben. Intelligent people get their information from better sources.

benalvino3:
So the other day I posted an add about the dogs, what did budaatum say?

Today see what they are doing
https://twitter.com/Alexandr4Denman/s tatus/2039305215854162172

I completely ignored you after researching it because it's the sort of nonsense Tommy tells you.

Here in UK you can take a dog on public transport, and no person can tell you you can't. If your god don't like it, please get yourself off the bus and walk. We love dogs far too much to feel the need to pander to anyone's gods here.

I'm aware you disagree with AI when it disagrees with you, so provide a valid source for your dog ban please. X and tiktok are much less valid than AI!

benalvino3:
You cannot educate a footballer to be like Messi, no amount of training will allow a footballer to be like Messi. Some people are truly gifted. Even in education

This simply shows what you don't know.

benalvino3:
Growth mindset is not the same as blank-slate theory. Saying effort matters does not mean innate differences do not exist.

What you call innate, I call educating inside the womb.

And forgive me for saying you don't have the "innate ability" nor desire to comprehend what I am teaching you, and you are refusing to apply yourself so that it can be innate in you too.

benalvino3:
That is why not everyone becomes Messi, not everyone becomes Einstein, and not everyone reaches the same level in maths even under the same teaching,

I agree. You have to apply yourself too.

You should go read about Mozart. No innate ability whatsoever until his parents literally glued his hands to a piano for hours everyday and innated piano playing into him.

benalvino3:
Training develops ability; it does not create identical ceilings for everyone.

Your ceiling is determined by the opportunity you have and the effort you put in. Both will move the ceiling so you don't bump your head on it.

What is funny about your position is the simple fact that you can not have the so called innate ability to do what you do not have the opportunity to train for.

If Messi were born in say USA where the football he plays is not played as much, he'd likely have applied himself to playing another sport, and you'd be here claiming that different sport ability is what is innate in him.

Do know that black women were never known to have innate ability in tennis until a father decided to innate tennis playing in to his children. And you will never be innate in Olympic swimming or ice hockey in Nigeria until we create the swimming pools and ice rinks to practise in.

benalvino3:
Calling discrimination fairness lol

No ben. And I believe we agreed not to do what you did there.

When I give yours extra maths lessons, I am not discriminating against mine at all, since I am not taking away from mine to give to yours whom I definitely love much less than I love mine. I am simply giving yours what mine had so yours can have as good opportunities as mine have or at least better than they'd have if I didn't DEI them. And the reason I'm giving yours that DEI opportunity is so they can earn more so I can tax them more and have more money to make our community better.

I'm self centred like that, and don't want yours pulling the neighbourhood down because they lacked the opportunity mine had. Both of ours being proficient in maths benefits the community more than just mine being proficient, and mine wouldn't be advantaged and dominate yours, or rather, yours wouldn't be disadvantaged and subservient to mine.

I'm not lowering the standard for yours or discriminating against mine, ben. I'm simply giving yours extra support so yours can catch up from you not giving yours the advantage I gave mine from inside the womb.

benalvino3:
You can train people equally and you will still have the gifted kids in the class that stands out.

And as I said. I just need to hide from you the fact I was gifting my own child talent when it was inside the womb. That way, you'd just conclude yours don't have the talent for maths that mine have, and you wouldn't be asking me to DEI yours so they may have a chance of catching up and compete with mine.

For your information, gifted is old ancient theory. Modern education frowns at the phrase because it is understood that self application matters.

Please do not accept the below. Ask your own AI.

ono:
The way you answer some questions, I just wonder. Have you worked in an oil company to be writing with this level of “authority” ?

You'd be surprised what you can learn if you just ask and knock and seek and learn, ono.

I once flew to Nigeria sitting beside an Indian returning to work for an oil company. Works in Nigeria for 6 months and got 6 weeks off plus free flight to wherever he wanted to go. He was a low level technician, by his own admission, and was paid a lot for it too.

I was so annoyed that Nigerians were not employed for his job that I wanted to open the door of the plane and kick his ass out into the cloud. I think the consequence of loss of pressure is the only thing that stopped me, and the fact he convinced me he was coming with the sort of experience that would have been hard to get in Nigeria where refineries hardly worked.

What applies in my oil company response applies in other fields too. Ordinary burger selling McDonald's have a social responsibility policy wherever they operate, how much more an oil company.

It is the sensible thing to do by a smart community leader and a smart company ceo in any community. And at my level, its a thing I must know about or I wouldn't get to my level, as in, I wouldn't be hired for what it is I did.

Good community relations contribute to sales and is like easy money in the bank, while bad community relationships are often costly. The community that one does not employ would be hostile and blow up one's oil pipes.

The below is AI, so research it more please.

benalvino3:
If it's not discrimination what is it?

Fairness, ben. Correcting a previous discrimination.

I can not deprive your boys of maths for years and expect them to be able to compete in maths with mine that I've been gifting extra maths lessons to from inside the womb.

If I want yours to have equal opportunity in maths as mine, I would need to give yours extra lessons to catch up. And that extra lesson is DEI.

Please know that if I do not want yours to ever catch up to mine, I will try to convince you that my own children have a gift for maths. I'd need to hide the gift of extra lessons from inside the womb from you for you to be convinced though, or you wouldn't be buying my gift bull, and will insist I give yours that gift of extra lessons too.

DeepSight:
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When you look at the outcomes of Trump's actions, sometimes one is tempted to think that there is something to the idea that he is after all a Russian asset.

The thought does keep crossing my mind ever since Zelensky visited the White House. But then dump has not exactly shown he considers the consequences of his action.

In fact, I don't think he considers his actions at all, and acts just like he tweets, which is the reason he tacos in the end when consequence slaps his face.

bayelsaowei:
🤣🤣🤣🤣..

Wahala

Talk about shooting ones own foot. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

benalvino3:
He had a disability that affected his development, there were thousands of kids going through the same program and training he went through and even more than he did and yet they couldn't match him. He is a talent. No where I said he does not need training. Reread what I wrote. You can train people equally and you will still have the gifted kids in the class that stands out.

I'd like to say he worked harder than some. As a former teacher, I've seen lots of untalented ducklings become very competent ducks through hard work. You may train people equally, but they still have to apply themselves in order to learn and acquire the skills.

It is a bad and incompetent teacher who assumes a student was born with a talent to play ball or do anything at all, because we know most are born without the simple ability and talent to walk or even poo not to talk of play ball like Messi.

No one or thing is handing gifts or talents out to anyone. And using gifts and talents to justify whites being in jobs few blacks or women are in should make you wonder if and why the supposed gift and talent giver is dishing them out to one race and one gender and not to the others.

benalvino3:
Historically, mostly men, and in many places mostly white men. my point, even if there is past imbalance, it does not make present discrimination okay. The proper fix is to expand opportunity and remove barriers, not to tilt selection by race or sex once people are competing for the same slot.

Ben, DEI is precisely "to expand opportunity and remove barriers".

No company would leave the best out on the table and hire an incompetent DEI who can not do the job. CEOs and shareholders are far too greedy and not stupid enough for that.

raumdeuter:
I have heard that oil companies in Nigeria hiring based some positions on community slots and give preference to locals from drilling community

Is that true or false?

It is true for low grade positions. You can not be drilling oil in my community and fill all posts with outsiders. We community insiders will resent not reaping from our land and blow up your oil company. And that's why you do what is right and allocate some jobs to my community.

You wouldn't however just drag an unqualified person from my community and give them a job in your oil company that they are not qualified for. Smart you would go as far as India to hire technicians who know how to do what you want done if you can't find competent people in my community or in the entire Nigeria, and you'd sadly hire my community people to clean toilets and fill my ïgnorantly proposed DEI quota.

You are not stupǐd enough, I hope, to hire an unqualified DEI person from my community as a technician in your oil company in my community. And I'd like to hope you'd not think I am stupǐd enough to insist you employ an unqualified person from my community for a job they are not qualified for. If we are both that stupǐd, we shouldn't be surprised your oil company makes no money and eventually goes bankrupt. And when that happens, you definitely wouldn't be hiring unqualified or qualified DEIs from my community nor qualified people from anywhere.

And that's precisely why smart intelligent community leader me will insist you DEI by investing in the schools in my community so that people in my community can qualify to go for further education that I will insist you give scholarships for so that you can hire them as technicians after they have qualified. And smart you will agree because you see advantage (my people not blowing up your oil company for instance) in investing in my community. You'd be able to advertise your product as socially responsibly sourced if you do. And my community people will not blow up your oil company because that would be like stupidly blowing up the food on our own community dinning table. Smart me will join smart you to dissuade those whom such stupǐd thoughts cross their mind.

Now, this is the sort of post that seun's spam likes to bot, so I can only hope you get to see and read it.

raumdeuter:
I am saying blacks do not need reduced cutoff or pander to them just give us the same standards you give everyone else. Dont patronize us. If we pass fine. If we dont pass no problem we will try harder. We are capable of doing what every race can do

I would agree with this completely, Raum.

The problem however, is reverse DEI that has been a barrier to entry to black people and women that has existed for decades, and that has not let black people and women into certain professions.

If that discrimination was not endemic, DEI wouldn't be necessary, and your argument would be valid. But unfortunately it has been endemic, so DEI is to correct it.

You keep mentioning basketball, and I keep thinking the reason you might have black people in it could actually be racism. Some do badly in academics, but are passed to keep them in school where they are expected not to learn anything but just play basketball. It's after all not like the academically best of the best are who get admitted to university to play basketball, but the best at basketball.

The top ones you see are very successful, money wise, but you'd need to see the many who fall by the wayside to understand how detrimental it can actually be for most.

raumdeuter:
If the criteria is not difficult, they will just pick up anyone from the street and send them to flight school

The criteria is difficult. That's precisely why they do not "just pick up anyone from the street and send them to flight school"!

No one has the money to waste on those who have not shown competency. And no one would willingly fliy in a plane flown by an incompetent pilot.